Pakistan to Open K-6 mountain for Climbing
Pakistan Times Sports Desk

ISLAMABAD: K-6 mountain will be opened to climbing expeditions this year and other mountains will also be allowed for climbing soon.

Pakistan is celebrating 2007 as “Visit Pakistan Year” and Minister of Tourism Nilofar Bakhtiar has decided to provide all possible facilities to foreigners, private TV reported.

This is great news for a number of teams who have already applied for a climbing permit on K6 - a 7,282-meter peak located in Charakusa Valley.

Among the climbers aiming for the peak is 2005 Piolet d’Or winner Steve House, who had applied for a permit to climb K6 last year with four other climbers.

This year House applied again, and now it looks that he will get to lead the US-Slovenian K6 expedition to the peak (no route confirmed yet), together with two other partners.

Judging from the expedition name, one of the team members could possibly be Slovenian Marko Prezelj, who was awarded the Golden Ice Axe this year.

Canadian Maxime Turgeon is definitely going for K6’s north face.

Together with another partner (apparently Yan Mongrain) Maxime has obtained a Mugs Stump grant for the climb.

Charakusa Valley is located in the Hushe region of Karakorum, Pakistan. The Charakusa is the next major valley east of, and parallel to, the famous Baltoro glacier valley.

K-6 was first summited in 1970, by an Austrian party, via the Southeast Ridge from Nangmah Glacier.●