Muztagh Tower
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| Muztagh Tower | |
|---|---|
 Muztagh Tower in 2004 |
|
| Elevation | 7,273 metres (23,862 ft) |
| Location | Pakistan |
| Range | Karakoram |
| Prominence | 1,710 m (5,610 ft)[1] |
| Coordinates | 35°49′42″N 76°21′39″E / 35.82833°N 76.36083°E |
| First ascent | 6 July 1956 by a British team |
| Easiest route | glacier/snow/ice climb |
| Listing | Ultra |
Muztagh Tower (also: Mustagh Tower; Muztagh: ice tower), is a mountain in the Baltoro Muztagh, part of the Karakoram range in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. It stands between the basins of the Baltoro and Sarpo Laggo glaciers.
The Mustagh Tower was made famous by a spectacular but somewhat misleading photograph taken by Vittorio Sella during the 1909 Italian expedition to K2. Taken from the upper Baltoro, due southeast of the mountain, the twin summits were perfectly aligned and the mountain was seen as a slender tooth, and looked impregnable. Nearly fifty years later, in 1956, this photograph inspired two expeditions to race for the first ascent. In reality both teams found their routes less steep than Sella's view had suggested.[2] The British expedition, consisting of John Hartog, Joe Brown, Tom Patey and Ian McNaught-Davis, came from the Chagaran Glacier on the west side of the peak and reached the summit first on July 6, five days before the French team (Guido Magnone, Robert Paragot, André Contamine, Paul Keller) climbed the mountain from the east. The doctor François Florence waited for the two parties at the camp IV during 42 hours without any radio, when they went, reached the summit and came back to this camp.[3] A lower summit, 7,180 m (23,560 ft) was first climbed in 1984 by the northeast ridge.[citation needed].
On 24 August 2008, the North-East wall was climbed by two Slovenian alpinists, Pavle Kozjek and Dejan Miškovič. They bivouaced on the crest after 17 hours of climbing. They decided not to go to the summit because of strong wind. Just after they started descending, Kozjek fell to his death.[4]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Prominent Karkoram peaks on peaklist.org; Peakbagger reports 1,707 metres.
- ^ Curran, Jim (1995). K2: The Story of the Savage Mountain. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 66. ISBN 978-0340660072.
- ^ Jill Neate, High Asia: an illustrated history of the 7,000 metre peaks, The Mountaineers, 1989, ISBN 0-89886-278-3, pp. 117-118.
- ^ "Interview with Dejan Miškovič (slovene language)". Sport1. 2008-09-12. http://www.sport1.si/gallery/item/1429/. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
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