Peaks in remote destinations in Pakistan are the object of desire for climbers who love exploration and commitment. Far from the eight-thousanders most in demand by the buoyant high-mountain tourism, the Catalans Miquel Mas and Marc Subirana signed this August the first ascent of Latok Thumb, at 6,380 meters, together with Latok II, through a hazardous wall of 1,100 meters in the middle of nowhere. “We like to return to the essence of mountaineering. We looked for a virgin peak, technically difficult, about which we had no information and from there we traced our path alone. It's like the Captain's Wall in Yosemite, 1,000 meters, but at a higher altitude”, explained Marc Subirana yesterday, a day after returning home from Pakistan. A few weeks earlier, the Catalan expedition made up of Marc Toralles, Bru Busom, Oriol Baró and Guillem Sancho also culminated another brilliant adventure in the Asian country, the alpine-style repetition of the route to the northwest secondary summit of Saraghrar, at 7,200 meters, which in 1982 was opened by Enric Lucas, Nil Bohigas and Juan López.
“Miquel proposed the Latok project to me years ago, but I told him that it was too big for us, that we had to do other things first, and in 2021 we went to the Torres del Trango to climb the Nameless Tower by its most famous route, the Eternal Flame”, relates Subirana. The following summer they were already planted in the Latok area (Karakorum), where four main peaks emerge, between 6,456 and 7,145 meters. Their objective was a virgin peak next to Latok II (7,108 m.), which they have baptized as Latok Thumb, and which, according to the information they have, is the last one that remained to be crowned in this enclave. "At least on the southern slope, which is where we have climbed, we are not aware of any other mountain that has not been climbed," says Subirana.
“The most notable are those 1,100 meters of very maintained technical difficulty and the fact that only two people go, the effort is greater, but the two of us understand each other very well”, he highlights. The pair tackled the first attempt in the summer of 2022 when they managed to climb up to pitch number 14, but bad weather arrived, there was a very collapsed section to go and after twelve days on the wall they decided to postpone their plans until this year. They left all the heavy material in Camp I, at 5,650 meters, and last July they returned to this remote spot with the aim of completing the route started twelve months ago.
The two climbers flew to Skardu and from there they drove to Askole, the village where they hired six porters with eight pack mules to carry food and fuel for 40 days of provisions. They all undertook a march that lasted three days to the point where they set up their base camp, at 4,470 meters. "We were alone, the two of us, with a cook and his assistant," he details.
After the acclimatization period it was time to resume the route. On this occasion they had more numbers to be able to finish it due to the experience of the previous year. They knew that after nine in the morning they had to avoid the access corridor to the wall, "400 meters long and with a maximum inclination of 70 degrees of snow and ice," due to the risk of being hit by stones and avalanches. So they evolved through this section between five and nine, at which time they could enter the most vertical part of the route without any surprises. The climbing day lasted until four in the afternoon, when the sun went down and the temperature dropped sharply, which limited progress towards the summit.
Subirana and Mas set up camp II at 6,030 meters to tackle the last segment during three intense days of mixed, rock and ice climbing. The route, named Atracció Instintiva (1,100 m., 7th expo, A2, M5), was finished drawing at 6:30 p.m. on August 18, when they reached the top. "Miquel is very happy with what he has achieved and I don't know if it is worth taking so much risk and danger, the satisfaction is having arrived home safe and sound, I doubt if it is worth risking so much," Subirana, a discharge guide, reflected yesterday. 40 year old mountain But Miquel Mas, a 36-year-old GRAE firefighter, already has future projects in mind at another virgin, higher-altitude summit, also in seductive Karakorum. And Subirana says that he will join the adventure, but that next summer he wants a slightly quieter goal.
