Base Camp at Mingling Valley
Photo Elvind Hugaas
Can you stand the heat?
– attempt on unclimbed K13
by Juho Knuuttila
I wasn't sure anymore if we were sitting in a tent on a glacier at 5700 metres, deep in the Eastern Karakoram, or in a Finnish sauna. The temperature was infernally hot inside and even more torturing outside, in direct sunlight. We couldn't do much else than watch snow become a sorbet and drink warm liquids to make sure we wouldn't feel cold in any part of our bodies. A bouncing headache formed a steady rhythm in the back of my head.
We were in the middle of some of the wildest mountains on the planet. Most of them were unclimbed and untouched. Patagonian-like granite rock towers surrounded deep and dusty valleys before it all changed to steep and icy alpine peaks. On the horizon snowy 8000m peaks were guarding their kingdom. Even so, I was still ready to switch high mountains for the endless greenery of lush Lofoten islands. Life would be so much easier, cooler and cloudy in a few weeks. That would be a paradise on Earth!
It all started from the Arctic Ice Festival in Northern Norway, in the spring of 2020. At that time I was eagerly looking for a next objective to attempt in the Greater Ranges. Luckily Steve Swenson was one of the key speakers at the event and he told me about an unclimbed peak called K13, located close to the Siachen area in the Eastern Karakoram. The area was begining to open up for climbers and there could be a chance to get a permit after many decades of closure. More than a year later we were on our way to Pakistan in late June as a team of three: Eivind Hugaas (Norway), Nelson Neirinck (Belgium) and myself. The only information we had about the mountain was Steve's advice, some satellite pictures from Google Earth and one image taken from Link Sar by Graham Zimmerman. It would be an adventure.
After a hassle of cancelled international flights, a few dusty days on the Karakoram highway, organizing last minute things in Skardu and another jeep ride to the village of Khorkondus, we were finally ready to head to the mountains. The walk to the Base Camp area in Mingling Valley took only a few hours, following a raging river. Only a week earlier a team from France had left the same spot after having climbed the lower western summit of K13 via a new route on one of the spurs of the north face. It didn't make a difference to our spirits as we knew that there would be other good looking lines on the wall and the higher, 6666 metre true summit of the mountain was still untouched.
The first few weeks at altitude were from a slow-motion movie. Local shepherds ran past us wearing flip flops and even if we would like to move faster, we couldn’t. It was also a time to forget our goal for a moment and focus only on staying healthy and getting acclimatized. The weather was supporting us on the first half of the trip; four days of sunshine followed by three days of rain to rest at Base Camp between rotations.
We slept under the north face of K13 once, eyeing our options to find a safe line through the manic north face full of seracs and snow mushrooms. Luckily we found a way which looked relatively safe from objective hazards and gave us a boost of motivation to finish acclimatization by climbing a first ascent of an easier 6000m peak at the other end of the valley. The peak we had in mind looked very prominent but technically quite simple which was perfect, as saving energy for the main summit would be more than wise. On July 17th we stood on the summit of this 6210m peak at 03:40. Darkness surrounded us but we didn't have time to wait for sunlight as the day before had shown the rough reality of the Karakoram heat. We had no other choice than to climb during the night.
A few days later we received a perfect looking forecast which promised a six day weather window. It was time to give K13 a go! We returned to the base of the face where we had been a few weeks earlier. On the lower glacier the snow had probably melted more than a metre revealing a maze of crevasses, but the upper mountain was still plastered with snow. At the same time it looked very wintry, but the air felt as warm as ever.
After midnight we started simul-soloing up the first snow and ice fields of our chosen line. The mountain was calm and quiet, except for the distant rumble of serac-fall somewhere deeper in the valley. We roped up below a chimney which would hopefully give us access to the spur proper. I led two very sketchy pitches on vertical snow that held the leader but not the seconds. Luckily I took off my backpack before the steepest section as there definitely was a weight limit. We were climbing in the middle of the coldest hours of night at 5500 metres but water was still running down the granite slabs as if we were in direct sunlight. After one more tricky pitch tackled by Nelson we encountered an aid pitch which gave us time to think. Small pieces of debris were already raining down the face and it wasn't that late in the morning yet. Quite easily, without a long conversation, we decided to rappel down. It just didn't feel right. On the mountains it's better to listen to your instinct.
The same evening we walked back to Base Camp while wet snow avalanches rushed down the 2km high north face. At this point we didn't yet know that the following days would turn out to be even warmer. Reports from K2 told about +10°C readings above 7000 metres. The whole mountain range was melting like an ice cream.
Escaping the area increased the heat even further. The Karakoram highway had been eroded by the rain, flights were not flying between Islamabad and Skardu due to bad weather, the Covid Delta variant was spreading like wildfire and our international flights were cancelled once again. On a charter flight to Paris I had time to think. I would be on my way to Nothern Norway soon. Friction slabs and rainy days on the Lofoten islands would be nurturing for the body and mind after all the suffering in Pakistan. Still I felt drawn back to K13. We made the right decision but now we know the place, how things work in that corner of the world, and what the next attempt would require in order to be successful. I was in a space between paradises.
Financial support for this expedition was provided by the AAC(UK) Expedition Fund.
Juho and Elvind camping at 5700m
Photo Nelson Neirinck
Juho approaching K13
Photo Elvind Hugaas
K13
Photo Juho Knuuttila
Photo Juho Knuuttila
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