In the Northwest Face

In the pictures, it almost seems like they were climbing on the legendary granite walls of El Capitan – were it not for the snow and the chilled faces. In mid-October, the two Swiss Stephan Siegrist and Julian Zanker and the German Thomas Huber first climbed the central Northwest Face of the 6,150-meter-high Cerro Kishtwar in the Indian part of the crisis region Kashmir. The three top climbers needed two attempts before reaching the summit on 14 October. It was only the fourth ascent of the remote mountain. Overall, the trio spent ten days in the extremely steep, partially overhanging wall – three days on the first attempt, seven on their successful second one.

From start to finish difficult

“The wall outdid my expectations regarding its difficulty,” enthuses Stephan Siegrist. “There’s probably no other wall with that height and such homogenous grades anywhere else.” The 44-year-old Swiss had fallen in love with the central Northwest Face, when he had succeeded with his compatriot Denis Burdet and the Austrian David Lama the second ascent of Cerro Kishtwar on a new route to the right of the wall. In 1993, the Briton Mick Fowler and the US American Steve Susted had climbed the six-thousander for the first time. The year before, the Brits Andy Perkins and Brendan Murphy had tackled the central Northwest Face, however, after 17 days, had had to give up completely exhausted 100 meters below the summit.

Having underestimated the wall

Route through the wall

Siegrist, Zanker and Huber entered the wall on 1 October, with the goal of reaching the highest point within five days. “Looking back we can say that we underestimated the wall and our project,” reports Thomas Huber. After three days they “hadn’t even climbed a third of the wall”. The team, says the 50-year-old, then reconsidered the tactics: “It was we either radically reduce our food rations or we put everything into a new attempt. We decided to discontinue our attempt.”

Frostbite on toes

With renewed strength and motivation, the trio started their second attempt on 8 October. The weather was stable, however anything but cozy: cloudless in the morning, but snowfall in the afternoon, temperatures down to minus 20 degrees Celsius. The extreme conditions left marks: Stephan suffered from a tenosinovitis on his left hand, all three climbers got frostbite on their toes. “It hit Thomas and Julian pretty hard. That’ll accompany them for quite a while,” says Siegrist.

Unique moment at the summit

At the finish: Stephan Siegrist, Julian Zanker, Thomas Huber (from l. to r.)

When they finally reached the summit, “the emotions really got to us,” recalls Stephan. This is confirmed by Thomas Huber: “The days were always variable but like a miracle we had the best weather on summit day. We almost felt like we weren’t alone and that we were being rewarded for all what we had gone through with a unique moment. Cirrostratus clouds were passing just 500 meters above us in the jet stream and we were standing there, in the complete calm. We all knew we were only able to make it because we felt like one courageous alliance!”

“Get a grip!”

Total commitment required

Julian Zanker, who will celebrate his 27th birthday on Sunday, was by far the youngest in the team. For him, it was “a huge opportunity” to be en route with the routiniers Siegrist and Huber, says Julian. “It was six weeks filled with wonderful moments, new experiences, and a beautiful line on an amazing mountain to top it all off.” The three climbers named their new route after the title of a popular Hindu song “Har-Har Mahadev” – “in Bavaria we’d say: Get a grip!”, as Thomas Huber explains.  Cerro Kishtwar “enriched my life with a wild story,” summarizes the older of the two Huber brothers. For Stephan Siegrist, Cerro Kishtwar is now finished after two ascents on new routes. “But Kashmir in general is not yet completed for me,” the Swiss climber adds. The remote region still offers many untouched peaks and walls. Were it not for this endless smoldering conflict between India and Pakistan.

The West Face of Cerro Kishtwar (© Stefan Schlumpf)

They have been on the road for the last three weeks and are expected to have meanwhile arrived at the destination of their expedition. The Swiss climbers Stephan Siegrist and Julian Zanker and the German Thomas Huber want to tackle the still not mastered West Face of the 6155-meter-high Cerro Kishtwar. The mountain, located in the Indian part of the crisis region Kashmir, has been scaled only three times so far. In 1993, the British Mick Fowler and the American Steve Susted succeeded the first ascent via the Northwest Face. In 2011, Siegrist, his Swiss countryman Denis Burdet and the Austrian David Lama reached the summit of Cerro Kishtwar as the second rope team, after opening a new route on the edge of the West Face. The third ascent was made in 2015 by the Slovenes Marko Prezelj and Urban Novak, the American Hayden Kennedy and the Frenchman Manu Pellisier. They were awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of the Climbers”, for their first ascend of the South Face.

Always in his mind

He just could not get the West Face, “the largest still unclimbed rock face in the Kashmir Himalaya”, out of his head since 2011, Stephan Siegrist wrote to me before leaving to India. “At that time we climbed an ice route on the right side of the main wall. Again and again I looked at this amazing wall. The idea of ​​tackling this line did not let me off.” According to Stephan, the trio is also planning to free climb some rope lengths of the route. The 44-year-old has infected Thomas Huber with his enthusiasm. The older of the Huber brothers was raving to me about “one of the most beautiful, coolest unclimbed walls of the world”, with best quality of granite: “When I saw pictures of the Cerro Kishtwar West Face, I said: Actually, this is the second Cerro Torre,” the 50-year-old told me.

Instinct required

Thomas Huber (left) and Stephan Siegrist

The third in the trio is the Swiss climber and mountain guide Julian Zanker, who was already en route with Siegrist in the Indian part of Kashmir in fall 2016. Both were then temporarily detained by the Indian police because they were wrongly accused of having used a satellite telephone. The use of private satellite equipment is prohibited in India because of the fear of terrorist attacks. “Concerning weather you have to rely on your instinct again. This will be very exciting,” said Huber. “We have drawn up a strategy, and I believe it will work.” He really likes to be on the road with Stephan Siegrist, says Thomas: “Stef is an incredibly great rope partner. You always have fun with him in the base camp and on the mountain. There is always something to laugh about. But he knows exactly when it gets serious. And then he pushes it through.“

“Live as intensively as possible!”

Siegrist and Huber have something less pleasing in common. Both suffered fractures of the scull after falls. Stephan had to abandon an attempt on the eight-thousander Makalu in 2013 due to the long-term consequences of the injury he had sustainde several years ago. Since then, he has chosen his goals mainly on difficult six-thousanders. Thomas had suffered a skull fracture at the beginning of July 2016 when he had fallen 16 meters deep from a rock wall in the Berchtesgaden region. He had received an emergency surgery. Only a month later, he had set off for an expedition to a seven-thousander in Pakistan. “I just accepted this incredible fortune. I do not question that. And this is the reason that I’m well,“ Thomas told me recently. “I’m no longer afraid of my death. The more important thing is: Live now, as well, as intensively and as beautifully as possible!”