2019 Honoured ascents

Lunag Ri from the southwest.
(A) Main summit (6,895m).
(B) Southeast top
(1) Line of Anker-Lama attempts in 2015 and 2016.
(2) Line of Lama’s solo ascents.
(H1) High point with Anker in 2016.
(H2) High point of 2015 attempt and 2016 solo attempt.
©David Lama/American Alpine Journal

FIRST ASCENT VIA WEST RIDGE1,500M, 90°,
DAVID LAMA (AUSTRIA), SOLO, OCTOBER 23-25

Lunag  Ri  is  the  culminating  point  of  the  Rolwaling's  Lunag  Massif,  which  straddles  the  Nepal-Tibet  border.  Before  2018  it  was  one  of  the  highest  unclimbed peaks in Nepal and there had been at least four serious attempts to reach its lofty summit. An attempt from the southeast, and another from the north, both finished on a subsidiary southeast top. In 2015 Conrad Anker and  David  Lama  reached  a  point  on  the  west  ridge  around  300m  below  the  summit,  finding  the  ridge  more  complex  and  difficult  than  expected.  They returned in 2016, only for Anker to be evacuated by helicopter after suffering a  stroke.  Lama  subsequently  made  a  bold  solo  attempt,  surpassing  his  previous high point by around 50m.In 2018, when Anker confirmed he would no longer go on this sort of expedi-tion, Lama decided to decline other offers from strong partners and to go it alone. In the intense cold of late October, the Austrian climbed difficult mixed terrain, ice and snow, with two bivouacs, to reach the crux technical climbing on the steep headwall. Surmounting this, he made an airy traverse on to the spectacular  diving-board  summit.  Lama  descended  by  rappel,  mostly  along  the  line  of  his  route.  It  was  a  climb  that  would  remain  "engraved  in  my memory for the exposure, the difficulty, the cold and the loneliness, and for a successful conclusion to a personal project".

DAVID LAMA

Before turning his drive and focus to the high standard mountaineering that arguably would shape in the international climbing scene in recent years, David Lama had been an outstanding competition climber. The story behind his early years in the activity is well-known. Born in 1990, the son of a Nepali mountain guide and an Austrian nurse, Lama was five when he attended a climbing session organized by Peter Habeler. His unusual talent was quickly recognized, and Lama was soon being coached as part of a competition team. At the age of 10 he became the youngest person to climb 8a. At the age of 14 he climbed his first 8c and won the European Youth Cup. He became the the first to win both a lead and bouldering World Cup final in his first season, and was also the youngest person to compete in the IFSC World Cup. Lama won the overall World Championships in 2008. One of his first alpine new routes was climbed in August 2008 on the Sagwand (Zillertal Alps) near his home in Innsbruck. Over the years Lama would return to this wall to climb a number of lines in both summer and winter. In 2009 he began a series of high standard routes in the bigger mountains, when as part of a four-person team he made the first free ascent of the Timofeev Route (7b) on the 900m northwest face of Asan in the Kyrgyzstan Pamir Alai. Next year, in the Dolomites, he repeated Bellavista (8c) on the Cima Ovest, and the Voie Petit (8b) on the Grand Capucin in the Mont Blanc Range In 2011 he joined three other climbers to make the first ascent of the west face and south ridge of Cerro Kishtwar (6,155m). This was only the second overall ascent of the peak, and brought to attention an area untouched by the mountaineering community for nearly two decades. The following year, with Peter Ortner, he made the first free ascent of the southeast ridge of Cerro Torre, after a recent removal of many of Maestri's bolts. For this National Geographic awarded him "Adventurer of the Year". Both Austrians then moved to high altitude later that year with an ascent of Chogolisi (7,665m). In 2013, with Dani Arnold, he completed a technically demanding direct route up the east face of the Mooses Tooth named Bird of Prey (1,500m, 6a A2 M7+ 90°). In 2015 and 2016 Lama made unsuccessful attempts with Conrad Anker to climb the virgin Lunag Ri, finally reaching the summit, solo, in 2018. His sponsors remember him as the most passionate climber they have ever encountered. Anker described him as humble, motivated, with the most natural ability to move over any kind of vertical terrain.

