2007 Mugs Stump Award Trip Report CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE MUGS STUMP AWARD

Bean Bowers and I arrived on the Choktoi Glacier on July 1st, hopeful that we might be the team lucky enough to finally crack Latok 1’s infamous North Ridge. Basecamp on the Choktoi Glacier was stunning, with unbelievable views of the North Ridge and North Face of Latok 1, as well as the burly unclimbed North Face of Peak 6960. This peak, which has only been climbed once by a Korean team via the right-hand skyline in the below photo, is certainly one of the valley’s gems and along with Latok 1’s North Face, has one of the baddest alpine walls I’ve seen anywhere in the world. 

Despite poor weather and a disheartening forecast, after a few acclimatization trips around Basecamp, Bean and I headed up onto the North Ridge on July 12^th to put in a cache and check out the bottom section of the climb. Skirting the rock buttress climbed by many parties in the past to the west, we managed to climb 3,500’ to around 18,500’ in seven hours. The climbing was mostly moderate and low-angle; and despite the fact that there was obviously more difficult climbing to come, we both felt encouraged that given the right combination of conditions and weather we had a good chance of success. Unfortunately luck was not on our side. In our 42 days at Basecamp we only experienced two truly good days, and the pressure never went more then a few points in either direction. Despite frequent desperate calls to our weather forecaster in Montana the news was always grim.