Alex travels to the Karakorum to ascend the Great Tower of Trango (6,239 m) by one of its most difficult routes on the northwest face.

July 24
ALEX TXIKON TRAVELS NOW TO PAKISTAN
The mountaineer from Biscay, Ekaitz Maiz and David Palmada ‘Pelut’ left Barcelona this morning
The three climbers will attempt the first repetition of the ‘Parallel World’ route at the Gran Torre del Trango
Bilbao, Thursday July 24, 2014.- Alex Txikon, Ekaitz Maiz and David Palmada ‘Pelut’ are currently flying to Pakistan, where over the next few weeks they will try to climb the Gran Torre del Trango (6,286 m.), the vertical wall highest in the world. As planned, they have departed at 11:00 am from El Prat airport on a Qatar Airways flight bound for Islamabad and with a stopover in Doha. Not before going through some trouble during check-in due to being overweight. Finally, they have managed to solve the problems and avoid paying the overweight fee. “They had authorized us to carry 40 kilos per person, that is, 160 kilos,” explained Alex Txikon without losing humor. “But when we got to billing they added… more than 200! The mats had gained weight during the night… hahahaha. And he asked us 35 euros per extra kilo! If we end up having to pay them, we end the expedition of it, hahahaha. In the end they applied the conditions they have for sports teams and we were able to pass”. Minutes before boarding, Alex recognized the desire he had to sit on the plane and rest, after a frantic last 48 hours in Barcelona to complete, order and pack the almost 300 kilos of material, 200 of which will go up with them to the Stop Northwest of the Great Tower of Trango. In the following link you can read Alex Txikon’s first post about the expedition written in his blog, entitled ‘La última noche’: http://alextxikon.com/la-ultima-noche/

August 5
ALEX TXIKON IS ALREADY AT THE FOOT OF THE GREAT TORRE DEL TRANGO (6,286 m)
Alex, Ekaitz Maiz and David Palmada ‘Pelut’ have decided to change their route. They will try the ‘Bushido’ route
“It’s more difficult technically, but after seeing the wall we think it’s safer than the ‘Parallel World'”
The three climbers have already moved 300 kilos of material from the BC to the base of the wall
Bilbao, Tuesday August 5, 2014.- Alex Txikon and his expedition companions, Ekaitz Maiz from Navarra and David Palmada ‘Pelut’ from Catalonia, are already at the Torres del Trango base camp. They actually arrived on Saturday afternoon, but they’ve been so busy that Alex didn’t have time until yesterday to take a break to recount what they’ve been up to the past few days. And they really have wasted no time. They didn’t want to waste a minute because the weather is being unusually benevolent in Karakorum “and that here is a real luxury” explains Alex. And the first thing they have done as soon as they have seen the wall is to definitively decide the route they are going to take on the Northwest face of the Gran Torre del Trango (6,286 m). There were two options: Parallel World and Bushido. And the chosen one has finally been Bushido. “Technically it’s tougher, but looking at the conditions of the wall we think it’s safer than ‘Parallel World,’” explains Alex. Deciding the route and getting to work has been all in one. In two days they have already transferred close to 300 kilos from Base Camp (4,000 m) to the base of the wall, where Ekaitz has already begun to equip the first lengths of the route. “These first days we have distributed the work because there is a lot to do. Ekaitz has already got into the wall to prepare the first pitches before we finally get into it, Pelut is in charge of the logistics and I have dedicated myself to carrying the material to the base of the wall”, says Alex. In the following link you have the chronicle written by Alex on the blog: www.alextxikon.com/blog-txikon

the bushido way
The Bushido route, on the northwest face of the Great Tower of Trango, was opened last summer by Polish climbers Marek Regan Raganowicz and Marcin ‘Yeti’ Tomaszewski. It is an extremely difficult big wall route almost two kilometers long (46 pitches (1,960 m.), A4, VII- (big wall), VII+) that the Polish roped team opened after 20 days of uninterrupted work on the wall in capsule style. The line drawn by the Poles runs through new ground on the right side of the wall for about three-quarters of its way. In the final section, it connects with the Azeem Ridge road, opened in 2004 on the southwest ridge by the Americans Kelly Cordes and Josh Wharton.

