[A brief account was received just in time to be squeezed in at the very last moment. The photographs are complementary to those in Dr. A. Diemberger's analysis of the problem of the summits of Istor-o-Nal which is printed immediately after this article—Ed.]
Members: Jose-Manuel Anglada (leader), Juan Cerda, Emilio Civis, Jorge Pons and Gines Roca.
Food and equipment (two tons) shipped from Barcelona in April on m.v. Asia to Karachi. Members flew direct to Rawalpindi at the end of June 1969. In Rawalpindi we obtained the official permit from the Pakistan Government and our group was joined by Liaison Officer Captain Amir Hashmat.
APPROACH
Rawalpindi-Peshawar-Dir (lorry, 1 1/2 days).
Dir-Lowari Pass-Chitral (5 jeeps, 1 day).
Chitral-Berenis-Kuragh-Drasan (37 mules, 4 days).
Drasan-Zani Pass, 3,880 m.-Shagrom (82 coolies, 1 day).
Shagrom-Cerniagh-Nalagut-Babu Kapoun (82 coolies, 3 days).
The Base Camp was placed on 19 July in Babu Kapoun (4,700 m.) which is a flat piece of land on a morraine where the Tirich Mir and the Noshaq glaciers meet. A wonderful place with plenty of sun, grass and even flowers!
We had four high-altitude porters who were from the village of Shagrom and to whom we gave full equipment: Hayat-ud-Din, Durda-nah-Khan, Aziz-ul-ullah-Shah and Muhammad Parvez.
FIRST PART: ANO GOL
On 23 July we placed a high camp at 5,300 metres in the Ano Gol circle and from there climbed:
26 July Apollo XI Zom 6,010 m.
28 July Ghul-Lasht-Zom III 6,361 m.
Later on, we placed a second camp higher up at 5,850 metres and from there climbed:
31 July Cataluna Zom 6,060 m.
31 July Asp-e-Safed 6,450 m.
SECOND PART : ISTOR-O-NAL
The main aim of our expedition was the Istor-o-Nal. All the three main summits—South (7,303 m.), South-East (7,365 m.) and Main (7,389 m.)—were still virgin although six expeditions had previously tried. The six expeditions were as follows:
1929 | A British expedition led by Capt. Culverwell and with Burns and Coldstream. |
1935 | A British expedition with D. Hunt and R. J. Lawder and three Hunza porters that had already been with the German Nanga Parbat expeditions of 1933 and 1934. |
1955 | The North American Expedition of Princeton with E. Murphy and Th. A. Mutch. They thought they had climbed the summit but as they never left the ridge of Istor-o-Nal North and clouds did not let them see that they had to go down to the col at 7,100 metres and then go up again, they just remained at about 7,200 metres just a little after the ' Rock Pinnacle . |
1968 | Japanese Women Expedition. They reached the ‘Rock Pinnacle’ |
1969 June: | A Czechoslovakian expedition from Bratislava. They only reached the ‘Rock Pinnacle’. |
1969 July: | A Japanese expedition from Kansei Gakuin Univ. had a fatal accident of one of the members between Camps IV and V, and after that they abandoned the attempt. |
To climb the Istor-o-Nal we established five high-altitude camps as follows (our four high-altitude porters only reached Camp III and then climbed down): Camp II 5,460 m. 4 August
Camp III 6,280 m. | 6 August |
Camp IV 6,610 m. | 9 August |
Camp V 7,050 m. | 10 August |
Camp VI 7,100 m. | 11 August ‘Rock Pinnacle' (7,200 m.) |
12 August Istor-o-Nal South (7,303 m.) | |
12 August Istor-o-Nal South-East (7,365 m.) | |
12 August Istor-o-Nal (Main) (7,403 m.) |
Apollo xi Zom (6,010 m.) ahd Ghul-Lasht-Zom III (6,361 m.) as seen from Asp- e- Safed (south)
Tirich Mir as seen from Asp-e- Safed (south)
Climbing the snow ridge of Istor-o-Nal
On the summit of Istor-o-Nal (7,403 m.)- 12 August 1969
Istor-o-Nal __ showing route and camps
(Photo: Kurt Diemberger) ISTOR-ONAL FROM THE UPPER TIRICH GLACIER. THE SW, RIDGE GRAND—COULOIR—MAIN PEAK-—SOUTH PEAK
The peaks were climbed by the following teams:
Apollo XI Zom | Civis-Roca-Pons-Anglada |
Ghul-Lasht-Zom | Civis-Roca-Pons-Anglada |
Cataluna Zom | Civis-Cerda-Roca-Pons-Anglada |
‘Rock Pinnacle' | Cerda-Pons-Civis-Anglada |
Istor-o-Nal South | Cerda-Pons-Civis-Anglada |
Istor-o-Nal South-East | Cerda-Pons-Civis-Anglada |
Istor-o~Nal (Main) | Cerda-Pons-Civis-Anglada |