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Batura II - Simone Moro new project
about project | russian version expedition chronicle 10
July, 2005 Expedition Finished.....!!!
Unfortunately Joby was behind me and he did his best to be efficient and concentrate as he climbed down well but taking his time. Waiting for him under seracs and cornice would have been suicide... I was in base camp drinking cold juice and doing a sat phone call when Joby called me on the radio. " Simone... I've been hit by an avalanche...I survived as a miracle but... I think I broke my ankle and hip and am seriously injured.... "
It
took me some seconds to realize the meaning of those words... The expedition is finished in advance, with 2 summit reached and one new route, but our principal aim is failed due the bad luck. We are happy because all that is missing is the sport result, Batura 2, but not the life of someone... I
would like to thank Ashraf Aman and his staff Essar and Neiknam
for the strong and fast "diplomatic" effort to obtain
the military helicopter for us. Unique and great job!!!! 8
July, 2005 Today we get up at 4 o'clock.
There was cold enough - so we haven't to break in the deep snow
till waist, like yesterday. The snow conditions was good, but we
found high climbing difficulties - this was a surprise for us. The
ridge was steep and airy and we had to climb without ropes, because
it was not possible to make an acceptable security. Joby and I were
all time in contact with our radios and continue to remember each
other to be concentrated, because it was not aloud to make errors-.
IT was impossible to go back, because of the high difficulties,
so the only possible way was to go up. At 1 p.m. we found a place
for our camp 2. In 40 minutes we set the camp at 5900 meters protected
by the big serac. We are now close to the Batokschi Peak.
7
July, 2005 Finally we did start! Today
at 5 a.m. we started from basecamp at 4100 m. We began with the
German route from 2002, but after some ours we crossed to the west
ridge, because we didn't like the seracs above us. The ridge seems
more save, but it was steep and we find hard work in snow till our
waist. At 1:30 p.m. we found a place for our tend, protected by
one stone pillar. We set our camp 1 at 5170 meters, after 7 ours
of hard work in deep snow with heavy rucksacks. Tomorrow we will
try to continue, if the snow is not to deep- 5
July, 2005 Today again bad weather but
I and Joby didn't want to take another rest day at Base camp. So
we got up at 7:00 a.m. and at 8:05 a.m. we started to attempt the
summit of Ya Chhish 5130 meter. It is not an easy mountain and it's
better to take care especially on the final ridge. It had been climbed
only one time on the 23rd May 1976 from 2 east Germany climbers.
They climbed Ya Chhish to make acclimatisation before attempting
and reaching Batura I (at that time the highest unclimbed peak of
the world). After 29 years at 11:30 Joby and I climbed the mountain
again via the east face and the delicate final ridge. We also climbed
that summit to get acclimatisation before attempting the highest
unclimbed mountain of the world in 2005....
3
July, 2005 After many days of good weather
now we have to accept some days of bad and raining/snowing weather.
Also today, in fact, we didn't move from B.C. due a rain fall and
low clouds. So we spend time in our big and comfortable The North
Face mess tend, riding and writing at computer. I decide to start
to write my second book some month ago and now I have the time to
try to do it. I would like to see published my first book also in
other language and not only in Italian. The story of the friendship
with Anatoli Boukreev and our tragedy on Annapurna in winter 1997
is always one of the question that foreign climber make to me always.
Maybe is not so bad idea to give them the possibility to read what
really happened.... 2 July, 2005 Today first excursion together with Joby but due the bad weather we walk only 2 hours. All the night was raining and also this morning rain for some couple of minutes. Rain at 4100 meters.... For that reason the climb of Ya Chhish had been postponned. Also at the others base camps the situation is the same. We are in touch by sat phone with some friends at G2, Broad Peak, Nanga Parbat and Latok. Today we will read our books and get relax. Picture - bad weather in BC:
30
June, 2005 Joby Ogwyn arrived at base
camp!!! He resolved all the bureaucratic problems and finally he
get here at 3:30 p.m. today. The team now is complete and the climb
can start. Probably after tomorrow. He obviously need one day rest.
