Patricia Deavoll of New Zealand made a solo first ascent of the previously attempted but unclimbed Karim Sar (6800m), Karakoram, Pakistan. During her three-day round-trip push from advanced base camp in mid-June, Deavoll climbed with partner Paul Hersey to a high camp at 5100m before continuing, alone, to the summit.

Hersey initially quit the climb after feeling ill at base camp, so Deavoll, unwilling to abandon the mountain without an attempt, prepared to start solo. Feeling better, Hersey accompanied Deavoll to ABC (4200m) and belayed her through the lower rock bands. Despite a lack of bivy gear, he then decided to accompany her to the high camp.

On summit day, Deavoll climbed a rock band and consolidated snow before entering a labyrinth of exposed traverses and debris-littered gullies. At one point she was forced to descend 100m to traverse through poor snow to reach seventy-degree ice on the summit ridge. Summiting in good weather at midday, she retraced her route back to camp at 5100m--Hersey had already descended--where she spent the night before returning to ABC.

Deavoll declined to grade the route, which had been attempted in 2007 by the Italian climber Ivo Ferrari.

"The main obstacle for me was route finding and the enormous size of the face, and I guess, having the confidence to go on by myself knowing my partner was not up to coming to look for me," Deavoll said.

Choosing Karim Sar as an objective was the result of two earlier expeditions to nearby Beka Brakai Chhok (6940m). In 2007, Deavoll was denied that summit when her team attempted a difficult route. It was on this expedition that she first spotted Karim Sar from a distance. In 2008, a seven-day storm shut down the team at 6000m, and conditions were so disastrous that they retreated from 6400m. Simone Moro climbed the peak later that season. This year, when Deavoll's planned expedition to the unclimbed south face of Kampire Dior (7000m) was canceled due to the Taliban's occupation of the nearby Swat Valley, Karim Sar seemed a worthy objective.

Sources: Patricia Deavoll, Paul Hersey, Asghar Ali Porik, Nazir Sabir, patdeavoll.co.nz