Image of Trango's Nameless Tower by Marcin Szczotka, courtesy of Wspinanie.pl (click to enlarge).
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Pakistan 2006 season not yet over: Polish teams on Trango!
Posted: Sep 12, 2006 10:01 am EDT
(K2Climb.net) As winter approaches, some climbing teams are taking advantage of a “lonelier” Karakorum. At least two Polish expeditions are currently on Trango’s Nameless Tower (6239m). Both left home on August 17, when most international teams were already headed home.
Action on Nameless Tower
The Sage Symfonia Polish Karakorum Expedition, a four-man team, hopes to climb the Slovenian route, alpine style. If conditions are not good enough, the team will climb the classic British route instead.
In addition, the team also hopes to tackle some of the nearby spires such as Cat’s Ear, Trango’s Monk, Uli Biaho and Haina Brakk East.
Team members are Maciej Ciesielski (1980 r.), Grzegorz Mikowski (1971 r.), Jakub Radziejowski (1976 r.), and Wawrzyniec Zakrzewski (1980 r.).
The second team currently on Trango’s Nameless Tower is the Polish Trango Tower Expedition 2006 – Marmot. The team consists of Adam Pieprzycki and Marcin Szczotka. Depending on conditions, they will either climb Eternal Flame or the Yugoslavian route.
Winter is here
Adam and Marci reported via SMS from BC last week:
“Weather has been bad since we got here – winter has arrived. Nevertheless, we acclimatized by bivouacking at 5000m. We have also climbed some training routes above BC on Garda Peak.”
The two climbers accomplished the "Karakorum Khush" route (6b, 300m) on Garda Peak, while Kuba (Jakub), Maciek and Wawa (Wawrzyniec ) from the Sage Symfonia team have already opened a new 520 meter-long route on a nearby unclimbed tower, which included difficulties up to the 8th degree (free climbing) and A0 (aid climbing).
The east face of Great Trango Tower and Nameless Tower are among the largest vertical faces in the world. Nameless Tower was ascended for the first time by a British team on their second attempt in 1976. It was not until 1987 that Nameless Tower saw its second ascent via a new route done by a Yugoslavian team.
Trango Nameless Tower's Eternal Flame route was first climbed in 1989 by Wolfgang Güllich and Bernd Arnold.
Recently, the Basque Pou brothers opened a variation to the Eternal Flame route which allows climbers to avoid a bolted aid-climbing section. Taking that variation, the route could be entirely flee-climbed… if the attempting team manages well with 7c pitches when climbing above 5000m.
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