New Ground Climbed on Nanga Parbat’s Famous Diamir Face
The new 1,400-metre variation has difficulties up to M6. It was not climbed to the summit, but the team plans to ascend the peak this season
On June 26, Francois Cazzanelli and Pietro Picco opened a new route variation on Nanga Parbat’s massive and famous Diamir Face. They called it Aosta Valley Express after the Aosta Guides from Italy.
The alpine climb starts at base camp and joins the Kinshofer Route at around 6,000 metres at camp two. Cazzanelli and Pietro joined others from there team including Roger Bovard, Marco Camandona, Emrik Favre, and Jerome Perruquet at camp two and they returned back to base camp.
The new 1,400-metre line is graded 90° ice and M6 85° on snow. They plan to climb Nanga Parbat, Broad Peak and K2 without using supplemental oxygen or a support team. They had acclimatized by climbing to 6,100 metres on Ganalo Peak.
In May, we reported about the West Wall of Changabang getting a second ascent after 46 years. Daniel Joll of the team has published a story about their ascent here, in which he says, “The only way to cope was to focus on one day at a time…We reminded each other not to think too far ahead. None of us thought we would summit. We never imagined it could be possible until the final one hundred metres.”
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