Ikhatta Karna 2007

Expedition objective:

The team’s original objective was to make an ascent of the NE ridge of P5700; a peak situated on the south side of the Choktoi Glacier, clustered among the Latok group of the Karakorum.

Peak 5700 initially looked promising, but an early reconissance climb proved the rock quality to be generally poor, involving exfoliating loose granite. The team’s attention was then redirected back to a rock peak slightly east, and down valley from their original objective.

During the first weather window, the team had chosen to attempt this peak, as a ‘warm up’. Although the length and difficulty of the climbing had been underestimated, the rock quality was superb in comparison, and good progress had been made on establishing a line on the lower walls.

The route ascended a series of face cracks, corner systems, and left trending ramps on the East Face. The line was chosen because it showed a continuous line of weakness to the summit. The obvious North Ridge of the peak looked to involve a variety of gendarmes that over hung the steeper West Face.

In total the team made three attempts at the route. The first being the early ‘warm up’ single day attempt. A second attempt later in the trip got the team higher on the route, but ended short of the summit due to poor weather. As it was the team did a 19 hour round trip to base camp on this second attempt.

On the final attempt the team spent 2 and a half days on the route and reached a northern sub-summit, which is thought to be around 5200m. The true summit was a few 100 meters lateral, and higher. This would have required an alternative descent and the crossing of a number of loose corner systems to reach. Due an estimated absence of remaining quality climbing, the team chose to stop at this high point and descend.

Expedition Dates: July 8^th – August 16^th 2007

A daily breakdown of the expedition is given in the table below:

Date	Activity
July 8^th	Arrival in Lahore
July 9^th	Bus Ride to Islamabad: Meet with Guide (Abbas)
July 10^th	Flight to Skardu
July 11-12^th	Remained in Skardu. Luisa became ill for a day
July13^th	Jeep ride to Askoli
July 14^th-17^th	Walk into Choktoi basecamp
July 18^th	Recconaissance on the Choktoi Glacier
July 19^th	Acclimitization on a peak behind camp
July 20^th	Recconaissance climb on The Partition (8 pitches climbed)
July 21^st	Rest day in base camp
July 22-25^th	Bad weather resulted in a few days of walking on the Choktoi
July 26^th	Second single day attempt on The Partition
July 27^th	Rest in Base camp after 19 hours of climbing/walking the day before
July 28^th	Jacqui and Luisa attempt P5700 (6 pitches climbed, ~300m 5.9 A1)
July 29^th	Recconaissance of the Biacherahi Towers, upper end of Choktoi
July 30^t	Leave for final attempt on The Partition, climb to grass ledge, bivi
July 31^st	Climb to high point, rap back to bivi site, spend second night on wall
Aug 1st	Complete descent to glacier – cook brought breakfast over glacier!
Aug 2^nd	Rest Day
Aug 3^rd	Hike down the glacier as an active rest day, go bouldering
Aug 4^th/5^th	Abbas and Luisa walk to the Denmang Skinmang glacier while the other two rested and climbed around camp
Aug 6^th-8^th	Hike back to Askoli and a Jeep Ride to Skardu
Aug 9^th -11^th	Visit Abbas’ village of Khane in the Hushe Valley
Aug 12^th	Day in Skardu
Aug 13^th/14^th	Drive KKH
Aug 15^th	Islamabad
Aug 16^th	Bus to Lahore, flights leave Pakistan

Climb Summary:

Area: Pakistan, Choktoi Glacier,

Route: The Partition (TD 5.10b 900m)

During the summer of 2007, three woman: Luisa Giles (British, 25), Sarah Hart (Canadian, 27), and Jacqueline Hudson (Canadian, 28), established a new 900m free rock line in the Karakorum Range of Pakistan. The route is a potentially unclimbed 5200m rock peak, on the Choktoi Glacier, in the Latok group. The rock peak, on the south side of the Choktoi glacier, is situated east (down valley) of the North Ridge of Latok I.

The team’s line ascended the east face by a series of granite corner and ledge systems. The unnamed peak is the second (or western most) of two similar north facing rock buttresses joined by a high col, and an ice couloir. The eastern most of these two peaks holds the The Indian Face Arete, 5.10 A3 established by Doug Scot and Sandy Allen in 1990.

The weather this summer was unseasonably poor for the Karakorum. Despite this the team had luck with coinciding blue skies and health. During these short windows they were able to acclimatize, reconnaissance and climb the below described route.

In mid July, the group established base camp on the north side of the Choktoi Glacier. An early weather window allowed for a one-day reconnaissance in which a left trending line of weakness was spotted on the east face of the peak. During this attempt the first few hundred meters of the route were climbed, although altitude sickness and gastro-intestinal problems turned the team around. This particular face appeared to possess superior quality rock than the north-facing ridge. A second single day attempt was thwarted by bad weather.

During the next weather window the group attempted the route for a third time. The peak was climbed over the course of three days; two nights were spent en route including both a planned and unplanned bivouac.

A series of cracks, on the east face of the peak, were followed to reach a system of left trending ramps, which ended as the face steepened. The first night was spent at this junction. The second day of climbing followed a steep corner system on clean granite (roughly 200m meters of continuous high quality 5.10 climbing), to reach an upper groove on the east face. This groove kicked back in angle and allowed for some fast simul-climbing over approximately 300m of left trending lower angle slabs. The terrain steepened again; granite face cracks and shallow corners were followed to reach the ridge crest. Another two to three hundred meters of ridge climbing on looser more fractured granite brought the team to a sub summit by 4pm.

The route went free with 19 full 60m-rope lengths and roughly 300m of simul-climbing, consisting of a number of 5.9 and 5.10- pitches. The hardest pitch being around 5.10b. The group reached a northern sub-summit, which is thought to be around 5200m. The true summit was a few 100 meters lateral, and higher. This would have required an alternative descent and the crossing of a number of loose corner systems to reach. Due to time, and an estimated absence of remaining quality climbing, the team chose to stop at this high point and descend.

The descent was made by roughly reversing the route. A rope getting stuck on an early rappel wasted the remaining 2 hours of daylight, and required cutting the rope. A series of rappels aided by moonlight brought the group back to their stashed bivi gear by 11pm, at this point they decided to stay on the wall for a second night, and finish the descent the following day. The remainder of the descent consisted of a down climb and 3 rappels, which brought them into a breakfast of fresh bread, cream, jam, boiled eggs, tea and coffee, brought to them by their worried base camp cook.

During the climb the team found 2 old pieces of rap tat (one low on the route, the other about 2/3 the way up). It is possible that a previous party had reached the summit of this peak via another line, but it is very unlikely that the route this summer’s party took had been climbed before. The group has not found documentation of any previous ascents.

The team named the route ‘The Partition’, in honor of the 60^th anniversary of Pakistan’s independence this year, and also because the eastern twin rock peak holds the route: ‘The Indian Face Arete’.

This trip was funded in part by grants from the Canadian Alpine Club (Jen Higgins Award), The Mount Everest Foundation, and the Mountain Equipment Co-op. We would also like to thank MEC, 5.10, Black Diamond, Arcteryx and La Sportiva for their support.