Hainabrakk
East Tower (New Route)
Karakorum, Pakistan, 2008
Skardu; July 20th, 2008 (email corruspondence)
We are in Skardu today, which is the last town on our way to Trango base camp.
Tomorrow we drive to Askoli, then hike several days to base camp. Josh and I are both getting antsy to climb...or at least walk, all the traveling is taking it's toll. Our flight to Skardu was canceled due to weather (common) so we drove the Karakoram Highway instead. This was a 24 hour suffer fest with occasional views of mountains and many good views of dizzying drops into class 6 monster rapids. The valleys are so deep that most of the time you can't see the peaks, I guess they are up there some where. The road was...well, rough. But we can approach the mountain knowing that we have survived the most harrowing part of our trip.The climbing portion was sort of up and down with some success and several failures. After four days of hiking, we (us, our guide and eight porters) arrived at Trango base camp. Massive walls everywhere, small lake at camp, it's pretty awesome, although thirty days later I think we would say base camp was just an attractive prison. The weather is perfect so we get down to business trying to acclimatize and scoping our line on Hainabrakk.
After four days we decide to go for a reccy mission on our new route. A three AM departure and three hundred meters of approach climbing deposits us at the base of the main face. The initial section was a bit of an unknown when we where scoping the route. At the base we find an appealing shallow corner with a thin finger crack. Josh aids and cleans the beginning and frees the upper portion. The next pitch is a beautiful ten plus fingers open book. Now the face is more moderate, by mid afternoon we reach a large ledge system eight pitches up the main face. We rap from here. We return to camp excited by the quality of the climbing, having stashed the gear at the base.
After a rest day we return to the face, this time burdened overnight gear. Josh frees the initial pitch, the gear is too difficult to place from the free stances and he ends up run-out above a ledge then makes a tricky step across to the safety of a hand crack. At 11c R this turns out to be the free-climbing crux. Pitches roll by, our strategy is to stay flexible, we climb long pitches, often simlu climbing a bit to allow the leader to find a good belay stance, some times the second climbs with the bag, usually he jugs. As the wall steepens we change tactics and haul the bag to allow the second to jug faster. At the ledge system we fill our water bladders and climb a half dozen more pitches to a nice bivi ledge. After a fitful nights rest we begin again. I get the first block, which is some of the best climbing on the route. An intimidating roof climbs at 10+ off width.
Now the wall is vertical, a chimney has a hidden layback crack, allowing quick progress. Beautiful hand cracks race up golden corners. I break a horn and take a surprising fall. I reach a prominent ledge below a steep golden headwall and pass the reigns to Josh. The splitter vertical cracks on the head wall turn out to be flaky, wide is spots, dirty and overhanging. Josh jams hard enough to split a flake of the side of the crack and takes a small fall. Free climbing is abandoned. Josh stretches out the rope and manages get past the headwall in three pitches by aiding, free climbing and penduluming between cracks. The wall is becoming less steep, but the summit is still several pitches away. We are exhausted, the sun, wind and altitude have drained us and we haven't had water all day. Time to refuel. We rap to a snowy ledge and have a brew. After a short rest we are back at it. After the unpleasant headwall pitches I offer Josh a nice finger crack, I am content to jug. Next he encounters a pitch of difficult aid seams linked with tenuous slab moves, Josh preservers. Three more moderate pitches lead to the summit. Done deal, we celebrate, take pictures and prepare our summit bivi.
Next day we rap, and stumble to camp. Hussain, our cook makes us a cake. We have been in Trango Valley for one week and we have already sent our new route. The weather is still perfect; hot and sunny. Our minds swim with possibilities, maybe we will go back and free our route, let's climb Cats Ear Spire, Trango Tower, anything seems possible. Then reality sets in.
It rains the day we want to try Trango. Instead we establish a single pitch route at base camp (in the rain) but Josh hurts his shoulder. We are forced to wait through a week of excellent weather while the shoulder heals. Now we are ready again but the weather is fickle, raining a bit each day. For a week we watch the snow line crawl down the mountains. The nights are colder and the high snow does not melt in the day. We ferry loads to Trango ABC but abandon this objective after several days. We attempt a new route on Cats Ear Spire. This time everything seems perfect, most of all we believe; the wide cracks will have pro, the cracks will connect, of course there will be water there. The route is direct and beautiful, right up the prow. We fix the first three pitches and sleep at the base. In the morning the weather is perfect, but I feel funny. At the base of the fixed lines I puke my guts out and follow this up with a fifteen minute ass-explosion for good measure. We admit defeat and return to base camp.
Our motivation is lagging, we call for the porters, they will be here in a week, we have one last chance. We spend a night at Trango ABC. Next day is cold, but we are determined. We are attempting Eternal Flame, the first pitches are awesome, very clean, many finger cracks, this is the best climbing yet. It is a popular route and there is often fixed gear. It feels casual and fun after a month of attempting new routes. I suffer up an ice chocked chimney, finding cold but secure finger cracks on the sidewalls. The weather is deteriorating. I get stuck on a
slab as it starts to snow. Tension traverses and scary climbing gets me to the lager shoulder. This is camp one but it is snowing horizontally. Already three inches have accumulated; I am frozen standing in the snow in my rock shoes. We hide under the tarp and have a brew. The weather does not improve, and we decide to bail. As we hike down the weather breaks, it is sunny and we are filled with thoughts of self-doubt. It has been twenty five frustrating days since we summited Hainabrakk. But we are mentally done, tired of climbing, tired of trying to climb, tired of the grueling approaches, tired of base camp. We want to be at home with the girls. But nothing happens quickly, we must wait for the porters, we are resigned to what we have achieved. It rains all night, in the morning Trango is snowy and we feel vindicated, but mostly we don't care anymore. We are worn down and jaded.
At our hotel in Islamabad we meet an American couple on a year long traveling odyssey. They are casual climbers and are interested in our route. Showing them the pictures and our topo, sharing the climb with fellow climbers, I am filled with belated excitement for our adventure. It was awesome, we sent (something), the route was quality and challenging. I am filled with satisfaction and contentment, the feelings that where missing in our final bedraggled days in base camp. I am happy. Now if we can just get out of Islamabad while the feeling still lasts.
Skardu, August 26th, 2008 (email corruspondence)
We are back in Skardu and flying to Islamabad tomorrow (weather permitting). The trip was a success in that we climbed our main objective (a new route on Hainabrakk). Due to weather, minor injuries, sickness and finally mental and physical exhaustion we failed on our other objectives, but had fun trying. With the political situation deteriorating in Islamabad we are keen to get home as quickly as possible.
I along with Josh Lavigne were the recipients of the John Lauchlan Award in 2008. The trip was a success in that we climbed our main objective (a new route on Hainabrakk). We saw some cool stuff, sent a rad new route, failed to send anything else, suffered a fair bit, and had lots of good times.
Simon Meis; Canmore