Follow us 29
June, 2005 First
cloudy day after one week of blue sky. Probably it is the best weather
condition for Joby, who is walking up to "Sheep House"
and tomorrow will arrive here in base camp. Today I went again at
the base of the face to watch the route I choose but a stone falling
push me to change idea and route.... all the snow is melted and
now in the coloir remained only stones... I will follow the same
route of the German of 2002 on the right side of the glacier descending
from Batokshi. 28
June, 2005 27
June, 2005 Another sunny day with blue
sky. It is already one week that I get this weather conditions and
the snow is melting fast. The avalanches continue to come down along
the icy walls and they clean the deep snow from the mountains. Today
I spoke with some friends that are in Pakistan in different expeditions
and they also told me to have the same weather conditions. We agreed
that the season 2005 is 20/25 days late and that is not a problem
to be at base camp late June and beginning of July. 26
June, 2005 Second excursion around the
base camp. Today I climbed a fore-summit of Ya Chhish, which's located
exactly in front of Batura II and Batokshi peak. From that point
I get the possibility to see our route and take nice pictures. It
had been also the occasion to do a 5 hours "trekking"
and climb till 4¦ grade UIAA in a nice ambient and rock. Today Joby
Ogwyn landed in Islamabad and immediately he took another flight
to Gilgit. Tomorrow he will start his trekking and in 3 days will
be here at base camp. Also today I send you some photos I took today 25
June, 2005 Joby Ogwyn, my climbing partner,
is flying now from Milano to Islamabad. Finally he got the visa
and can start the expedition and his fast approach to the base camp.
He should arrive here on 29th of June. Today I went to the base
of the face to observe the starting point of our route. I took some
photos and transport some equipment there. The altitude of the starting
point of the route is about 4250 m. Tomorrow I will go to the summit
of Ya Chhish 5130 m which is located exactly in front of the face
and from there I should see most part of our climbing line from
the bottom to the summit. Ya Chhish had been already climbed the
23rd may 1976 by two east-german climbers. Till tomorrow 24
June, 2005 First day at base camp. Also
today nice weather and many work to do. Fix definitively the tents,
shavelling the snow, set the solar panel together the electronic
instruments, test the emergency generator, control all the climbing
equipment. Also today I did tons of photos of the mountains around
us. There are so many unclimbed and beautiful peaks. Since tomorrow
I will show you some of them with name and altitude. I hope that
somebody will choose one to attempt in the next expedition.... 23 June, 2005 Finally we arrived at base camp! (4103 m). From here to the summit should be 3659 m of difference... The place is really nice and thanks to the porters we arrived here with all the equipment to stay till august and made all the attempt we need. Here there is water, we are near the wall of Batura, there is grass even still covered from snow now. We have sun from 7 a.m to 6 p.m.. Now there're three of us here: me, cook Didar and the kitchenboy Karim. Joby Ogwyn is still in Italy but should fly to Islamabad in 3 days. His passport with Pakistan visa is coming from USA to Italy. Simone
22 June, 2005 How big is it!!!! This is the first sentences I said when I saw Batura II and the Batura group!! As supposed the flat green place of the base camp of the German expedition of 2002 is completely covered by 50/100 cm snow. Only near the morrain we found a small green place, NOT FLAT where we set the provisory camp for today. The porters worked hard to find the place to organize their camp and place for all of them below stones or protected by stone walls. Tomorrow we will cross the glacier and set the base camp where I requested, near the face. It will be the "Italian base camp".....
21
June, 2005 What a nice place here!!!
20
June, 2005 Karakorum,
Batura II, Simone Moro's report: 19
June Today we start. From Gilgit we will go by Jeep for 4/5
hours till the village of Bar where we will spend the night and
organize the porters. Tomorrow we will start the trekking to approach
Batura II throw Baltar Glacier. There is a lot of snow and this
is the reason why I choose this approach and not the Muchuchil glacier
valley. We in fact received advise from our staff, that porters
wouldn't go there because it is longer and more difficult with deep
snow. The risk is they left our equipment too far from the mountain.
On the map you can see the purple points that indicate our trekking
way. I hope to get the possibility to update the web site and give
you information and photos also along the trekking (if batteries
will work without to be charged anymore till base camp).
