Bouldering, Big-Walling, and International Conflict in Indian Kashmir

“Hey, Jonny, look over yonder,” I said, pointing at distant figures across the Lang Lang Meadow, our little slice of heaven in Indian Kashmir. We — Jonny Copp and I — came here in July 2007 to try a 3,500-foot unclimbed granite wall on an unclimbed peak. Our basecamp, nestled in this grassy meadow, had freshwater springs on two sides and amazing granite bouldering. For a week, we’d lounged in the sun like fat marmots, eating well, “acclimatizing” (camp lay at 13,000 feet), and reading Cormac McCarthy westerns . . . which left us talking like cowboys.
“No way — you reckon that’s another climber?” he asked.
“It cain’t be,” I responded, opting to take the optimistic approach for once. “Probably just trekkers. Looks like they got a few ponies with ‘em.”

Jonny, my friend and climbing partner from Boulder, Colorado, who has adventure coursing through his veins, had launched us on this trip. We’d begun planning in January 2007, after he’d noticed a photo of a giant, smooth wall — what we would later name Shafat Fortress — in an advertisement for the American Alpine Club’s grant programs. The title of the ad was “Unnamed and Unclimbed”.

I was psyched to be Jonny’s partner and had always considered his and Mike Pennings’ 2000 sendfest of the Trango Valley to be one of the most amazing alpine-rock-climbing accomplishments of all time. In three weeks and climbing alpine style, they made the first ascent of East Cat’s Ears Spire, via the most proud and direct line on the wall (Freebird; VI 5.11d A1). They also made the second ascent of Hainabrakk East, with Tague It to the Top (VI 5.11 A1), as well as the first alpine-style ascent of Shipton Spire, via the second ascent of Inshallah (VII 5.12 A1), up one of the biggest rock faces in the world. When we arrived at Lang Lang Meadow, we were relieved to have escaped the chaos of the Indian cities of Kargil and Srinagar, both only a few miles from the “Line of Control” with Pakistan. Kashmir, a mythical region, has been at the heart of the Indo-Pakistan conflict for six decades, a fact of life that has kept visitors away . . . though it had done little to deter our new arrivals at basecamp (or, as we’d learn, some friends of theirs who’d attempted the wall the year before).