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Showing posts from August, 2015

Via Lara, Hægefjell

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My girlfriend Anna had undergone a SLAP tear repair in March. For those unfamiliar, this entails the ring of cartilage lining the shoulder socket being reattached. In Anna's case two thirds of this cartilage had become detached through a multitude of injuries over the years. Amazingly she had climbed her hardest ice pitch immediately prior to the operation. Six months later her gradual recovery had reached a stage where she was ready to begin climbing again. We climbed Via Dolorosa, the easy slab climb at Vardåsen, a matter of hours after being given the green light to climb by her physio. It passed without drama and so Via Lara at Hægefjell seemed the suitable progression the coming weeekend. Another easy slab climb of no greater difficulty, only seven pitches instead of three. Saturday's forcast was expected to be dry until around 7pm, meaning rain would affect only the BBQ rather than the climbing. Hægefjell's campsite lacked mobile signal though, so Friday evening&#

Karakoram First Ascents in the Lupgar Mountains

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Summary Murilo Lessa and myself (Lee Harrison) visited the Lupgar Mountains of the Karakoram during July 2015. We climbed three sub-6000m summits in Alpine-style from the Yokshgoz Valley. P5702 and P5589 we believe are first ascents with the ascent of P5665 suspected to be a second ascent via a new route. This photo from 2006 shows the three peaks that we climbed in 2015. The view is looking East. Background The Lupgar Mountains lie in the North-West corner of the Karakoram, between the Batura Muztagh and the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan. I first visited the area in 2006. On that occasion I failed to climb a proper summit via the Lupgar Valley but at least gained enough elevation for fine views of the peaks at the head of the Yokshgoz Glacier as well as the neighbouring valley running parallel to the North-East. Nine years passed before I returned for further investigation. Our plan was to set a base camp midway along the Yokshgoz Glacier so as to make both the uppe