©Dane Steadman/AAJ
First ascent of Yashkuk Sar, Batura Muztagh, via the north pillar-Tiger Lily Buttress (2,000m, AI5+ M6 A0), September 19–23. Traversed the mountain and descended by the upper west face and lower north face.
The little visited Yashkuk Yaz Glacier provided Americans August Franzen, Dane Steadman, and Cody Winckler with the location for their first trip to the Karakoram. Despite the short approach, access is via the Chapursan Valley close to the border with Afghanistan, and on occasions permission has been denied. Prior to the American visit only three parties are known to have climbed from the upper Yashkuk Yaz Glacier, ascending a handful of peaks, the last in 2006. The glacier rises south to a watershed ridge with the Karambar Glacier, where a standout objective is 6,667m Yashkuk Sar I, its north pillar rising a full 2,000m from the West Yashkuk Yaz Glacier.
After establishing an advanced camp on this upper glacier, Franzen, Steadman, and Winckler first climbed a ca 5,300m subsidiary summit of an unnamed 6,084m peak to the north, before making a new route from the southeast on nearby Sax Sar (6,240m, climbed once before from the Karambar). They now felt ready for Yashkuk Sar I, and on September 19 began climbing the hopefully safe haven of the north pillar, the faces to either side regularly swept by large serac avalanches. The first two days were mostly steep ice and snow, with exposed, difficult-to-arrange, bivouacs at 5,600m and 5,900m. On the second of these they witnessed their proposed line - a steep dièdre through the headwall - swept by a huge collapsed mushroom. Failure seemed imminent but the next morning, after a diagonal rappel left, they were able to reach, then start up an alternative line on the left edge of the headwall, stopping part way up at 6,200m to make the "airiest bivouac of our lives". On the 22nd, hard mixed terrain and surreal snow formations led to the summit ridge, where a luxury crevasse afforded a flat bivouac.
Next day, the summit was quickly reached and a descent made by rappelling 600m in a couloir on the west face, then a traverse back over the west ridge to downclimb and rappel the lower 1,000m of the north face, reaching the main glacier that night. They have named their route Tiger Lily Buttress.
The jury was full of praise for this highly committing ascent and descent, and the young team, who embody the spirit of alpinism, searching journals and earth imagery for far-away objectives that push the boundaries of both technical difficulty and exploration.
