SAMAYA x SYMON WELFRINGER
FIRST ASCENT ON THE SOUTH FACE OF BAINTHA KABATA
In June 2023, Symon Welfringer, Matteo Della Bordella, and Silvan Schupbach embarked on a project to open a new route on The Ogre, in Pakistan, which they had spent months preparing. As weather conditions made the operation too dangerous, the three mountaineers adapted and turned their attention to the unexplored south face of Baintha Kabata.
It’s a place where there have been expeditions before, but no one had been there for 15 or 20 years. We left for Pakistan at the end of June to reach the Toy Glacier. We spent four or five days with mules and porters to bring all our gear for the 40 days at base camp. We had planned to stay for quite a while because there was a first phase of acclimatization and scouting the area, so we could then make several attempts at our project.
It was a fairly wild place, we were surrounded by some pretty crazy mountains, with impressive 7,000-meter peaks almost all around us.
For acclimatization, we took our skis, went up the glacier, and spent several nights on summits up to 6,000 meters, from where we could ski back down. We took advantage of being at the foot of the south-east face of The Ogre to drop off some gear, with the idea of returning the following week to make a first attempt.
After this phase, there was quite a bit of bad weather. We had to wait a good week at base camp. It wasn't that terrible, because we had access to some boulders and routes. We had brought bolts, so we were able to equip some sections of the wall and even open a 400-meter multi-pitch route with François Cazanelli.
We finally had a first weather window opening up. We set off into the face and on the second day of climbing, the weather turned terrible during the night. It was definitely not planned. The good weather window was supposed to last at least 5 days, and we ended up with 30 centimeters of snow overnight.
We tried to wait it out, but we realized it was becoming much too dangerous. If we continued, we wouldn't have the option of turning back later. We retreated, leaving all our gear behind, keeping the idea of returning in mind.
For the next two weeks, we found ourselves in a kind of monsoon that was stuck over Pakistan, bringing massive amounts of snow.
We still made a second attempt during a short break in the weather, knowing it was a bit shaky. At the end of the first day, we had to turn back. We went back up to retrieve our equipment, but it wasn't working.
From The Ogre, we could see Baintha Kabata at 6,290 meters. Much lower than the one we were on, but with a wall that seemed incredibly interesting to climb. With Silvan and Matteo, we wanted to take a shot at a route on its south face.
A two-and-a-half-day window appeared, and we went for it. We covered 16 kilometers on skis to reach the bottom of the glacier, at the foot of the face. We spent the first night at the foot of the face, then bivouacked at around 6,000 meters, two-thirds of the way up the face, before tackling the steepest part. Afterward, we rappelled down 25 times to the bottom. We managed to open the route in two days. It’s 1,000 meters long, with some really cool pitches, highly technical climbing, either in climbing shoes or mixed terrain.
We named the route “The Alien Wall,” because one evening during bad weather at base camp, we saw these kinds of headlamps, lights in the distance when there were no other mountaineers in that area and it was impossible to climb. We told ourselves they must be aliens.
