Matt Gordon on the first ascent of the Quadrant. Photo copyright Luke Milnes

Another gem from the excellent Riverside granite, the Quadrant is a fairly new addition to the area and one of the most beautiful lines you’ll ever see.  Matt discovered this masterpiece during the spring of 2010 while climbing with UK photographer/climber Luke Milnes and quickly went to work.  Apparently he was in good shape at the time and managed to get the first ascent of this V8 during that initial session!

Matt G. on the Quadrant. Photo by Luke Milnes

The Quadrant starts with your left hand on a sidecling on the arete and your right hand in the obvious notch in the crack.  It’s not until you pull yourself off the ground that you realize how steep the Quadrant actually is.  The climbing is physical from the first move to diagonal seam and doesn’t let up. Higher up, the horrible sloping arete is all you have for your left hand   And the crack for your right is only decent in a few places.  If you can hang on long enough to get your foot up to the seam, you’ll have just one scary move between you and success.  This is when you realize how tall the boulder is and the crash pad seems really far away.  Fortunately, the top out is easy and the view from the top is spectacular.  To date, the Quadrant has only seen 2 ascents, but if it was anywhere else in the world there would be climbers lined up waiting to try it!

Well, Karakorum Climbing is going to be pretty quiet for a while.  Due to several compounding factors, it became impossible for us to continue to live in Skardu.  I am now in Colorado Springs with my family and we’ve decided to settle down here for at least a year.  Not sure when we’ll be back to Pak exactly, but we definitely intend to be there again soon.  Until then, I’ll report anything significant that I hear about, but I don’t think that will be much.  We shall see…

Our second installment takes us to the excellent bouldering area we call the Riverside.  One of the most visited areas near Skardu and home to some of the most classic routes in Pakistan, the Riverside is a great place to do some climbing.

Climbers enjoying the classic route "Mango Chatni".

Speaking of classic routes, today’s pick is called “Mango Chatni” and was first climbed by Matt Gordon in 2010.  The uniquely shaped Chatni Boulder sits almost by itself at the edge of the boulder field overlooking the Indus River and the Skardu Valley.  Mango Chatni catches your attention immediately and there is no confusion as to where the route goes.  The confusing part is how difficult the climbing actually is.  From the large starting holds it is an easy move to the obvious hold up and right, but the long reach from there to the awful sloper/pinch has spit off more than a few climbers.

On the first ascent of Mango Chatni, Matt goes for the pinch. Photo by Luke Milnes.

Even if you do manage to grab the best part of the pinch, actually using it seems impossible at first.  If you have the strength, you can use the pinch to pull your weight onto your foot and stand up.  This awkward move is the crux and if you can do it without falling off, you shouldn’t have any problem topping out.

Mark Horn reaches for the pinch.

At V8, Mango Chatni is one of the more challenging routes at Riverside, but definitely deserves more attention.  If you can’t quite conquer the pinch, you can try climbing just to the left using slopers and side clings for a route called “Mixed Pickle” which is only about V5 and a lot of fun.

And that’s it for Mango Chatni.  See you out there!

I’ve been in Islamabad for the last few days and have been missing the outdoors.  There isn’t a lot to do in the city, but during a casual internet search I came across a climbing guide for the Margalla Hills just outside of town.  The guide was put together by John Arran and he gave me permission to put it on Karakorum Climbing.  It gives a great overview of the small crags scattered on the hills with routes from 5a-8a on the French scale.  A couple days ago I hiked up to look at the Legacy Walls and was impressed by the fun looking routes.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any gear with me and it’s way too hot to enjoy climbing right now, but I’ll be sure to give it a shot next time.

You can check out the guide here: Monkey Business

You can also find it on our “Guides” page.  Thanks, John!

On a cold winter day, way back in 2005, Jeremy Higle, Ty Gordon and Matt Gordon stumbled upon this excellent route at the newly discovered Bridge Boulders.  About 45 minutes from Skardu, the Bridge Boulders have become a favorite area due to the huge number of boulders and the quantity of great routes such as “Raisn the Roof”.

Matt G slaps the top on Raisin the Roof

The route gets its name from the interesting wrinkles in the face of the boulder and the fact that it’s a roof climb…seems to fit it pretty well.  The holds are obvious, but the climbing is deceptively powerful.  From the obvious jug it’s a long move to a slopey, but textured rail.

Mark Horn sticks the first move on "Raisin".

Some people match here, but most move straight out to the good edges on the wrinkled face.  This is the crux.  If you can hang on, the moves get easier on more perfect edges and you’ll soon find yourself slapping the slopers to top out.  Matt was the first to conquer the “Raisin” and since that day it has been one of the most tried routes at the Bridge Boulders.  If you’re ever in the area, don’t miss it!

A view of the Skardu Valley from the Bridge Boulders

It’s been another quiet month on the climbing front.  Too hot except on rainy days to climb most places and a broken vehicle doesn’t help much either.  Some good news though is that my buddy, Mark, and his family just got back from an extended trip to the States.  Mark and I have climbed together a lot over the years and it’s definitely great to have him around again.  We’ve made several outings since his return including trips to the Bridge Boulders and the Olding Boulders, but there wasn’t much to report. At the Bridge Boulders, I did a couple of FA’s (nothing serious) and we also discovered an awesome looking project near the river and a gorgeous overhang with lots of features.  Next time…

Anyway, the main reason for this post was a discovery I made a couple weeks ago.  I had gone out to the Riverside on my own to try a new project.  The project is probably impossible and I got shut down pretty quickly.  I bailed when my hands got sore and headed back to the village of Hussainabad.  Above Hussainabad there is an intriguing valley with a crazy, switchbacking road leading into it and every time I drove through the village I wondered what was up there.  I had actually tried to find the road on two occasions, but had only come to dead ends.  On this trip I had a little time left and a good idea of where the road actually started, so I went for it.  After climbing up the numerous switchbacks, the road finally leveled off in a green meadow filled with huge boulders.  I was short on time and didn’t get out to explore, but what I could see looked amazing.  After that quick visit, I kept wondering if it was the next great bouldering area in Pakistan and kept dreaming of the opportunity to go back.

Well, that opportunity came a couple days ago.  Mark and I took our little girls and our friend Sajid up there in the afternoon while the ladies went to a local beauty parlor.  It turned out to be a very enjoyable time.  I drove again, but this time we explored the road as far as it would go which turned out to be a small village in the back of the valley.

The valley beyond the end of the road. Looks tempting.

It’s a gorgeous valley full of green grass, fruit trees and boulders with the mountains rising dramatically on both sides.  The rock faces up above look like they hold some climbing potential as well.

The landcruiser at the end of the road.

Eventually we headed back down the road to a flat, grassy area with lots of shade trees and big boulders scattered around.  We carried the girls through boulders as we scoped out the potential lines, which they seemed to enjoy.  Finally we selected a peaceful “boulder garden” and put the pads down for a bit of climbing action.

Mark and the girls at the boulder garden.

Even though it was hot day, the altitude (over 9000 ft) and shade made it possible to climb while the girls hung out in the grass.  The line we chose proved to a be really fun challenge.  It began with a matched sidecling and several great moves led to a physical mantle to top out.  After half a dozen tries I managed to put it together for the first ascent of “Alpine Intruder” V6 and the first route at the new boulders.  With that, we packed up and headed home for dinner.

Alpine Intruder V6

It’s definitely a great new area and I’m sure we’ll be spending more time up there, but the rock quality wasn’t as good as I’d hoped.  Most of the boulders seem to be blank, covered in lots of moss or have chossy sections, but there are definitely some great lines to be found such as the one I climbed.  If this place were in the US, it would definitely be a very popular area with climbers all over the place. But it’s not in the US and my guess is that very few foreigners have ever been up there, if any.  It’s definitely something I think about a lot…would I rather be exploring and finding brand new boulders or would it be more fun to actually see someone else’s chalk on the boulders when I pull up?

The 15th was Friday and cloudy-  two factors that equal an opportunity to go climbing.  Fridays here in Pakistan are like an American Sunday.  The government offices are closed after noon and people generally take it pretty easy, including me.   And cloudy days bring a welcome change in the temperature outside making it possible to enjoy climbing even during the hottest month of the year.  Good news for me.

Laura and Reaiah took a nap after lunch and I headed out for a couple hours of solo climbing action.  I had been thinking about my project on the beach throughout the week and felt fairly confident that I could finish it off.  I just needed to commit.  When I arrived at the boulders, I looked around for a good warm-up, but nothing seemed appealing when the project was calling for attention.  I quickly gave up on the idea of climbing anything other than the project and went to work getting the pads situated, holds brushed and video camera set up.  Even though I was sweating by the time I had my shoes on, conditions were fairly decent and I felt ready to attack the route.  I jumped up, grabbed the holds and proceeded to fall off.  Several times.  Maybe a warm-up would have been a good idea.  The crux move, a long reach to a slopey pinch on the arete, kept spitting me off after repeated half-hearted attempts.  Commitment time.    After a quick break, I took a deep breath, grabbed the holds and made my way back up to the crux.  My left hand was slipping slightly on the polished arete, but I went for the pinch anyway.  My feet kicked off and the swing was worse than I expected, but I didn’t fall.   It was over.  I found myself on top a few seconds later, mission complete.  It’s amazing what that moment of commitment can do for you.  I’ve decided to call this new route “The Sandcastle” after watching Reaiah play in the sand the other day while I climbed on it.  The grade is tough to say, but I think it’s in the V7/8 range.  Future ascents will tell.  It’s definitely a classic route and super fun.

With plenty of time left for more climbing I decided to give another project a shot.  “The Quadrant” is an amazing route on a uniquely shaped boulder overlooking the Indus River and the extreme landscape of the Skardu Valley.  The climbing follows a rounded crack and the sloping left arete on a clean, slightly overhanging face.  My bro, Matt, had gotten the first ascent last year while I was back in the States, but The Quadrant hadn’t been climbed since.

Matt Gordon on the first ascent of the Quadrant. Photo copyright Luke Milnes

It is much more physical than it first appears and after 4 days of attempts throughout the last few months, I had yet to finish it.  Fresh off my ascent of “The Sandcastle”, I was feeling confident and fairly strong although it doesn’t really make sense because I haven’t been climbing much recently.  I set up the camera again and situated the crash pads as best I could.

The Quadrant is tall. An uncontrolled fall from the top could definitely leave you hurting and even with spotters, the final move is a serious test of nerves.  On my first attempt, I barely made it off the ground.  Haha…what was I thinking?   But the next attempts were better and I soon found myself reaching the upper part of the crack before falling off.  After scoping out the holds one more time, I stepped back up and started climbing.  Everything felt good, even getting my foot to the high hold, and committing to the last move seemed natural.    It was a great feeling to slap the top and know that I was not going to fall.  Second ascent in the bag.

It’s so hard to grade either of these climbs because there were so many different factors involved in climbing them.  I have tried the Quadrant when I felt stronger and failed.  I also tried it with spotters in cooler weather and failed.  Yesterday, I was alone, not feeling that strong and the conditions, while decent, were not as good as other days.  So, why did I succeed?  One thing that may have been in my favor yesterday was my mental state.  I went into the climbing feeling excited, confident and focused on my goals.  One other factor that I’ve noticed, maybe it’s the same for many people, is that when I have a build-up of stress from life I always climb better.  When I’ve had a rough week and need to vent, my climbing goes up at least a grade.  Life here in Skardu is great, but it definitely has its stresses as well and I think I needed to vent a bit.  Whatever the reason, it was a great day of climbing for me and I’ll remember it for a long time. Here’s a little video I put together to document the day.

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to go off by myself on a little adventure for a few hours.  It ended up being an adventure of firsts.  I decided to ride my motorcycle out to the Riverside (a first), primarily to film a couple routes for my bro, Matt, to put into a short video about the bouldering around Skardu.  I strapped a small crashpad onto the bike, settled on with my backpack and made my way out to the boulders.  My motorcycle is a Yamaha 100 that is older than I am and doesn’t have much life left, so it took a little longer than normal.  Plus, there was a big festival going on in one of the villages and I got stuck in a traffic jam (another first).  Eventually, I arrived at the Riverside and decided to check out an undone line I had seen on one of my last trips out there.  Trying to find the right track down to the river proved to be more challenging than I expected and the bike didn’t seem to like the sand and rocks very much.  I never wrecked, but I did have a few close calls when I hit some extra soft sand.  If anyone had been watching, I’m sure they would have been laughing at the site of big foreigner with a mattress riding across the desert on a beat up antique.  I know I was laughing inside.  Eventually I found the right path and followed it as far as the bike would allow before I  dismounted and made my way down to the boulder.  This particular boulder is just above a perfect, sandy beach on the banks of the mighty Indus river.  It’s a beautiful spot and I had it all to myself.  The boulder is gorgeous white and brown granite that has been scrubbed clean by the Indus during high water.  The line I wanted to try was already clean, but I brushed the holds with some chalk as I looked for possible foot holds.  The rough landing also needed some work, so I tried to level it out by shifting some of the loose rocks around.  It ended up slightly better, but my little crashpad didn’t cover nearly as much as I’d hoped.  Not the best situation when climbing solo.  Once I had prepared the boulder and had some idea of how I wanted to climb it, I set up the video camera and went to work.

The start was obvious; a perfect vertical edge with plenty of texture and a small crimper. The first two moves – right hand to a good dish, left hand to an awesome sidecling – were also straightforward and I managed to get that far on my first try.  From there it’s a fairly long reach to the slopey lip of the boulder which angles up and left towards the left arete.  I managed to get that move after a couple tries and found the best point to grab on the lip.  A long reach to the left arete is next move and on my last try of the day I finally stuck that as well.  I didn’t know how the rest of the route would go, but I did know that I’d need more pads and maybe a spotter before I’d feel confident enough to commit to the hard moves up high.

I decided it was time to move on to another route, one that I knew I could climb.  I walked back up to my not-so-trusty steed and sputtered across the desert and over the bridge to reach the next area.  “Thanks for the Hole” was my target and I headed straight down to it to get started.  It is also a gorgeous granite boulder on a beach next to the Indus river with another beautiful view of the Skardu Valley.  I’ve climbed “Thanks for the Hole” quite a few times, but we hadn’t filmed it yet.  Now we have.  It took me a few tries, but I eventually sent.

I also tried the harder variation to the left, but got shut down.  Feeling hot and worn out, I decided it was time to head home.  Back to the bike!  After getting stuck behind the same traffic jam in the village, I pulled up to my house feeling very satisfied with my outing and excited to get out again.

Yesterday, Laura and Rea made the trip out to Riverside with me.  It was a cloudy day and bit cooler, but still very pleasant for hanging out on the beach.  While they played in the sand, I tried the project again.  After struggling to find the right sequence, I finally located the correct foothold and nearly caught the crux move.  Unfortunately, I didn’t figure it out until after I was worn out, but I’m sure I’ll be able to finish it off next time.  It was great to be out there with my family and it was really fun watching Reaiah play in the sand.

It’s been a fairly slow month for climbing here in Skardu.  Life has been pretty busy and just a bit too hot for climbing during the afternoons.  Besides a couple of uninteresting visits to the Olding Boulders, I haven’t gotten out much.  Thankfully, we had the opportunity last weekend to take a little break and escape from Skardu for an overnight trip.  After some consideration of all the options, we decided on Kachura Lake as the optimal destination for a family camping trip.   Kachura Lake is a beautiful, natural lake situated at the end of the the road in Kachura village, about an hour from Skardu.

The scene at Kachura Lake

I’d visited the lake many times over the years, but hadn’t camped there before.  It turned out to be an excellent choice.

Laura, Reaiah, Shady and I piled into the Land Cruiser just after lunch on Sunday and headed out of town toward Kachura.  We made a couple of quick stops for last minute supplies, but made good time to the end of the road in the village.  At the parking area, we hired a local guy to help us carry our extra stuff and then made the nice 10 minute walk down to the small restaurant on the shore of the lake.  There were more people around than I had ever seen there before, all of them Pakistani tourists either from down south or on school trips.  Thankfully, none of them were going camping and they all stayed on the near side of the lake. We threw our stuff into one of the rustic looking boats and set off across the lake towards our camping site, a beautiful grassy area surrounded by shade trees and big boulders.  The locals seemed a little skeptical as we unloaded our things, but they took the boat back across the lake after we had set a pick-up time for the next afternoon.  Our camp site was great…nice flat ground under some trees right next to the water.

Our campsite at Kachura Lake

Shady and I set up the tents while Laura and Reaiah sampled the water.  Reaiah didn’t even seem to notice how cold it was and had a great time splashing around.  After setting up the tents we started preparing the cooking area, but realized that, due to some miscommunication, we had left some of our important food stuff at home.  Shady volunteered to walk around the lake to the restaurant to see if they had replacements for us.  While he was gone and the ladies took a nap, I got to do some climbing.  Most of the hundreds of boulders around the lake are either dirty, chossy or have bad landings, but during previous visits to the area we had found and climbed several quality routes near the campsite.   I went to look at one of the best routes, called “Underking”, which hadn’t been climbed in several years.  When the water levels are high, Underking is under water, but this time the lake was low and the boulder was exposed.  I remembered it being a really fun route and I wasn’t disappointed.  It took me a couple tries to remember the beta, a matched start to a good crimp and then a long move to a perfect undercling,  but I was able to top it out without too much difficulty.  I think the rock is granite, but it looks and feels more like sandstone with sculpted holds and excellent texture.   Definitely classic and highly recommended if you are in the area.  I also climbed the overhanging traverse to the left (can’t remember if we named it before)which left me pumped when I finally figured out how to finish.  It’s also a great route with perfect jugs for the first few moves and then slopers along the lip to the finish, all on the same perfect texture.  Both routes are somewhere in the V4/5 range and well worth trying.  I repeated both for a couple locals that showed up to watch.  By then, the girls had woken up and Shady was back. As on our last camping trip, we had brought along some hotdogs and I quickly cooked one up for Reaiah over a small fire.  She seemed to like it and was still chewing on a piece just before she went to bed a while later.

Reaiah likes camping

Shady and I climbed a few more boulders around camp before Reaiah went to bed.  After she was down for the night, the rest of us enjoyed our hotdogs over the fire with cowboy coffee and oreos, but the night turned out to be a bit more rugged than we expected.  It started raining lightly around 9:30 and when we tried to take cover in the tent, Reaiah woke up and wouldn’t go back to sleep.

Laura and I tried different things, but couldn’t get her to go back to sleep until nearly 2 in the morning.  It was her first time sleeping without her bed, so I guess it was understandable.  The weather was a bit better by morning and continued to clear as the day went on.

Me and Rea enjoying the view

After a breakfast of eggs and french toast, Shady and I went back to the Underking boulder so Shady could have a shot.  I took photos while he figured out the moves and it didn’t take him long to make the crux reach to the undercling.

Shady sticks the crux on Underking

Unfortunately, the top out turned out to be the most difficult part and he fell off pumped.  I climbed it again for fun and then started working on a small dyno from the same start.  It was more difficult than I thought it would be, but I eventually stuck it.  My feet swung back and hit the rock behind me, but I don’t think it could be avoided.   It wasn’t that great anyway.  Shady eventually made it through the crux on Underking again, but was just too pumped to top out.  We then shifted our attention over to the traverse for some more photos.  The first move proved to be too long and powerful for Shady to get while he was feeling pumped and his hands were getting torn up.  It was the end of his climbing day, but I climbed it one more time for fun and Shady got a cool picture.

On the traverse at the Underking boulder

We tried one more small boulder on the way back to camp.  I was able to flash it, but it was definitely strenuous and not much fun.   By that time, the boat was on it’s way over to pick us up.  Shady and I had just enough time to change into our shorts and take a leap off a nicely positioned boulder into the refreshing water of the lake.   We dried off, packed up and threw our gear in the boat for the ride back across to the restaurant.  The walk back up to the Land Cruiser wasn’t too bad and we made back to Skardu an hour later feeling grungy and tired, but overall very pleased with our little adventure.  Reaiah did great other than the difficult night and we’re looking forward to many more family camping trips!

Stay tuned for an overview of Kachura Lake and the climbing there….

We discovered this “cave project” at the Bridge Boulders during one of our visits to the area way back in 2005 (I think).  Matt and I have tried it many times over the years and were never strong enough or able to invest enough time during our brief visits to finish it off.  Last spring, Matt was able to figure out the crux moves during a short visit with some friends, but the final battle didn’t take place until the fall.  You can read about that epic day here.

I still haven’t been strong enough to do it, but I was able to climb all the moves up to the crux.  Hopefully, I can get in shape this summer and be strong enough by the time the cooler temps arrive.  Stay tuned…