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International team climbs respectfully in mountains of Pakistan

24.09.2020

The Mountain Wilderness organization strives not only to preserve the natural environment of the world's mountains and deserts, but also to maintain the quality of the experience for visitors to these extraordinary landscapes. The Swat Project of Mountain Wilderness International’s Asian Desk encourages respectful behaviour among the increasing number of visitors to the region by discouraging the building of access roads, cable cars, hotels and mountain huts, and encouraging the climbing of smaller summits, mistakenly considered “minor” because they are of relatively low altitude and less fashionable. It also encourages good style for expeditions, without extensive use of hundreds of porters, fixed ropes and oxygen.

Supporting these principles, a team representing Mountain Wilderness International’s Asian Desk left Kalam, Pakistan on 19 August with the aim of climbing Thalo Zom on the Swat-Chitral border. They traveled by jeep along the Utrar road to the Kumrat Valley.

The team included: Carlo Alberto Pinelli (Honorary President of Mountain Wilderness International), Afzel Scherazi (President of Mountain Wilderness Pakistan), Jordi Quera (President of Mountain Wilderness International), Concept Mirò, Montse Soler, Sabine Rentschler, Anwar Ul Haq, Nadir Allisha, Didar Karim, porters for the trek and a police officer. The climbing party included Koki Gassiot from Catalonia; Massimo Marconi and Andrea Bollati from Italy; and Samiullah Ghaznavi, Sadam Hussain and Abrar Saeed from Pakistan, three young local mountaineers previously trained by the Asian Desk and the Pakistani Chapter of Mountain Wilderness.

From a starting point of 2 700 metres (m) in the Kumrat Valley, it took several days to cross Thalo Pass (4 220 m) and establish base camp at 4 090 m in the Thalo Gol. On 23 August, the climbing team began the first forays up the lateral moraine of the wide Thalo Zom Glacier.

After three days working south up the glacier, with camps at 4 750 and 5 100 m, a high camp was placed below the south face of the mountain at 5 400 metres. From there, at 13.00 on 29 August, the entire team reached the summit via a 600 m ice route up the south face and southwest ridge. They named it “Guides' Way.”

At the time, they believed this was the first ascent of the mountain, but they later discovered it had been climbed on 12 August 1971 by a team from Graz, Austria led by Herbert Zefferer. Looking at the available information, it seems most likely that the 1971 team ascended the Thalo Zom Glacier to the snow col at the foot of the northeast ridge, then climbed on the south flank of that ridge to the top, perhaps finishing up the southeast ridge.

Story and photo by Andrea Bollati, originally published on The American Alpine Club 

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