A team of Polish climbers have recently established a new route on Great Trango Tower in Pakistan’s Karakorum Range.
Marek Raganowicz and Marcin Tomaszewski’s new route follows the right hand side of the 6282m big wall before joining up with the Azeem Ridge and finally the path to the summit. Spending a total of 20 days on route and setting up four portaledge camps along the way, the men climbed 46 pitches and made a 24-hour push to the summit despite snowstorms.
Raganowicz explained: “Marcin lead the free crux and most of the pitches in general. I lead the A4 pitch, which featured a combination of hooking and rivets on rotten crags. I think that the biggest challenge was the section above Camp III to the ridge. All the sections above Camp IV along the ridge were a combination of corners, cracks, offwidths, and chimneys. Just beautiful climbing in wild and impressive scenery!”
The route has been named Bushido, a samurai reference meaning ‘the way of the warrior’. Their challenge marks a second big wall success in the last two years, with the men having tackled the north face of Canada’s Polar Sun Spire in 2012.The climb comes just months after nine climbers were killed on Nanga Parbat, throwing into question the safety of climbing in Pakistan. But the men remained undeterred.
“Yes, of course the bad news hit us just a month before the expedition, but our first reaction was: ‘no, nothing can stop us.’ We were still afraid of some unfriendly atmosphere, but day-by-day we met a lot of super-friendly, cooperative, and nice people. By the end of the expedition, they [the locals] played local music on their phones, and we started to dance with them. The guns were on the ground”, said Marek.
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