A Polish trio trying to put up the first ascent of Gasherbrum VI has been forced off the mountain — but with two weeks still left on their permit, they're already planning another go.
Leader Jacek Pawel Czech, alongside Aleksandra Kita and Szymon Kita, managed 650 metres of new ground on the unclimbed Southeast Face during a nonstop 20-hour push before conditions beat them back. Their account, shared through the Jerzy Kukuczka Foundation for the Support of Polish Mountaineering, paints a familiar Karakoram picture: an impressive wall ruined by loose, unstable rock.
Timing didn't help. The team arrived at the base of the wall at 1 pm, and the first pitch — which should have been straightforward — was running with meltwater. They waited things out under an overhang in a semi-hanging bivouac, then started climbing around 10 pm once temperatures dropped. It didn't fix everything. The rock stayed wet and loose, and by 5,500m, with light snow falling, all three were cold and soaked.
They kept going. Czech led most of the way, Aleksandra Kita belayed, and Szymon Kita hauled the gear. Czech topped out a pitch at 5,605m on jumars, only to find a sharp ridge piled with loose stone. "The terrain we thought would be the easiest turned out to be a skull crusher," he wrote. Above them, the face offered more steep slabs sliced with fragile, knife-edge rock. At 5 pm the next day, they turned around. Czech admitted they were simply glad to reach Base Camp alive.
Rather than quit, the trio is shifting tactics. Their new objective is a line further left — south — on the face, closer to the route Czech attempted in 2019 with a bigger team. That earlier effort also ended at roughly the same altitude, undone by the same unstable conditions. Whether the new line avoids the worst of the rockfall is the big question; on this mountain, no one has ever stood on the summit.
For armchair adventurers, the story is a window into a rare corner of high-altitude mountaineering. Gasherbrum VI sits in Pakistan's Karakoram, in the same massif as better-known neighbours Gasherbrum I and II, and at roughly 7,000m it remains one of the highest unclimbed peaks of its prominence in the region. Trips into the Gasherbrum group — usually via the Baltoro Glacier from Askole — draw trekkers as well as climbers, and watching an expedition like this unfold adds a layer of drama to any trek through the Concordia amphitheatre. The team's fortunes over the next fortnight are worth following, whether you're planning a Karakoram trek or just enjoy seeing a stubborn plan come together — or fall apart — at altitude.