Trip One Karakorum 2005
Photo Giovanni Pagnoncelli©
On June 5, 2005, a group of friends, mountaineers and climbers,
started the expedition Trip One Karakarum 2005. It was a project
strongly supported by Luca “Rampikino” Maspes, as
he explained us, a project whose target was a young and global
alpinism, including everything the mountain offers us: bouldering,
sport climbing, big wall, icefall, mixed terrain, high elevation.
In this context our friend Cristian Brenna could live a new experience,
the opening of a route from the ground up and the first free ascent
of a mountain route that allowed him to discover unknown and fascinating
climbing dimensions. Here the report of the experience through
the words of the protagonist.
Oscar Durbiano
Up Project, Trip 1
Two months have passed, since our return from Pakistan, and the
expedition had lasted two months too. An expedition whose target
was to explore new valleys and open everything we wanted, without
a real planned objective, but only our wish to climb and live
new vertical experiences. Therefore we went from mixed to aid
climbing, from free climbing to the unclimbed summit with ski
descent, to finish with bouldering. Nine people took part to this
trip1. I’ll introduce first the mind that has made possible
the realization of this project, Luca Maspes, who deserves a lot
of thanks for the energy spent organizing the expedition. Hervè
Barmasse was his right arm organizing this “holiday”,
Gianluca Bellin was the “globetrotter”, bringing the
bad weather, Giovanni Ongaro was the “minimizer” and
bringing the good weather, also if at the end their roles may
be were reversed. Giovanni Pagnoncelli had the task to immortalize
our ascent. The humorous Fabio Salini let everybody laugh, also
in the most difficult situations. In the team also Ezio Marler,
polemic but always in a constructive way and Francesca “Checca”
Chenal, who has brought a little sweetness in this world of brute
guys. And of course I was there too.
It was a global project, rich of contents and targeting the world
of alpine exploration. In these pages though I want to tell you
my own experience. If you want to know better the details of the
expedition and of all the ascents, I advice you to log in www.montagna.org,
where a diary of the expedition reports in a detailed way what
happened in those two months of great adventure.
Up & Down
For me all this was a novelty, a big novelty, as I participated
for the first time to an expedition. Already choosing the material
was quite a problem for me. At the end something was missing,
while other things I brought with me were absolutely useless.
The trip has been extremely fascinating, from the beginning. Islamabad
and the Karakorum Highway, the town impressed us with its colors
and perfumes, while the travel seemed more like a videogame, with
plenty of unreal situations (for us). From Skardu, first stop
after the exhausting Karakorum Highway, a day by jeep takes you
to Hushe, start of the trekking that brings you in three days
to base camp. Here I have had the first problem of the expedition.
In fact, while we were driving to Hushe by car, I felt sick, due
to the strong gasoline smell in the jeep. I almost fainted. Luckily
it was a temporary problem, and after a pause of a few minutes
I felt good again.
We spent the first days organizing the base camp and the gear,
and finally started with our project. I started with Luca and
Checca on the shield of Chogolisa. The first day I felt almost
scared under the huge wall. After climbing the first pitch Luca
asked me to lead the second one, but I didn’t feel comfortable
yet, therefore I preferred to decline and let him continue. The
second day Luca led a long pitch and offered me again to continue.
This time I accepted and started to climb equipping the length
from below, the first time in my life. The beginning of the pitch
was pretty easy. I put in a bolt and then a couple of pitons.
I climbed a little higher until a shallow crack, where I tried
to put in a piton, that didn’t convince me, so I decided
to put in another couple of bolts. I reached a good crack, but
I hadn’t the right friends to continue. I decided to go
down and continue the pitch the following day.
The next day I was still working on the crack. After a rather
dangerous move, due to the rotten and dirty rock, I arrived under
a small roof, put in a protection, climbed over it and put in
a bolt, before the last difficult meters. Finally I equipped the
belay stance. I had just established my first new pitch on lead.
Sixty meters, very beautiful and varied, and above all never too
easy: a great satisfaction.
Later, to prepare the route for a free ascent, I spent a couple
of days on the fixed ropes, with a brush to clean the route, to
take the dirt out of the cracks and detach the unstable flakes.
