Despite our precarious position, we laughed and sipped hot pea soup. An hour before, Jonny had led an impressive pitch of mixed ice on poorly protected ground to reach our tiny camel’s back of an ice perch. But, unable to see around the corners and buttresses in the dark, we stopped around 17,700 feet and prepared to shiver until morning. Sitting there, I wondered how we were lucky enough to have ended up on an unclimbed big wall in the Kashmir. I realized, however, that it wasn’t by chance.

Kashmir was disputed even before Pakistan won its independence from India, in 1947. Since then, the territory has been the flashpoint for two of three Indo-Pakistani wars. (The third came in 1999, when India fought a brief but bitter conflict with Pakistani-backed forces that had infiltrated Indian-controlled territory in the Kargil area, only a few hours west of our first basecamp.) The area was virtually cut off to Westerners until 1980, and since 1989, there has been a growing and often violent separatist movement against Indian rule in Kashmir.

En route to the Lang Lang Glacier, we’d passed through the city of Srinagar, a recent hotbed of violence in which tourists have been prime targets. In the early 1990s, the Al-Farhan, a militant organization, kidnapped a group of Westerners trekking in Pahalgam. They were never seen again. In 2000, only seven miles east of us, rebels killed three monks. Until as recently as 2003, the valley itself was closed numerous times due to rebel activity. Despite the tumultuous history, the people of Kashmir always greeted us with smiles, kind eyes, and warm tea.

Long before we left Boulder, we knew that to climb the wall in alpine style, suffering would be mandatory. Our first night proved the point, and the next morning’s skies revealed bad weather coming in fast. Fortunately, we spotted a small ledge 100-odd yards to our right. After some wild pendulums, we were there, on a small stance big enough for our tent and protected somewhat from the now-constant rock and icefall. Between snow squalls, we stared up at the corners and cracks that seemed to lead to the summit, many pitches away.