August 11
ALEX, EKAITZ AND PELUT SPEND THEIR FIRST NIGHT ON THE WALL OF THE GREAT TORRE DEL TRANGO
The three climbers entered the Northwest face yesterday, where they will live for the next 20 days.
So far they have climbed 400 meters and 10 pitches of the Bushido route
Bilbao, Monday August 11, 2014.- The expedition led by Alex Txikon, Ekaitz Maitz and David Palmada ‘Pelut’ is already progressing on the Northwest wall of the Gran Torre del Trango (6,286 m.), where yesterday they entered definitively and they spent their first night in hammocks at 4,600 meters above sea level. The activity has been frantic for the three climbers in recent days, taking advantage of the fact that the weather conditions in Karakorum continue to be unusually good. The climbers have already climbed and equipped the first 400 meters (10 pitches) of the ‘Bushido’ route, the one finally chosen to climb what is considered, with its 2,000-meter drop, the highest vertical wall in the world. But they have not only climbed. In an expedition of these characteristics, in which they climb in ‘capsule’ style, the logistics are almost as important as the technical activity, since they have to carry all the necessary equipment to climb and to survive on the wall for 20 days. . For this reason, they have had to carry almost 300 kilos of material (ropes, anchors, food, water, a generator, gasoline, clothing…) that they will have to drag up the wall in the coming weeks. Once this tedious but essential work was done, Alex, Ekaitz and Pelut went permanently into the Northwest face of the Great Tower yesterday, where they will live for the next three weeks. The only setback the group has experienced so far has been Pelut, who for a couple of days has had to remain in base camp while his companions went up to work on the wall due to some inopportune sore throat. “It was nothing serious, but in view of what awaits us, we decided that it was better for him not to force the machine and to recover well. Down here it’s a minor problem, but on the wall it can become a big problem so it was better for him to recover perfectly. Below we reproduce the chronicle sent late yesterday by Alex from camp 1, about to spend his first night on the wall: “After four long days carrying material to the base of the wall, on Saturday we finally climbed almost everything what is necessary up to camp 1. We have fixed about 400 meters of rope and we have finally managed to raise the nearly 300 kilos of material that we will need to be able to carry out the climb. The weather seems to be good. I would say that it is an unusual year in Karakorum, since since the beginning of June the weather has been very good. On Saturday I went up with Pelut again, already recovered from his angina. There were 11 hours of activity, a great effort, hanging around all day. And today we have finally gotten the three of us into the wall so as not to go down for another three weeks. Again it has been a very long day since we have gone up with the last two bags. So long that we had to set up the hammocks at night. I am writing this to you already inside the bag with Pelut by my side and surrounded by all the equipment and material. The truth is that this is the closest thing to the cabin of the Marx brothers, but the important thing is that we are already on the wall very excited and with a lot of desire ”. In the following links you can see the videos that Alex, Ekaitz and Pelut have recorded on their first night hanging in the hammocks: http://bambuser.com/v/4842815 http://bambuser.com/v/4842816 http:/ /bambuser.com/v/4842854

20th of August
ALEX, EKAITZ AND PELUT REFUSE TO CLIMB THE GREAT TORRE DEL TRANGO
The expedition to the Gran Torre del Trango had come to install camp 3 at 5,200 meters of altitude
Bilbao, Wednesday August 20, 2014.- The expedition led by Alex Txikon, Ekaitz Maitz and David Palmada ‘Pelut’ have decided to give up climbing the Gran Torre del Trango (6,286 m). The three climbers have spent eight days on the northwest wall of the mountain, where they have come to set up camp 3 at an altitude of 5,200 meters on the ‘Bushido’ route. Today they planned to rappel to base camp. Below we reproduce the text that the climbers have written explaining the reasons for their decision: “Hello everyone from the base camp of the Gran Torre del Trango. We are not going to hide from you that we are living hard times. Very hard When you have put all your effort, all your enthusiasm and many months of work into a project of the magnitude of this and you cannot complete it successfully, the stick is very big. And more if it was not the mountain that has thrown us back. We have done 20 pitches and we have ridden up to C3, at 5,200 meters, all of them in just eleven days of climbing, eight of them already on the wall. We had the most difficult part left, but we had done the most complicated part of the ‘Bushido’ route, which we had proposed to you to climb. So the feeling of disappointment is very strong. of disappointment.