New Route on Shipton Spire

A Russian team has squeezed another line on Shipton Spire’s Southeast Face in Pakistan—a 1,300-meter granite wall that, remarkably, is getting almost as crowded as El Capitan’s Southeast Face. The four Russian climbers—Evgeny Korol, Andrey Muryshev, Sergey Nilov, and Denis Savel'ev—spent 20 days working on the route, reaching the top of the 5,852-meter spire on July 30 after a difficult crossing of the snowy summit ridge. The as-yet-unnamed big-wall line (32 pitches, 6b A4) lies to the left of Women and Chalk (Bole-Cortese-Dandri, 2001) and to the right of the Baltese Falcon (Boyd-Child-Foweraker, 1996), the first route to the top of the peak. It is the 10^th route or major variation on Shipton Spire’s eastern and southern aspects. 

Date of Ascent: Summit reached July 30, 2007 

Sources: www.mountain.ru, www.climbandmore.com, American Alpine Journal  

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