The western end of the Hispar Muztagh with :
(A) Distaghil Sar (7,885m),
(B) Lupghar Sar West (7,175m), showing the 2018 route on the west face,
(C) Momhil Sar (7,414m),
(D) Trivor (7,728m) and
(E) Khunyang Chhish (7,852m).
Hansjörg Auer on the Baltbar Glacier, and his line on the west face of Lupghar Sar West.
©Hansjörg Auer/American Alpine Journal

WEST FACE 1,000M, M4 55°,
HANSJÖRG AUER (AUSTRIA), SOLO - IN A DAY, JULY 7

The rarely-attempted Lupghar Sar massif in the Hispar Muztagh of the Western Karakoram comprises three peaks on a high east-west summit ridge. The west summit was first climbed in 1979 by Germans via the southwest ridge, which featured dangerously rotten rock - a characteristic of this summit. It was repeated the same year, and again in 1980, by Japanese, the first of these expeditions continuing east for more than one and a half kilometres along the sharp ridge to the Central (Main) summit. These were
full scale sieges and neither the West or Central peaks were seriously attempted again until 2018.

After extensive acclimatization and scouting of both face and complex approach, Hansjörg Auer left base camp and navigated the wild Baltbar Glacier to a bivouac at 6,200m below the left side of the west face of Lupghar Sar West. The next day he made a rapid ascent of the west face to reach the steep upper section of the northwest ridge at 6,900m. Although he had planned a second bivouac, he decided to cache his gear and head for the top. Very loose mixed terrain and a highly exposed, narrow, corniced crest led to the highest point. Auer managed to descend to base camp by the evening of the same day. Although the technicalities were not high, this was bold, committing and precarious climbing, with a taxing descent of the same route, completely alone at high altitude and in a remarkably fast time.

HANS JÖRGAUER

Born in 1984, the Austrian Hansjorg Auer was considered one of the finest alpinsts and big wall free climbers of his generation. He began rock climbing at 12 and over the next half dozen years completed many classic routes in the Alps. He then concentrated on pushing his limits on rock, freeing many hard multi-pitch routes, and, in his own words, making "all those crazy free solos" The first of those, in 2006, was a very rapid ascent of the 27-pitch Tempi Moderni on the south face of the Marmolada, the same year that he visited Pakistan and made the second ascent (first to the summit) of Women and Chalk on Shipton Spire (5,885m). The following year, he made the outstanding free solo of the 37-pitch Fish (7b+), again on the Marmolada south face, an ascent that due to the sometimes insecure nature of the climbing was arguably not surpassed until Alex Honnold's solo of Free Rider on El Capitan. In 2009 Auer, a teacher in Mathematics, gave up his job to become a full-time professional climber, later becoming a mentor for the Austrian Young Alpinists Group. His other notable contributions to climbing include: the first free ascent of L'Ultimo dei Paracaditisti (650m, 8b+) on the Marmolada; multipitch routes up to 8b in Oman, and up to 7c+ on the towers of Bilibino, Siberia; The Door (630m, 8b) during a 2012 visit to Baffin Island; the first free ascent of the 10-pitch Arctandria (8b), and the first ascent of Tingeling (7c+) on Blammanen, northern Norway; the first ascent of Kunyang Chhish East (7,400m) via the southwest face (2013); the first ascent of the south face of Nilgiri South (6,839m, only the second overall ascent of the mountain, 2015); the first ascent of the northwest face of Gimmigela Chuli East (7,007m, 2016), Nepal; the first ascent of unnamed Peak 6,050m in India's Baspa Valley (2018). He published an autobiography in 2017.

Seen from the north,
(A) Latok I (7,145m) and (B) Latok II (7,108m).
(1) The 2018 Russian attempt on the north ridge, reaching the summit ridge at approximately 7,050m.
(2) Anglo-Slovenian route to make the second ascent of Latok I, passing through the west col to finish via the southern slopes.
©Sergey Glazunov/American Alpine Journal

NORTH RIDGE/FACE AND SOUTH FACE 2,500M, ED+,
ALEŠ ČESEN - LUKA STRAŽAR (SLOVENIA) - TOM LIVINGSTONE (U.K.), AUGUST 5–9

In 1978 four Americans attempted the "Walker Spur of the Karakoram", the north ridge of Latok I from the Choktoi Glacier. Jim Donini, Michael Kennedy, George and Jeff Lowe spent 21 days climbing over 100 pitches and had probably surmounted all the difficulties, when a combination of wind, cold and Jeff Lowe’s rapidly deteriorating condition due to altitude sickness forced a retreat. It remains one of the finest and most notable near misses in the history of alpinism. Despite literally dozens of subsequent attempts over the next 40 years, no one came close to reaching their high point of nearly 7,000m. The first and to date only ascent of the mountain was made in 1979, when a Japanese team reached the summit from the south.

