Ogre – Second Ascent after 25 years

A little late, but still newsworthy: On July 21st the team of Thomas Huber, Urs Stoecker and Iwan Wolf stood on the summit of the Ogre (7285m) in the Karakorum, only the second team to ever climb the mountain.Having already achieved the first ascent of the extremely difficult Ogre III on July 1st, Thomas and his team then concentrated on climbing the Ogre, which was the ultimate goal of their expedition.The Ogre was first climbed in 1977 by Sir Chris Bonington and Doug Scott and all other attempts since – more than 20 expeditions – have been unsuccessful. On July 18th, after two days? preparation, Thomas and his team left base camp for their summit attempt amid uncertain weather conditions.On July 20th they reach the top of the pillar at 6500m, following 28 pitches of climbing.After a short night they started again at 2.00a.m. for the final, decisive push. They climbed the steep (up to 55°) and very arduous ice field, which led to the start of the extremely hard climb to the summit.Climbing up to grade UIAA 6, with technical climbing up to A2, combined with strong wind and extreme cold make the last few metres to the summit a severe challenge, but one that Thomas, Urs and Iwan were ready to face.At 3.30 p.m. the team reach the summit of the Ogre_after 24 years. News courtesy of Berghaus. Alex Huber has also been in action, recently redpointing his 1999 route, “Bellavista” on the Tre Cime di Lavaredo in the Dolomites. He has described the route, which overhangs by 60m and is protected mainly by pegs, as “the wildest route on an alpine face”.