Gasherbrum IV (Northwest Ridge on the left)

Great success for Luka Lindic and Ales Cesen in the Karakoram: According to the website “Altitude Pakistan”, the two Slovenian climbers reached on Tuesday the North Summit of Gasherbrum IV, which is about 20 meters lower than the 7932-meter-high Main Summit. It took Luka and Ales three days to ascend via the Northwest Ridge. It was only the fourth ascent of the route, which had been opened by the Australians Greg Child and Tim Macartney-Snape and the American Tom Hargis in 1986. “Altitude Pakistan” reports that heavy snowfall made the descent of the two Slovenians even harder. They arrived at Base Camp yesterday. “happy, exhausted and emaciated”.

Extremely challenging

Initially, 28-year-old Lindic and 34-year-old Cesen had wanted to climb through the G IV-West Face (also called “Shining Wall”), but gave up their plan due to the difficult conditions in the wall. The almost-eight-thousander Gasherbrum IV, the sixth highest mountain in Pakistan, is considered technically extremely demanding. In 1958, the Italian climbers Walter Bonatti and Carlo Mauri had made the first ascent via the Northeast Ridge.

For acclimatization on an eight-thousander

Lindic (r.), Cesen and Prezelj (l.) in Courmayeur in 2015

For acclimatization (!) for G IV, Lindic and Cesen had scaled the 8051-meter-high Broad Peak on 29 June. It had been the first summit success on an eight-thousander in the Karakoram this season. Both belong to the young generation of very strong Slovenian climbers. In 2015, they were awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of mountaineering”, along with their compatriot Marko Prezelj for their first ascent of the North Face of the 6,657-meter-high Hagshu in northern India.