Tom Livingstone met Luka Stražar at an international winter gathering in Scotland. Together with Aleš Česen they travelled to the north side of Latok I, where Česen confided, "we think there is a better way to the summit than the full north ridge". American Josh Wharton, who travelled to the Choktoi four times to attempt the north ridge, envisaged a line that would climb the right flank of the ridge, then slant up to the (west) col between Latok I and II. From there his proposed route crossed onto the south side of the mountain, where easier terrain would lead to the top. This was the route eventually followed by the Anglo-Slovenian trio, who climbed generally good ice runnels and névé on the right side of the ridge to around 6,400m, at which point they angled up right to reach the west col at 6,700m. From there they followed south-facing snow slopes in generally stormy weather to the summit, which they reached on their fifth day. Descending approximately the same line, the team regained base camp three days later, having made only the second ascent of this prestigious mountain in the Panmah Muztagh, and the first from the north.

ALEŠ ČESEN

Ales Cesen was born in 1982 and from 1990-1999 took part in climbing competitions at national and international levels. After this he turned to the mountains, at first climbing in the Alps, but then further afield to places such as Scandanavia, Africa, Yosemite, Alaska, Nepal, Pakistan, India and Tibet. Much of his early time in the mountains was in the company of his brother Nejc. In 2014 he completed a PhD in Material Science, but three years previously he had become both a father and a fully qualified IFMGA mountain guide. He now has two children and earns his living from guiding. Notable ascents include: a new route on the 1,700m south face of Pik Gorky (6,050m) in Kyrgyzstan (2003); a new route on the west face of Karejiang III (6,824m) and an attempt on Kula Kangri (7,538m) in Tibet (2005); a free ascent of the Slovenian Route on 6,251m Trango Tower (2006); the second ascent of the Anderson-House-Prezelj route on K7 West (6,858m); the first ascent of the north face of Hagshu (6,657m) - an ascent that would gain a Piolet d'Or in 2015; the northwest ridge of Gasherbrum IV as far as the north summit (ca 7,900m) in 2016, and hard new route on Arjuna (6,250m, second ascent of this peak) in the India Himalaya (2017).

LUKA STRAŽAR

Luka Strazar was born in 1988 and went on to study geography at university in Ljublijana. He began climbing with his father, and eventually became an IFMGA mountain guide. He made the second ascent of Kaveljc on the north face of Triglav. On 2011, on his first expedition to the Himalaya/Karakoram, he visited the Charakusa Glacier with Nejc Marcic, making the first ascent of the northwest face of K7 West (6,615m) by a route the pair would name Dreamers of the Golden Caves (1,600m, VI/5 M5 A2). This route was awarded a Piolet d'Or in 2012. The same pair visited Nepal in the autumn of 2012, where they made the second ascent of Janak (7,040m) via the difficult west face. In 2013 Strazar climbed a new route on the Ice Tooth (6,200m) and made an attempt to 6,600m on the nearby east face of Phola Gangchen (7,703m) in Tibet. In 2015 made the first ascent of the north face of Chugimago North (5,945m) and a new route up the west face of Chugimago (6,258m) in Nepal's Rolwaling Himal.

TOM LIVINGSTONE

Tom Livingstone is a 28-year old semi-sponsored climber based in North Wales. He works as a Rope Access technician and an outdoor instructor, but packs as much of his own climbing as possible into each year. For instance, let's look at 2016, an exceptional year in which he made high-level ascents in Scotland both summer (E7) and winter (Scottish IX), a winter ascent of the Walker Spur, his first UK rock climb of E9, sport climbing to 8a+, an ascent of Divine Providence on the Grand Pilier d'Angle and the American Direct on the Dru in the same week, the third ascent of the House-Anderson route on the north face of Mt Alberta in Canada and finally, at the start of 2017, an ascent of the Supercanaleta on Fitzroy in Patagonia. Other notable ascents in the Mont Blanc Range include a free ascent in winter of the Leseuer Route (M7+) on the north face of the Dru, and a free ascent of the Original Route on the south face of the Fou. As well as the ascent on Alberta, in the Canadian Rockies Livingstone made the first winter ascent of Navigator Wall (700m., ED1 M7+ R, or Scottish VIII/IX) on the east face of Mt Sleese (2,439m) in one day (with the late Marc Andre Leclerc), while in Alaska's Revelation mountains he put up Fun or Fear (1,200m, M6 AI6 R 90°) on the east face of Mt Jezebel's northeast summit (2,880m). Livingstone's ascent of Latok I marked his first visit to the Himalaya/Karakoram.