Two alpine highlights at the start of the summer climbing season in the Karakoram in Pakistan: US-American Ethan Berman, Australian-Argentine climber Sebastian Pelletti and Dutch-born Maarten van Haeren opened a new route on the 7,388-meter-high Ultar Sar. The Frenchman Mathieu Maynadier and the Pakistani Mueez Ud din managed a first ascent on the 7,027-meter-high Spantik. Both teams were climbing in alpine style, i.e. they did without fixed ropes, fixed high camps, high altitude porters and bottled oxygen.
Success at the second attempt
Berman, Pelletti and van Haeren mastered the 3,000-meter-high Southeast Pillar of Ultar Sar for the first time. At least that’s what their local partner agency Pakistan Higher Ground Expeditions reports. The trio reached the summit on Wednesday last week (11 June), it said. Further details are not yet known.
The three climbers had unsuccessfully attempted the route in the summer of 2024. At around 6,000 meters, they had turned back due to difficult snow conditions on a hanging glacier.
Ultar Sar is part of the Batura-Muztagh massif in the northwest of the Karakoram. The mountain was first climbed in 1996 by the Japanese Akito Yamazaki and Kiyoshi Matsuoka – also in alpine style via the southwest flank of the mountain. Yamazaki died on the descent as a result of high altitude sickness.
First ascent via the East Ridge of Spantik
“After weeks in the Karakoram, we returned with more than just frostbite and memories,” writes Pakistani mountain guide Muuez Ud din, who climbed with Frenchman Mathieu Maynadier, on Instagram. “We opened a new route on the East Ridge of Spantik.” The details are still missing here too.
Maynadier achieved the first ascent of the Southeast Face of the 6,600-meter-high Meru Peak in the Garhwal Himalayas in India in 2023 with Swiss climber Roger Schäli and South Tyrolean Simon Gietl. They were nominated for the Piolet d’Or, the “Mountaineering Oscar”, in 2024.
The Spantik in the west of the Karakoram was first summited by a German expedition in 1955 – via the Southeast Ridge. This is also the route taken by commercial expedition operators who offer the mountain as an “easy seven-thousander”. Mind you, on this route.
In 1987, the two Britons Mick Fowler and Victor Saunders caused a sensation when they mastered the 2,200-metre-high “Golden Pillar”, the Northwest Pillar of Spantik for the first time.
