In this day and age, where every corner of the planet has been documented with satellite imagery, it’s difficult to include the idea of “exploration” in a climbing trip. Certainly, no one these days faces the same probability of no return as the explorers did in previous centuries, and the idea of remoteness isn’t the same now as it once was. With the right device, we can text back home in real time from anywhere in the world. However, this trip to Pakistan proved that there are still plenty of corners of this planet where modern instruments become secondary and the instincts that helped the original explorers are the most effective tools for finding the way. There are still places where few humans have been before, where you can stil try to reach a new summit and come back with unforgettable memories. 

The idea of finding ourselves in that uncertainty is what motivated me and my long time climbing partners Masha Gordon, Oswaldo Freire and Jacques Sturm to set eyes on the north of Mulungutti glacier of the Shimshai region of Pakistan. Research told us that in 2022 a Japanese team completed an ascent of the north face and we were looking to draw the first line on the south aspect. The same research made us think that the access to the south side of the mountain was relatively easy from the village of Shimshai by following a creek and then, that the SE ridge was going to be  long but fairly straightforward. Well, our exploration proved that the satellite images we got a hold of, told just partial truth of the real challenges of the terrain and we had to find our way from scratch.

The creek that we selected from the satellite images for accessing the face proved to be impassable. The river flow was more aggressive than anticipated and in several sections it funnels down through cliffs of loose conglomerate and dirt, too loose to climb. The water that runs down by the creeks is so aggressive and the slopes on the sides so loose that concerning landslides can be seen multiple times every day. In other words, we had to rule out the initial plan and do the exploration in the old fashion way. Stand in front of the range and interpret the terrain for the path of least resistance. After two attempts we opted for an alternative that involved a longer journey by an adjacent valley, climbing two waterfalls and a pass at 5000m. In the end it took us 3 days to set up a base camp at 4200m. Locals expressed both excitement to go up and get closer to mountains that are somewhat unknown even for them, and hesitation at the ridiculous (but only) line of access to the valley. 

Once we set up a base camp, the weather rolled in, in that classic way that feels like the mountains are making you pay the price for every meter of altitude you gain. We didn’t have a full day of good weather for an entire week. Short hikes and the scattered glances of the summit lines kept us sane, but the motivation was diminishing. We took advantage of the hours of clear weather to move up along the southern slopes of the Karun Kuh (our original objective) just to discover that the line that we initially intended to climb was full of precarious cornices, more dangerous than difficult, and that we needed to recalibrate our expectations. We came back to the base camp with the odd feeling of knowing that we needed to be realistic and set our goals for different lines, and with the tiny reward of finding pass on the lower ice falls of the Karun Kuh south glaciers.

Once again the images that we gathered prior the trip were not showing the severity of the objective hazards. With that in mind, we set off for a second acclimatization push and we were able to reach a prominence of rock that looked like an island surrounded by ice, recording 5700m . Although this was insignificant compared to the surrounding mountains, it served to lift the morale and even helped us start dreaming of alternative objectives. From this summit we had a better perspective of the range and we noticed that on the South buttresses and slopes of the south glaciers of Karun Kuh there was a peak of higher elevation than our first summit and with more complexities for the ascent. With no further discussion and in order to take advantage of the acclimatization rotation, we designated the last day of this lap to the climb the peak we saw. The peak later ended up being named Shams Sar, after a local saint with a shrine nearby. We climbed this peak via the SW face (D+, 500m, M4) on a day that started with significant snowfall but cleared by the time we reached the summit. 

 

Back at the base camp the lessons learned were: First, we can not rely on the information collected beforehand. Second,  the weather was not stable enough for a large objective and the forecast we received in our communication devices were certainly not accurate and finally, the return to where we could be picked up by car was not going to be easy since it was not a straight journey down the valley. We were running out of time before we had to start the return to Islamabad for our international flights. Since the goal of this trip was not a specific summit but to explore the mountains of this region, we made lemonade out of lemons and headed back up one more time. This time we went to the north of our base camp towards whats marked on the few maps of the region as a hidden glacier, in search of a summit that passed the 6000m mark.

The only map of the region that we were able to find with some attempt to list the summits was the Jerzy Wala map from a Polish expedition, not to the exact valley, but to the same general area in the early 2000s.  With that information, we headed west to a peak labeled as “132” which was listed as higher than 6000m and was the closest steep face in this valley. This ascent included steep snow ramps, a few pitches of WI3-WI4 ice followed by 4 pitches of steep mixed climbing (M4). On the summit we confirmed 6060m, but  we were not able to stay long since the rapidly warming temperatures with an isotherm at 7,000m, made it for a harrowing descent where no snow pickets held and we had to dig snow almost a meter deep to find porous and rotten ice to make V-treads. We called the peak Mashallah Sar that stands for 'God Has Willed It’ to express gratitude for an opportunity to end this expedition with the climbing of a beautiful peak in a remote part of the world and, same as with the other two first ascent, follow the locals input for naming the peaks. This last one was rated TD (1000m, WI4, M4). 

So yes, we climbed three new summits for the records, but more important than these first ascents, we explored an unknown region of Pakistan. The potential for future trips is huge now that we have cracked the code of how to access and set a base camp. We will come back and hopefully more alpinists will be inspired by this trip and go to to try their chances on these peaks as well. Exploration awaits!