In the meantime Hervè had joined the team. While I cleaned
the route alone the others reached the end of the first pillar
and prepared the following 200 meters. After a couple of rest
days, the time of the final assault arrived. In the morning we
ascended the gully to the top of the pillar and after having climbed
fast the first 200 meters, I took the lead and opened the two
following lengths, a series of dihedrals and cracks leading to
a ledge. Here Hervè started to lead, reaching the top of
the pillar with two pitches: Up & Down was born. Now my objective
was to repeat it free. After a couple of rest days I felt ready
for the first try. Unfortunately that night I felt sick, probably
I had got cold, so the following morning, instead of getting up,
I turned on the other side and continued to sleep, postponing
the attempt to better days. In the meantime fortune seemed to
have turned its back to us. The weather, that had been relatively
good until now, had suddenly started to worsen and the situation
didn’t seem to improve in the short term. After ten days
of rain, the weather seemed to concede a cease-fire, a window
of a couple of sunny days. The next day we got up very early,
full of good intentions, that were promptly reduced by the still
bad weather. At eight, while we were having breakfast, finally
the clouds disappeared. Also if it was late, we packed the backpacks
and started. Unfortunately the route was still partially wet.
After breaking a flake on the second pitch and falling, considering
that the attempt had failed and there wasn’t enough time
to make another one with a certain criterion, I decided to study
the first part, very hard, in order to increase the possibilities
of the following day. So I rehearsed the first six pitches, particularly
the sixth, and the hardest, with a boulder move, especially difficult
to solve.
July 11 is the decisive day, the weather forecast is good for
one more day, before new thunderstorms. At 6.30 AM we start the
first pitch. Giovanni Ongaro is going to climb with me. His great
experience will be precious if there are problems. Luca instead
will use the fixed ropes, to film the entire attempt. The second
pitch is already very challenging, I pass the point where I broke
the flake the day before, and start the dihedral, with one overhanging
and one barely vertical face. At this elevation climbing a pitch
that requires a lot of endurance is hard for me, and I reach the
belay exhausted, after having fought like a lion. The third pitch
isn’t very hard, but a few hazardous moves oblige me to
remain always very concentrated. On the fourth pitch the key foothold
is wet. I try to dry it with chalk, I start and climb well almost
until the belay. Here my hand slips out of the crack and for a
moment I risk to fall down. At the belay, with Rampik, we laugh
over the narrow escape. The start of the fifth pitch is one of
the hardest, you climb a shallow crack for 15 meters, with the
foot jammed in the crack and the hands pulling in opposite directions.
Here I risk a fall during every move. Luckily I resist and continue,
until I reach the dihedral, where the difficulties finish. The
next pitch is the hardest. Thanks to the work made the day before
I redpoint it without problems. I have problems instead in the
seventh pitch, a section that I had jugged up during the first
ascent, to clean the cracks from the dirt and that I had may be
also a little underestimated. In short, I need almost an hour
for that section. The shallow crack that characterizes the pitch
tries to spit me out during every move. Also here, luckily, I
manage to climb without falling and I reach the end of the first
pillar.
With Giò we decide to take a rest, we eat and drink, also
if at this point we don’t have much food left. Luca, Hervè
and Giovanni have reached us on the upper part, to make a video
and the pictures, now they go down and recover the fixed lines.
Now I feel very tired, with muscle pains. Luckily the next two
hundred meters are easy and I can recover a little bit. The thirteenth
pitch is the hardest of the second part. After a boulder move
to enter the dihedral, you follow it almost to the belay, but
ten meters lower you traverse to the left and reach a wonderful
crack that brings you to the belay. In this pitch there was the
only problem of the route. During the first ascent we had taken
out two pitons that we needed in the following lengths. For the
free ascent I had a couple of friends more to use here, but no
one of them had the right size. Direct consequence: a long run
out, almost a dozen meters without protection, with a friend as
the last one.
Luckily the last three pitches run smoothly. At 5 PM, after 16
hours climbing, we were on the top of the shield, tired but happy.
A scream of joy towards the base camp and then a fast rappel down,
without problems, reaching the tents in a couple of hours. One
of the most beautiful climbing days of my life. The rest of the
expedition has been all relax. Bouldering and another week in
Charakusa Valley, where we have tried a new route on the Iqbal’s
wall and climbed the Naysar Brakk. A wonderful experience, very
intense. And while we were traveling back, I was already thinking
about the next adventure.
Cristian Brenna/UP Project
The Route
Shield of Chogolisa (5.300 m.), Route Up & Down
S-SE face, Central Pillar
800 meters length (16 pitches)
Maximum difficulty of the first ascent: 6c/7a e A1
Hervè Barmasse - Cristian Brenna - Luca Maspes - Francesca
Chenal
A total of six climbing days
Fixed ropes used for the first part
First free ascent in one day:
Cristian Brenna on lead, belayed by Giovanni Ongaro.
10 climbing hours, maximum difficulty 7c
