| Great Trango Tower |
Website Links For Towers |
Information AboutGreat Trango Tower |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT TRANGO TOWERS | |
| mountains of pakistan | |
| cliffs | |
The Trango Towers are a group of dramatic Granite spires located on the north side of the Baltoro Glacier , in Baltistan , a district of the Northern Areas of Pakistan . They are part of the Baltoro Muztagh , a subrange of the Karakoram Range . The Towers offer some of the largest cliffs and most challenging rock climbing in the world. The highest point in the group is the summit of '''Great Trango Tower''', 6,286 m (20,608 ft). (Note: all elevations in this article are subject to significant uncertainty: it is not clear if they have ever been determined precisely, and sources vary.) __NOTOC__ STRUCTURE OF THE GROUP All of the Trango Towers lie on a ridge, trending northwest-southeast, between the Trango Glacier on the west and the Dunge Glacier on the east. Great Trango itself is a large massif, with four identifiable summits: Main (6,286 m), South or Southwest (circa 6,250 m), East (6,231 m), and West (6,223 m). It is a complex combination of steep snow/ice gullies, steeper rock faces, and vertical to overhanging headwalls, topped by a snowy ridge. Just northwest of Great Trango is the Trango Tower (6,239 m), often called "Nameless Tower". This is a very large, pointed, rather symmetrical spire which juts 1000m out of the ridgeline. North of Trango Tower is a smaller rock spire known as "Trango Monk." To the north of this feature, the ridge becomes less rocky and loses the large granite walls that distinguish the Trango Towers group and make them so attractive to climbers; however the main summit of Trango Ri is 6,363m, a bit higher than the summit of Great Trango. Just southeast of Great Trango (really a part of the southeast ridge) is the Trango Pulpit (6,050m), whose walls present similar climbing challenges to those of Great Trango itself. Further to the south is Trango Castle (5,753 m), the last large peak along the ridge before the Baltoro Glacier. CLIMBING HISTORY Overall, the Trango Towers group has seen some of the most difficult and significant climbs ever accomplished, due to the combination of altitude, total height of the routes, and the steepness of the rock. All of the routes are highly technical climbs. Great Trango was first climbed in 1977 by Galen Rowell , John Roskelley , Kim Schmitz and Dennis Hennek by the easiest route up the western side. The east face of Great Trango is the world's tallest vertical rock face, and was first climbed (to the East Summit) in 1984 by the Norwegian s Hans Christian Doseth and Finn Dæhli , who died on the descent. Trango (Nameless) Tower was first climbed in 1976 by the legendary British climber Joe Brown , along with Mo Anthoine, Martin Boysen, and Malcolm Howells. It is now a popular ascent, albeit for the elite of the climbing community: there are at least eight separate routes to the summit. The West summit of Great Trango and the Trango Pulpit were both first climbed in 1999. The West summit was climbed by two separate teams, one American and one Russian, almost simultaneously, by parallel routes. The Pulpit was climbed by a Norwegian team. Some of the more recent ascents on Great Trango have focused on the longer routes found on the West side. In particular, in 2004 Josh Wharton and Kelly Cordes completed a new route on the Southwest Ridge, or "Azeem Ridge", to the Southwest Summit. This was notable for the extremely lightweight style in which it was done. Nic Feteris and Glenn Singleman climbed and BASE jumped from the Trango Towers, currently the highest BASE Jump on record and unlikely to be beaten. The Trango towers are also the logo for a climbing gear company named Trango. SEE ALSO REFERENCES
|
|
|