17
June Today I saw white mountains. Even with one hour delay,
I flew to Gilgit today and in the clouds I saw mountains of this
area, mostly Nanga Parbat. The snow it look really deep and more
than usual for this season and in the few minutes of the clear sky
I took some pictures to Nanga to show you. I also tried to watch
in the direction of Rakaposhi and Batura but it was impossible to
see because there was to cloudy sky and flew to low. June,16
Ciao to everybody. I'm here again after some month silence after
the first winter climb I realized with Piotr on Shisha Pangma 8027
m (officially registred)
Today's extra-European alpinism has been reduced to shortsightedness with little imagination. With a few pleasant exceptions, alpinists are all categorized in the same way in terms of their climbing, thinking, in talking about themselves and in the way they conceive their direction and mountaineering "career". Virgin mountains, new routes on unknown faces, repetitions of climbs achieved only once and never again revisited, winter ascents, traverses of a number of mountains and many other forms of alpinism are lacking from the current trend of mountaineering. There are very few people who undertake this new type of adventure, and are mainly from Eastern Europe or nonetheless rare individuals from the national and international panorama. The reasons for this are many, amongst the main reasons is the inability to accept a potential failure and the difficulty in terms of appealing to the greater public concerned that there will be no comparison with the 8000 meter ascents (if 6000-7000 meter peaks are chosen.) One needs only to look at any internet site in the pre-and post-monsoon seasons and you will be overwelmed by information regarding climbing on the highest peaks of the world-but for goodness sake-they are all the same, all in line- Climbing mountains is always filled with uncertainty and hard work, I am the first person to confirm this, but as well as the physical effort one needs imagination, inventiveness, and a hunger for the unknown and adventure. It's not whether or not you have a satellite phone that eliminates these assumptions. By using communication instruments, great pages of true alpinism can be told as well as very boring titanic exertions dragging oneself up a summit which has already been climbed a hundred times in the same style and along the same route. Even being unsuccessful acquires another flavor if one has attempted to play an innovative mountaineering match, different from the usual and current cliches. The most frequent questions asked in the global village of alpinists and mountaineering fans are "How many 8000 meter peaks have you climbed?" or "How many times have you climbed Everest?" and this now seems to be the measure by which to list and attribute merit. If you attempt a different type of alpinism, express yourself in many different languages or write books (and not let someone else write them for you), if you move well on all terrain (rock, ice, mixed), if you can recount what you do and what you feel in a fluent way, if you declare successes and failure with the same tone of voice, you are seen in a bad light and not tolerated in the eyes and minds of the main characters on the alpinism stage. Criticism and mistrust are the reactions to the above qualities. Messner, on the other hand, still the "number one", should have taught something in terms of versatility of physical sporting aptitude and mental and entrepreneurial qualities- The project It is from this harsh and critical analysis (which will bring me new enemies) of the world in which I belong, that a few years ago my differing mountaineering journey started, and it is from this base that I thought about my new project. I tried to materialize the concepts of altitude, difficulty, solitude, uncertainty, adventure and the unknown into a unique mountaineering project. I asked myself which was the highest, un-violated, unclimbed mountain in the world? It is a well known fact that there are hundreds of un-violated and unexplored mountains on our planet and I wanted to find the identity of the highest of these peaks. Batura II is 7762 meters and is located in Pakistan's western Karakorum in the Batura Muztagh group. Batura II is also called Pik 31 or Hunza Kunji. It was extremely difficult to locate and find exact information on its history. Many internet sites and some publications listed it as one of the summits climbed in 1978 by a Japanese expedition. I then discovered, thanks to precious and scientific information from the German Wolfgang Heichel, that it had NEVER been climbed and that there have been 4 attempts to climb the summit. The first one in 1959 by an Anglo-German expedition, then in 1978 by the Japanese which was concluded by reaching Batura IV by Ishikawa Ito and Makoto Ohkubo, after having tried the Southern face of Batura II. It was the climber Ito that supplied the details concerning the climb and revealing the achievement of Batura IV. The Poles then tried in 1983 but they then fell back on Batura I after an attempt on Batura II. The Germans tried again in 2002. I was given information and pictures by Markus Walter, taken during their recent attempt.Thank God alpinism is anything but dead. There is still climbers who are trying to escape from its fossilization and in my small way I am trying to help this change. Batura II with its 7762 meters represents the highest un-violated mountain on this earth. Even if there are still some fore-summits (or satellite summits) of mountains with a higher altitude that await to be climbed, for example Lhotse middle east 8376 m or Nupse central 7815 m and a few others, these summits are not considered independent and autonomous as is the case of Batura II which is thus identified even by its name (Batura II and not Batura east, or west, or central) as a mountain which is part of the Batura Muztagh group in the same way as those belonging to the Annapurna group, which were also identified with the names I,II, III, IV etc according to their altitude and independent location.The southern face of Batura II, the side which will be the object of our attempt, is definitely more difficult but less dangerous compared to the western face. It is the same face on which previous attempts were made, but which we will attempt by following a new and different line from what has been followed up until now. My climbing partner will be the American alpinist and cameraman Joby Ogwyn. It will only be the two of us in the whole region of Batura Muztagh and this will guarantee solitude and total independence which is at the core of our philosophy. If we add these factors to the extreme high altitude of the summit, the unknown factor of the ascent route and the complete "virginity" of the whole upper section of the mountain and the actual summit, we can only claim that our project is at the same time exciting, difficult and adventurous. Only in the depths of winter or in very few other situations or faces can you find this situation on an 8000 meter peak.
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4
July, 2005 Again bad weather.... Also
last night was snowing but thanks to the good temperature it melted
everything here in base camp. In this moment that I'm writing the
weather is again bad but today we get some hours of good conditions
and I had fun, doing some bouldering and Joby took footage and photos
. This is one of the systems to avoid to be boring and get training...
