Gasherbrum I

Gasherbrum I
Hidden Peak
Gasherbrum I in 2001
Elevation	8,080 m (26,509 ft)  Ranked 11th (3rd in Pakistan)
Prominence	2,155 m (7,070 ft)
Listing	Eight-thousander, Ultra
Location
Gasherbrum I  Pakistan – China
Range	Karakoram
Climbing
First ascent	July 5, 1958 by an American team
Easiest route	snow/ice climb

Gasherbrum I (also known as Hidden Peak or K5) is the 11th highest peak on Earth, located on the Pakistan-China border in Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. Gasherbrum I is part of the Gasherbrum massif, located in the Karakoram region of the Himalaya. Gasherbrum is often claimed to mean "Shining Wall", presumably a reference to the highly visible face of the neighboring peak Gasherbrum IV; but in fact it comes from "rgasha" (beautiful) + "brum" (mountain) in Balti, hence it actually means "beautiful mountain."

Gasherbrum I was designated K5 (meaning the 5th peak of the Karakoram) by T.G. Montgomery in 1856 when he first spotted the peaks of the Karakoram from more than 200 km away during the Great Trigonometric Survey of India. In 1892, William Martin Conway provided the alternate name, Hidden Peak, in reference to its extreme remoteness.

Gasherbrum I was first climbed on July 5, 1958 by Pete Schoening and Andy Kauffman of an eight-man American expedition led by Nicholas B. Clinch. Richard K. Irvin, Tom Nevison, Tom McCormack, Bob Swift and Gil Roberts were also members of the team ^[1].

Timeline

• 1934 - A large international expedition, organized by the Swiss G.O. Dyhrenfurth, explores Gasherbrum I and II. Two climbers get to 6,300 m/20,650 ft.
• 1936 - A French expedition gets to 6,900 m/22,630 ft.
• 1958 - An American team makes the first ascent.
• 1975 - Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler reach the summit on a new route (northwest route) in pure alpine style (first time on an 8000 metre peak) taking 3 days total. One day later, three Austrians from a different expedition led by Hanns Schell reach the summit on the American route.
• 1977 - The fourth successful ascent by two Slovenians (Nejc Zaplotnik and Andrej Stremfelj), again on a new route.
• 1980 - A French expedition is successful with the 5th ascent and pass the south ridge for the first time.
• 1981 - Japanese have the 6th successful ascent.
• 1982 - G. Sturm, M. Dacher and S. Hupfauer of a German expedition summit via a new route on the north face. In the same year, French Marie-José Valençot is the first woman who reaches the summit. Her husband, Sylvain Saudan from Switzerland performs the first ski descent from the top of an 8000 metre peak to base camp.
• 1983 - Jerzy Kukuczka with Wojciech Kurtyka, new route. Alpine style ascent without the aid of oxygen.
• 1983 - Teams from Switzerland and Spain are successful.
• 1984 - Reinhold Messner and Hans Kammerlander traverse Gasherbrum II and Gasherbrum I without returning to base camp in between
• 1985 - Solo ascent by Benoît Chamoux.
• 2003 - 19 people reach the summit, 4 deaths, including Mohammad Oraz.

See also

• List of Mountains in Pakistan
• Highest Mountains of the World
• Hassan sadpara

Sources

• H. Adams Carter, "Balti Place Names in the Karakoram", American Alpine Journal 49 (1975), p. 53.

References

External links

• Gasherbrum I on Peakware
• Summit Video of Alex Gavan's First Romanian Ascent of Gasherbrum 1 (July 30th 2007)