In 1996 we made our first attempt on Masherbrum (7821). We have put up our base camp on the last green pocket between two branches of Hushe glacier. From here in order to get to the side glacier that marks the beginning of the route one has to traverse diagonally the main glacier which usually takes about two hours. We followed the standard route that goes up the side glacier along its left side, then curves left crossing the snow bowl above the third ice fall and traverses the snow slopes of Dome in order to get to the higher snow and ice plateau at 6000-6500. This traverse turned out to be prone to avalanches, especially after the snow falls. We have established five camps on the
mountain and reached 7100 in the middle of the snow slope leading to the summit ridge. There, in a big crevasse, we put up our last camp V.
Here we waited for a few days for the weather but it did not clear. Instead
one of us got dangerously ill (HAPE) and the rest of us had to wrap him up in a tent and drag down to camp III at 6000 where he
recovered. Below are three chosen photos from this expedition.
More photos can be found here.
