The French skiers Carole Chambaret, Tiphaine Duperier and Boris Langenstein have caused a sensation with what is defined as the first complete descent on skis from the splendid peak of Laila Peak. Situated between the Chogolisa and the Masherbrum in the Pakistani Karakorum, this peak is known as one of the most beautiful mountains in the world, with the spectacular 1500m northwest wall offering a constant slope of around 50 degrees. Certainly one of the most coveted descents ever.
According to the Planet Mountain, a characteristic and beautiful mountain with the shape of a sharp needlepoint has a very particular history: the first unofficial ascent dates back to 1987 when a British expedition composed of Andy Cave, Tom Curtis, Sean Smith and Simon Yates climbed the west wall.
In the early 90s, the mountain was raised by a German expedition and a Swiss expedition in 1993, but the first official ascent was made in 1996 by an Italian expedition led by Oreste Forno. On July 2, Paolo Cavagnetto and Fabio Iacchini reached the summit, while Camillo Della Vedova, Giovanni Ongaro, and Guido Ruggeri followed in their footsteps the following day.
In the summer of 2005 Fredrik Ericsson and Jörgen Aamot made a nice attempt to ski the mountain and although the Scandinavians reached a few hundred meters from the summit, the prohibitive conditions forced them to desist and go down the wall NO. All subsequent attempts to ski the slide have failed due to difficult conditions, including the 2012 international expedition consisting of Luca Pandolfi, Brendan O’Sullivan, Paul Holding and Edward Blanchard Wrigglesworth.
In 2016 an Italian expedition ended in tragedy with the 27-year-old Paul Holding and Edward Blanchard Wrigglesworth.
In 2016 an Italian expedition ended in tragedy with the 27-year-old Leonardo Comelli who lost his life during an attempt to ski the mountain together with his companions Carlo Cosi, Zeno Cecon and Enrico Mosetti.
For several years, skiing Laila Peak has been one of the main objectives of 32-year-old Carole Chambaret, 33-year-old Boris Langenstein and 30-year-old Tiphaine Duperier; all three are from Val d ‘Isère where Chambaret works as a ski instructor, Langenstein is a mountain guide and Duperier is becoming an aspiring mountain guide.
In April they reached the Hushe valley and established the base camp on the Gondogoro glacier. After checking the possible return along the north wall and after pushing three times up to 5300 meters, on the first day of good weather they left directly from the base camp at 01:00 on the morning of 11 May.
Chambaret described the ascent as “Just over 2000 meters uphill in a grandiose and varied environment, between the open slope and the snow corridor, mixed climbing and ice climbing, both south and north exposure.” After climbing non-stop for 12 hours they reached the summit with perfect weather. “Good weather, no wind, a great moment of happiness at the top, then an incredible descent of 1800 meters in fresh snow!” Writing to us after the first complete descent with skis, Chambaret explained: “the beauty of this pyramid is simply incredible.”
Taking advantage of the unusually good conditions, on 25 May the Piedmontese Carlalberto Cala Cimenti and the Swiss Matthias Koenig and Julian Dänzer also reached the summit. While Cimenti and Koenig managed to make the second descent, unfortunately, Dänzer lost his ski at the top and was forced to go downhill with crampons. After a day of rest, Cimenti and Koenig returned to the mountain to remove the tent from Camp 1 to 5100m but then decided to continue climbing and, after spending the night at 5700m on the obvious hill, rose further and skied the mountain immediately next to Laila Peak. According to the first research, this seems to be nameless and now has been dubbed Laila’s little sister, Laila’s little sister.
[…] PakistanToday.com.pk […]
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