There is no plan B, let’s focus on Shipton Spire only
When Šatavis (Václav Šatava) called me to ask if I wanted to go with him for a summer trip to Karakoram for some epic rock climbing in the Trango Towers area, I told him, "Give me a day to think about it." I called him back with my answer: “I'm in.”
Later, when he sent me a photo of our planned wall, the eastern face of Shipton Spire, I was thrilled.. A perfect granite obelisk. My confidence wavered, though, when I saw the second image - the topo of the Women and Chalk route. The first 8a above 5000m, one of the most challenging multipitch routes in the world at the time of its first ascent in 2001. Over 1000m of rock where the difficulty rarely drops below 7a. The Italian team, led by Mauro Bollé, took a direct line straight up the wall to the summit ridge, from where they rappelled after 20 days. The route was repeated in 2006. The Austrian team, led by Hansjörg Auer, fought their way up the ridge and followed the Ship of Fools route for 8 more lengths to the summit. Since then, nothing.
Šatavis was uncompromising. No plan B, we're just focusing on Shipton. We will free climb, no aid climbing allowed. Lumír Fajkoš from Singing Rock joined us, securing a strong lead team. I assigned myself the role of climbing the wet chimneys and wide cracks to safe the others' energy for the crux pitches.
We shared the BC below Great Trango with a group of strong climbers from Czechia and Slovakia. From BC, we trekked four hours over the broken Trango Glacier to reach our ABC near Shipton, located on a beautiful alpine meadow. From there, it was another five hours over an even rougher glacier to the base of the wall. We set up C1 at the foot of the wall under a rock overhang, just 5 minutes to the wall. This whole journey took us 14 long days from Prague. We have 10 days to climb, descend and return to the airport in about 6 days. Time was unforgiving.
July 9: We started climbing. The weather was unstable, sunshine, then it snows or rains. Despite the overhangs, the wall and cracks were wet. The 1st pitch 7a+, Šatavis climbs OS despite a wet finish to the anchor. Then it began to rain. That was it for the day.
July 10: The second pitch 7b+. Šatavis climbs the boulder section from the anchor but fell in the wet corner, finishing the pitch in AF style. The third pitch, 7a+, was mine. A corner with a wide crack led to Terrazza Mare. The approach corner was wet and somewhat chossy, ending below a booming slab that looked like a vertical bed. Gripping holds on either side, I hesitated, thinking I could’ve stayed home in the Skalák area if I wanted to climb this kind of loose rock. I debated whether to let someone else lead it, but I took a deep breath and went for it. I figured better me than having Šatavis or Lumír waste precious energy or time. Halfway through the pitch, I slotted a #6 Camalot into a roof crack and carefully climbed the airy finish to the sandy, sea-like terrace. Onsight at 4600 meters - what a rush! Lumír was up next, but it started snowing, forcing us to rappel down.
July 11: Lumír tackled the next pitch, a 7a+ corner that required solid technique. Midway, he dislodged a large rock into the valley but reached the anchor of this precariously protected pitch. Šatavis took on the following 7b crack. Halfway through, a snowstorm rolled in, forcing him to retreat to the anchor while we waited an hour for the snow to pass. Eventually, Šatavis fought through the 7b pitch, Lumír cleaned it, and we rappelled again.
July 12: Morning brought snow everywhere. A forced rest day. A drone flew by, giving us a rare moment of contact with the outside world. Pavel Nesvadba radioed in with a weather update - not great, still unstable. If it keeps snowing, at least we won’t get rained on.
July 13: We woke early, hoping to make more progress. Conditions on the wall were terrible, and the weather remained unpredictable. We jumared up our fixed lines. My lead was a 6c+ pitch, 50 meters long. I climbed through a roofed cave to a wide crack. Armed with two #6 Camalots, I placed one at the start and planned to leapfrog the other. The next 15 meters felt like something out of Hláska in the Teplice rocks. Brutal. I gasped for air, struggling with every move. Then it started snowing again, with snowflakes the size of coasters. I had to rest on a cam before finishing the pitch. Šatavis cleaned it, and we rappelled down. The dream of Shipton began to fade.
July 14: We descended to BC for another weather forecast. Still bad. The wall would remain wet.
After a few days at BC spent bouldering and climbing single-pitch routes, we returned to Shipton to remove our fixed lines, pack up the portaledge, clean up Camp 1, and head back to reality in the Czech Republic.
Patizon, Singing Rock, FrictionLabs, Camp Zdenda Hák and Pepa Morc
Written by Dalibor "Nedori" Mlejnek