Shipton Spire Expedition 5900m

The Karakorum Range might as well have a moat around it. A kingdom of the greatest concentration of high mountains on Earth, it holds such fearsome 8,000-meter peaks as K2, Gasherbrum I and II, and Broad Peak. And not only is the range remote and difficult to access, it sits on top of a hotbed of volatile borders between Tajikistan, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India, effectively sealing the mountains from the bulk of mountaineers—and leaving many faces unclimbed.

The unclimbed north face of Shipton Spire (5885m) in the Uli Biaho Group of Pakistan`s Karakoram. The big pillar on the left, ending at an obvious pointed top with a notch beyond, is the northeast pillar forming the far right side of the southeast face. The front face of the pillar is taken by the Slovak route, Prisoners of the Shipton (5.11d A3, 900m to the notch, Koller-Linek-Podrabradsky, 2005). Koller and Linek followed Ship of Fools to within 80 meters of the summit at WI 5+. The new Spanish route (A4+, 870m of climbing, Vidal, 2007) climbs close to the right edge of the pillar to reach the notch. In 2005 Gabo Cmarik and Dodo Kopold hoped to climb into the large hanging couloir on the north face from the rock rib on the right. Unfortunately, they were forced to retreat before reaching it, when Cmarik became ill with sunstroke Dodo Kopold -