Skardu

Today (Thursday 6.8) Grega, Mr. Babar (our liaison officer) and me had a morning flight to Skardu where Dejan already expected us. He just came back from basecamp of our K7 expedition in Charakusa valley. With our expedition cook and staff from Blue Sky agency he prepared loads for porters and tomorrow early in the morning we start with jeeps to Askole, the last village below Baltoro glacirer. The road is reported as blocked by landslides in a few places, so we would need to carry loads over. From Askole we hope to reach our base camp in 4 days.

Dejan from Pakistan

  The first member of Mustagh Tower exp. Dejan Miškovič is already in the Karakoram mountains. After he had arranged things for early departure of our expedition from Skardu (insh'Allah on Wednesday or Thursday) he is now on the way to Charakusa valley with members of K7 expedition. After his short acclimatizing we start together from Skardu to Baltoro glacier.
Grega and me still packing, of course... Out flight is tomorrow (Monday) afternoon from Ljubljana airport.
On the Slovenian site of our general sponsor Elektroservisi there's a new presentation of Mustagh Tower expedition. If everything works well we also hope to receive short e-mails to: mustaghtower@gmail.com. Without photos and attachments, please... 
On the photo: Charakusa valley (photo: Marko Prezelj).

Radio 1

... is going to be our live connection to "civilized" world during the expedition. The first reporting is available here; the second will probably follow from Pakistan.
We are still working on a notebook PC - satellite phone (Thuraya) links as well, to provide some images from remote Baltoro valleys. Any suggestions from communication experts are welcome.

Expedition press conference

On Friday 25th of July the agreement with general sponsor Elektroservisi was signed, and on this occasion the we organized a press conference for media where the main objectives of expedition were presented. An ecological note of expedition was emphasized: the mountain should remain the same after expedition.
From left: Mr. Tone Škarja, president of Commission for expeditions at Mountaineering Association of Slovenia, Mr. Ivan Hozjan, CEO of Elektroservisi, Mr. Tomaž Willenpart, president of Ljubljana Matica Mountaineering Club and Pavle Kozjek, expedition leader.

Wikipedia about Mustagh Tower

"It is often said to be one of the most difficult mountains in the world to climb..." says Wikipedia about 7273 meters high mountain in the Karakoram Himalaya. The first ascent was a historical competition between British and French team who climbed the mountain from different sides. But later the mountain saw just a couple of successful climbs: the last in 1991.

On the footsteps of a legend

Two weeks before expedition departure Pavle Kozjek and Miha Lampreht made the first repetition (second ascent) of Zahodni steber (West buttress, VII/VII+) in the north face of Triglav. The route was opened more than twenty years ago by Slovenian climbing legend Franček Knez, beginner and leading force of Slovenian "new wave" of climbing in eighties. Beside technical skills the route requires mental strength: placement of protection is sometimes very difficult.
Some photos from the climb are in the gallery.

Training

For a mountain like Mustagh Tower you should be completely fit and ready. Beside endurance exercises (running, mountain bike etc...) the all-day mountain climbing is the best training.
On 1oth of June Dejan and Pavle made a rare free ascent of Direct route (VII+, blue line on photo) in 600 m east face of Stenar (2501 m) , neighbour of Slovenian highest mountain Triglav. There's a slide show available about their climb.
Three weeks later, Pavle and Grega climbed a line left of Direct route in the same face. The route was interesting, with some nice passages up to VII, but later they discovered that it's not completely new. A perfect training for Mustagh, anyway...

First presentation

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The project was briely presented in "Polet" magazine: The tower with a view of K2.
A nice and short introduction about the mountain, team and project in a weekly magazine that reaches many readers. Written by editor of the magazine Primož Kališnik.

The mountain, the team

-First time I saw the mountain during my Broad Peak-GII expedition in 1986, and later in 1988 on K2 Magic Line attempt that ended on 8100 m because of terrible weather. In August 2008 MustaghTower is the goal of a small 3-members team.
The basic info about the expedition is available with click on a small photo. The news are coming soon.
We are members of Ljubljana Matica climbing club.
Expedition is a part of Millet Expedition Project 2008.
Our agency in Pakistan: Blue Sky Trek and Tours
The news are coming soon.