Simon Messner, Martin Sieberer climb virgin Yernamandu Kangri in Karakorum

On Saturday 15 July 2023 Simon Messner from the South Tyrol, Italy, and Martin Sieberer from Austria completed the first ascent of Yernamandu Kangri, a 7180m peak close to Masherbrum in Pakistan's Karakorum. The pair travelled to what is hailed as one of the highest unclimbed peaks in the world towards the end of June and established base camp at 4300 with sights set on the mountain's West Face.

On 13 July the pair set off and, climbing without a rope to save weight, ascend to 5400m where they established their first bivy. The next day they continued their ascent to 6250m where they stopped and bivied for a second time. After an extremely short rest they set off at 04:15 and pushed upwards to the summit, which they reached at 11:15am. After the ritual photos they descended to their second bivy, and returned safely to Base Camp on the 16th.

Writing biefly to planetmountain.com after the ascent, Messner explained "Yernamandu caught our attention as a great mountain to climb about a year ago, because it can be reached easily from Hushe and becasue I know Rozi Ali well, an experienced cook and porter. It turned out to be a great choice. The actual ascent was an eye-opener for us because although we'd only acclimatised to about 5400m, we realised we could still gain altitude quickly. Having said that, the ascent was very tough becuase almost the entire climb was done by wading through deep or unconsoldated snow. It's certainly an experience we'll both remember. Also because in doing so we fulfilled a big dream: I'd always dreamt of standing at 7,000m!"

32-year-old Messner and 35-year-old Sieberer are known for exploring uncharterted terrain. While most of their new routes are carried out in the Alps, in July 2019 they made the first ascent of Black Tooth (6718m) in the Karakorum's Muztagh Tower massif. Their attempt of the Praqpa Ri (7134m) in 2021 failed due to dangerous conditions.

Links: FB Simon Messner, www.simon-messner.com, Salewa, SCARPA