Posted: Aug 21, 2006 10:44 am EDT
(K2climb.net) In 2005 Slovak climbers Dodo Kopold and Gabo Emarik opened a major new route on the southwest side of great Trango Tower. This year the two young guns came back for an Uli Biaho, Shipton and Cat’s Ear triple header. Setting up an early BC on the glacier they spent two months climbing the Karakorum towers - including 54 freezing hours to the summit on the unclimbed north-west face of Uli Biaho. Dodo recently shot over the following debrief:

The taste of Karakoram ice
...or “"While the water scald the ice, there is still time to climb”
(Dodo Kopold)

"We returned to Karakoram two months earlier than usual, greeted by freezing nights and plenty of snow fall; a perfect time to climb these difficult ice routes."

40 hours on Hainabrakk
Hainabrakk ridge, 5.375m (no summit)
DOLZAG DIHEDRAL VI/6, 1.000m
08.- 09.06.2006
alpine style
Dodo Kopold, Gabo Emárik

"It was our second attempt on this route. In our first try we had been hit by avalanche and ice - after this experience we started to climb at midnight."

"The ice was in great condition: Steep, often 90 degrees and very hard. We climbed fast and reached the summit ridge of Hainabrakk after one bivi. We wanted to continue to the summit but couldn’t climb the steep rock tower on the ridge at 5.375m. We descended the same way."

Shipton Spire (north face)

"Steep ice, snow blown on the flats and a long ridge with snow mushrooms. This is the north face of Shipton. Still unclimbed."

"We climbed the first five hundred meters on this dangerous terrain. Gabo climbed to belay, but at 8 am, he was green-red with sunstroke and sickness. We went down.

54 hours on the wall of Uli Biaho
Uli Biaho, 6.417m
DRASTISSIMA VI/6 ABO, 2.200m
21.-23.06.2006
Alpine style, no bolts
Dodo Kopold, Gabo Emárik

"For three years I had been watching the north-west face of Uli Biaho, searching for a line to climb it, unable to find a safe way. The wall is steep, with hard ice and a dangerous summit ridge. Up until now, no one had attempted this face."

"It was night when we set out to climb the dangerous couloir. We reached the bottom of the main ice wall in the morning and climbed 100 metres of the 90 degree ice, continuing up steep passages to a rest stop."

"We digged a small ledge in the hard ice for sitting. The night was cold and without sleeping bags our rest was horrible. After a few hours we continued to climb."

"The hardest was yet to come - thin ice barely sticking to the rock. It was impossible to climb the summit together; I had to belay ten meters below, the snow ridge was not stable enough for two people. The summit is a big snow mushroom like on Cerro Torre. We spent the next night rappelling down, using only the Abalaks.

Last year, Slovaks Dodo Kopold and Gabo Èmárik climbed a new route on the southwest side of Great Trango Tower during the first days of August. The new line, named "Assalam Alaikum" runs to the right of the Azeem Ridge, opened last year by Americans Kelly Cordes and Josh Wharton. The route involved 90-plus pitches and was graded UIAA 8 A2 (roughly 5.11+ A2) reported Climbing.com. The climb took eight days, from August 4 to 11. The Slovaks carried no sleeping bags and climbed alpine style, they fought poor weather during the climb and dangerous avalanche conditions while descending the peak’s western slopes. Kopold was ‘avalanched’ several hundred feet but unharmed.

The two climbers have been climbing the Karakorum spires for several years. In 2004 Kopold, along with Dino Kuráò and Jožo Santus, achieved the first repetition of the Khanadan Buttress route to Shipton Spire, climbing for two days in alpine style. Gabo Èmárik, member of the same expedition and teaming up with Igor Koller and Vlado Linek, attempted a first ascent on a nearby cliff.

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