I just got an email from Kelly telling his friends and family that he and Josh are well, healthy and happy sitting in Skardu, Pakistan. I am extremely glad to hear it. While I will have to wait to find out if they used the new pack or not and if it worked out okay or not, I don’t really care about it as much as I am glad to hear that they are safe and happy.
It’s Kelly and Josh’s story to tell, but I will give out a few details to whet the appetite of anybody who might be interested in what these two were after:
- Kelly calls it an ‘excellent failure’.
- They were on a mountain called Shingu Charpa, trying another super long ridge climb.
- They climbed 45 pitches.
- They didn’t summit the main peak, and from what they they say, they don’t care.
- Apparently, the climb went at around 5.11+ M5 with ‘too many ‘Rs’ to bother listing.
- Three Ukrainians climbed a good chunk of the same landscape four weeks prior to KC and JW.
That’s probably enough details for now. For me, it’s pretty damn scary sounding, even if they (almost) managed to avoid the disaster style that served them so well on Great Trango Tower. It sounds like the rock was the polar opposite of what they found on Great Trango: choss. Eek. I’ve pulled down on enough crappy limestone to develop a definite prediliction to avoid choss. They seem to have found 45 pitches of it and kept going…
I’m looking forward to watching a slideshow and reading the story.
Bravo guys, bravo!
