In summer 2005, a young team of Italian climbers went wandering around the Chogolisa area and Charakusa valley in Pakistan. They had no fixed goal, but no restraints either. Their laid back approach paid off though. The kids came home with a handful of high difficulty routes opened and some amazing pictures to prove it.(click to enlarge).
Member Christian Brenna, a well-known sports climber, even free-climbed “Up and Down”, a line the team opened days before on Chogolisa Shield (in the image). Next stop: Patagonia - where the team has picked a couple of unclimbed faces on Cerro Piergiorgio and San Lorenzo as their goals (click to enlarge).
Team members for Patagonia have not yet been confirmed; but the team's leader has. It will be Luca Maspes. The team will take off by the end of January and hopes to be done by March. All images courtesy of the team and Montagna.org.
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Up project kids ready for the next climbing jam-session - in Patagonia!
Posted: Jan 20, 2006 10:32 am EST
(MountEverest.net) Remember The Chogolisa Kids? In summer 2005, a young team of Italian climbers went wandering around Chogolisa area and Charakusa valley in Pakistan. They had no fixed goal, but no restraints either. The guys were just looking for some cool walls to climb, boulders to train on, and deserted valleys to explore.
Their laid back approach paid off though. The kids came home with a handful of high difficulty routes opened and some amazing pictures to prove it. One of them, Christian Brenna, a well-known sports climber, even free climbed “Up and Down”, a line the team had opened just days before on Chogolisa Shield.
What's next?
After touring Italy the team has now picked the next destination for part 2 of Up project: Patagonia.
They will be heading out by the end of January. But this time, they have a goal in mind - to make it up two unclimbed walls: Cerro Piergiorgio’s NW face, and the north wall of Mt. San Lorenzo. While the members have yet to been defined, Luca Maspes will once again be heading up the team.
A rock wall, and a mixed face
Piergiorgio’s NW face is an impressive granite wall. A smooth, almost 1,000 meters of vertical face, Piergiorgio has resisted numerous attempts in the last ten years. Aching to win where others have lost, the Italians are ready to spend about 45 days at the base of the wall.
By March the team plans to move North to Cerro San Lorenzo, where they will have to swap their rock gear for ice-axes, screws and crampons. At 3706m, San Lorenzo is the second highest peak in Patagonia. The Up team hopes to climb it’s highly demanding North wall: A circa 2,000m high face of ice and mixed terrain.
A young Italian team led by Luca Maspes explored and climbed in the Chogolisa area in Karakorum, in summer 2005. The team made a number of first ascents and new routes. Among them, they opened “Up & Down” on Chogolisa Shield. Christian Brenna free-climbed it some days later. In addition to a handful of longer routes, they’ve left a bunch of boulder routes around BC
Brana, Maspes and Barmasse stayed in Pakistan another week, exploring and climbing in the Charakusa Valley, where they climbed Iqbal's Wall and Naysar Brakk.
The Chogolisa expedition was part one of a larger project named 'Up Project' which will focus on exploratory expeditions to lesser known mountain ranges.
‘Part two’ has just been announced: The team will travel to Patagonia at the end of January. Their goal is to climb the NW face of Cerro Piergiorgio and the North Face of San Lorenzo.
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