Laila Peak (Hushe Valley)
Encyclopedia
Laila Peak in Hushe Valley
Hushe
Hushe is the last village of the Ghangche District of northern Pakistan. It is the highest village in the once extremely remote and impoverished valley. Hushe men began working as cooks and porters for expeditions in the 1960s. Reinhold Messner's cook Rozi Ali, is from Hushe...

 near Gondogoro glacier is in Karakoram
Karakoram
The Karakoram, or Karakorum , is a large mountain range spanning the borders between Pakistan, India and China, located in the regions of Gilgit-Baltistan , Ladakh , and Xinjiang region,...

 range and is 6096 metres (20,000 ft) high. It has a distinctive spear-like shape. Its northwest face has a slope of 45 degrees in more than 1500 vertical metres.

It has been climbed by Simon Yates
Simon Yates (mountaineer)
Simon Yates is an English mountaineer best known through the book Touching the Void by Joe Simpson, and the film of the same name. Touching the Void recounts the 1985 ascent by Yates and Simpson of the West Face of Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes, Simpson's accident...

, among others. According to the local people in Hushe
Hushe
Hushe is the last village of the Ghangche District of northern Pakistan. It is the highest village in the once extremely remote and impoverished valley. Hushe men began working as cooks and porters for expeditions in the 1960s. Reinhold Messner's cook Rozi Ali, is from Hushe...

, Laila peak has been climbed only twice, a total of only seven people have summited.

The height of the Laila peak in Hushe Valley is controversial. Some believe it to be 6200 metres whereas some mention it as 6614 metres. In a Japanese mountaineering map by Tsuneo Miyamori (published in 2003), the height of Laila Peak is mentioned as 6096 metres.

First Skiers on Laila Peak

In the summer of 2005, the first ever ski attempts on Laila Peak were made by Fredrik Ericsson
Fredrik Ericsson
Fredrik Ericsson was a Swedish mountaineer and extreme skier.He grew up in Umeå in the northern part of Sweden, but spent most of his time in Chamonix, in the French Alps.-History:...

 and Jörgen Aamot from Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

n countries. Although they could not reach the summit, they skied down the North-West face of the peak. They described it as "one of the most amazing mountains they have ever seen, like a needle it points straight up in the sky".

Frederik and Jörgen reached the base camp of Laila Peak (4150 metres) on June 18, 2005, and they were at Camp1 (5000 metres) on June 22. They made their first attempt to summit on Friday, June 24. They started climbing from 5000 metres at 2:30 am and after seven hours of climbing when they were only 100 metres from the summit, they realized that it was too icy to continue, and started skiing down on the North-West face of Laila Peak towards Gondogoro Glacier
Gondogoro Glacier
Gondogoro Glacier or Gondoghoro Glacier is glacier near Concordia in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. It serves as an alternative means to reach Concordia; the confluence of Baltoro Glacier and Godwin-Austen Glacier.-See also:*Gondogoro Pass...

.

Permit

The mountain lies in a restricted zone. The village of Hushe
Hushe
Hushe is the last village of the Ghangche District of northern Pakistan. It is the highest village in the once extremely remote and impoverished valley. Hushe men began working as cooks and porters for expeditions in the 1960s. Reinhold Messner's cook Rozi Ali, is from Hushe...

 is the gateway to the mountain, in the Masherbrum Valley below but the Gondogoro and Chogolisa valleys are restricted. In order for non Pakistani citizens to visit these valleys a permit must be purchased from the Ministry of Tourism ($50 per person), and a licensed guide is required for the duration.

See also


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK