Trio Accomplishes American First in Karakoram
In early August, locals Dave Nettle, Todd Burks, and Jim Barnes returned from six weeks among the granite spires and smiling faces of northeast Pakistan. Nettle described the trip with an emphatic, ‘Fantastic.’
‘We just had a blast,’ he said, ‘We were three best friends traveling around to crazy places in interesting times.’
Their objective was the summit of a granite spire known as the ‘Nameless Tower’ which looms in the Trango group, a collection of tremendously huge pinnacles in the Karakoram Mountains. With their ridiculous vertical relief, the Trango peaks attract climbers from all over the world. Of the many ways up the Tower, the Sierra trio chose ‘Eternal Flame,’ a route first climbed in 1989 by a German team that included the renowned hard-man Wolfgang Gulich. The Germans’ objective had been to set a new standard of difficulty for free climbing in the great ranges of Asia; however, the route has yet to go free. Free climbing involves climbing the rock directly, while only using gear as protection against falls. Aid climbing consists of pulling and standing on the gear itself. ‘So far, people either free climb every pitch and don’t reach the summit, or aid climb and do,’ Nettle said.
Barnes, Nettle, and Burks joined the latter category. After setting up base camp at an elevation of 13,400 feet, the team spent ten days preparing for their summit attempt by ferrying loads of gear up the route, fixing ropes, and waiting for their bodies to adapt to the thin oxygen of the heights. When the weather and the timing felt right, the three huffed up 4,000 feet to the base of the technical climbing, and then ventured out into the 3,000-foot vertical sea of Eternal Flame.
Midway up the wall they set up their small tent on a snowy ledge and awoke the next morning to find the weather had deteriorated. Temperatures had dropped below freezing and the wind had come up, leaving the three faced with a tough choice: Burks was scheduled to fly home earlier than the other two, if they backed off there wouldn’t be another chance for the three of them to summit together. They opted to continue in the risky conditions. Later that day they stood on top of the 20,400-foot pinnacle, becoming the first American team to complete the route.
According to Nettle, the climbing was exceptionally good. The rock was like a combination of the best granite of Joshua Tree and Yosemite.
After Burks set off for home, Nettle and Barnes walked to the nearby Hushe region and were welcomed into the home of their cook, who had become a good friend since they’d hired him at the beginning of the expedition. According to Nettle, they met with such ‘open generosity’ throughout their journey. In Skardu, a town on the Karakoram Highway, people exclaimed, ‘Tell Americans Pakistanis love Americans.’ Though they were traveling during tense political times, the three said they never felt threatened.
‘When a country is stressed that’s when the most true nature of the average person comes forth,’ Nettle said, ‘The average Pakistani is a beautiful, generous, friendly person.’
Dave Nettle will give a slide show about the ascent of Nameless Tower on the kickoff night of his annual Lake Tahoe Adventure Slideshow Series on November 28 at Bar One in Squaw Valley, 7 p.m. sharp. For a list of other upcoming presentations in the slideshow series, visit thebackcountry.net.
Local Climbing Guide’s Book Published Second Time
When Wilderness Press asked Heidi Pesterfield to pen a second edition of her climbing manual, ‘Traditional Lead Climbing,’ she leapt at the chance. Since the first printing new climbing gear had landed on the market, and Pesterfield had come up with some new ideas.
Wilderness Press published the first edition of Traditional Lead Climbing in 2002 when there were few books on the shelves aimed specifically at helping sport climbers transition into the world of traditional leading. Pesterfield came up with the idea for her first book while guiding a group of clients who had learned to climb in a gym and were just venturing outdoors. They noticed folks climbing with traditional methods nearby and exclaimed, ‘Hey, I want to do that,’ but Pesterfield couldn’t point them to a single reference. She decided to take the matter into her own hands. ‘I said to myself, ‘Hey, I’m a writer and a guide, and I should write a book,’’ Pesterfield explained.
In the last decade and a half, indoor walls and sport climbing have flourished, attracting more and more people to climbing, but the skills required in a gym or on a bolted route are very different from those that will take a climber safely up a ‘trad’ climb. In ‘sport climbing,’ it’s relatively simple for climbers to prevent themselves from hitting the ground when they fall. To do so, they clip their rope to bolts and hangers already drilled into the rock. So-called ‘traditional climbing’ requires more finesse and know-how, calling on climbers to place their own protective gear as they go.
The new edition of Traditional Lead Climbing features a section focused solely on the different risks, ethics and techniques climbers will encounter as they move from the climbing gym to the outdoors. It also includes an updated gear section intended to point readers toward the tried-and-true essentials of the bewildering array of climbing equipment.
Like the first edition, the new book features the zany and informative cartoons of Tami Knight. ‘(Tami’s) sense of humor reflected my own,’ Pesterfield said.
Pesterfield, who has a degree in journalism and has worked as a writer in the past, said the book gave her a chance to pour out her enthusiasm for teaching. ‘Writing a book was great because there’s no word limit,’ she laughed, ‘I could go on and on and on, which is how I guide too.’ In the past, Pesterfield’s boss has suggested she to bring her clients home on time instead of lingering with them into the evening while showing them new things.
Pesterfield started climbing more than 20 years ago, for the last 11 of those years she’s worked as a guide at Alpine Skills International in Truckee. Her articles have been published in the sport’s premier magazines, ‘Rock and Ice’ and ‘Climbing.’ Currently she’s honing her memoir skills by reading a lot of David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs.
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