Camp I, Gasherbrum IV (7925m), Karakoram, Pakistan. Initial reports suggest that five Spaniards made the fifth ascent of G4 via the northwest ridge, summiting on August 1, 2008. [Photo] Ferran Latorre / www.ferranlatorre.com
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On August 1, 2008, Spanish climbers Alberto Inurrategi, Ferran Latorre, Jose Carlos Tamayo, Juan Vallejo and Miguel Zabaleza made the fifth ascent of Gasherbrum IV (7925m), Karakoram, Pakistan, just days away from the 50th anniversary of its first ascent. The Spanish team climbed the northwest ridge (Child and Macartney-Snape, 1986), besting its “technical difficulty, and the enormous amount of snow,” Latorre wrote on his website. The descent, he added, was difficult and bittersweet; Latorre was injured by a falling rock and later evacuated from base camp.
Please visit www.ferranlatorre.com, www.intotherocks.net and www.k2climb.net for more on this story.