It’s climbs like this that keep the belief in true alpinism alive. At the beginning of August, 33-year-old Briton Tom Livingstone and 42-year-old Slovenian Ales Cesen mastered the West Ridge on the 7,952-meter-high Gasherbrum III in the Karakoram in Pakistan for the first time. They climbed in alpine style to the summit, i.e. without bottled oxygen, without fixed ropes, without fixed high camps, without high porters.
On the descent, they traversed to the eight-thousander Gasherbrum II and used the fixed ropes on the normal route of the commercial teams – “which changed our style a little, but made sense,” Livingstone wrote on Instagram. It was the much safer option for the return to base camp.
Failed two years ago
In 2022, Livingstone and Cesen had already attempted Gasherbrum III once before, but “were unfortunately dead-ended, and bailed due to the cold, weather, fatigue and lack of reasonable options,” as Livingstone reported at the time. Due to strong winds, they had had to abandon their plan to ascend via the West Ridge. This route had only been attempted once before: in 1985, Scotsmen Desmond Rubens and Geoffrey Cohen made it to around 7,700 meters, but then turned back because the weather was bad and they were running out of time.
Bivouac in a sitting position at 7800 meters
This time, everything fell into place for Livingstone and Cesen. “When we launched for G3’s West Ridge, (…) we pushed on a door to what we wondered was possible,” reports Tom. “Shedding expectations, worries and ideas, we simply moved upwards with an inquisitive mind and a silent, crashing body. Sick in the head and stomach, we slowed. Alpinism is such a beautiful trap of what you want and what you need.”
On 4 August, the climbing duo reached the summit of Gasherbrum III, “just a whisker under 8000m, via the first ascent of the West Ridge,” says Livingstone. “I quite like that this peak is just under 8K, just out of the spotlight, just around the corner from (the 7,932-meter-high) Gasherbrum IV. The route was one of the more difficult that I’ve ever climbed, a culmination of a decade, and even our 3rd bivy, sitting and without a tent at 7,800m, will be memorable.” On the seventh day after their departure, Livingstone and Cesen returned to base camp.
Polish expedition made the first ascent in 1975
Gasherbrum III is not considered an independent mountain because of its low prominence to the neighboring higher Gasherbrum II, moreover, it is technically demanding. So the number of attempts so far to reach the summit can be counted on one hand.
In 1975, Gasherbrum III was first climbed by a team of Polish climbers via the East Face, including the legendary Wanda Rutkiewicz (she died in 1992 on Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain on earth, located in Nepal). In 2004, the Basques Alberto Iñurrategui and Jon Beloki repeated the route. Then came the aforementioned Scots in 1985 – and now Livingstone and Cesen twice.
The two had already caused a sensation in the Karakoram in 2018 when, together with Slovenian Luka Strazar, they succeeded in making only the second ascent of the 7,145-meter-high, extremely difficult Latok I – the first from the north side. They were honoured with the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of mountaineers” for this climb. It was Cesen’s second Golden Ice Axe. The first one he had received – together with his Slovenian compatriots Marko Prezelj and Luka Lindic – for the first ascent of the North Face of the 6,615-meter-high Hagshu in northern India in 2014.
