Three climbers open 1,800-metre route on Sosbun Brakk north face

American climbers Dane Steadman and Cody Winckler and Canadian Grant Stewart made the first ascent of the north face of Sosbun Brakk (6,414m) in the Karakoram in October, opening a 1,800-metre route graded M7 and WI5.

Steadman gave the details in an interview with ExplorersWeb published on 11 November. The peak had been climbed once before, by a Japanese team in 1981, from a different and milder side.

Steadman told the outlet the Sosbun Brakk climb was much more difficult than the route on Yashkuk Sar for which he and Winckler received a Piolet d'Or in 2024, "both on and off the mountain". He said the Yashkuk Sar trip went smoothly, with good acclimatisation, a fine weather window and an ascent on the first try, while the Sosbun trip brought lost bags, illness during acclimatisation, storms before and during the climb, hard route-finding and a difficult descent in bad weather.

The team chose early autumn, two months after the Karakoram's usual July and August season. Steadman said the weather in the high ranges is often better in autumn than in summer, that colder temperatures reduce rockfall danger on a relatively low face without buttresses and improve the chances of finding good ice, and that Stewart could get time off in October more easily than in September.

On the first attempt a hanging serac above the centre of the wall blocked the intended line. The climbers shifted left and retreated after a lead of more than two hours on a pitch that had looked easy from below. With dusk near, no bivouac site in sight and 300 metres of the 1,800-metre wall behind them, they rappelled down. From there they saw an east-facing line on the right side of the face that had been hidden from every earlier viewpoint.

They rested three days at base camp and set off again. The three reached the summit at 4pm on their fifth day on the wall.

On the descent they followed the upper half of their route, mostly rappelling down the northwest spur with some downclimbing and traversing. They then went straight down and diagonalled back left partway to avoid serac hazard, in worsening weather.

Steadman said October could suit some Karakoram climbs and September is also good, but that this year the weather was less stable in September and October than on his previous trips, with more snow than locals considered normal for the time of year.