At the end of September, a Polish company canceled their attempt at a beautiful, forgotten pearl: the 6,990 meter high Sang-E-Marmar, located in Batura Muztagh, Pakistan.
For two weeks, Damian Bielecki, Marco Schwidergall and Lukasz Muller attempted the second ascent of this marble peak via a new alpine-style line.
“To achieve it the way we wanted, we needed good acclimatization, a safe descent route, good route conditions and… weather,” Bielecki recalls.
Unfortunately, a dangerous serac at an altitude of 5,500 meters blocked the route and they felt forced to withdraw.
Although they failed in their goal, they came home with some options for a future climb.
Let’s take a look at the thin climbing history of this almost forgotten mountain.
Sang-E-Marmar is a pyramidal peak in the Batura Muztagh sub-region of the Karakoram, between the Muchuhar Glacier in the west and the Shishper Glacier in the east.
At 6,990 meters, Sang-E-Marmar is the fourth highest 6,000 meters in the world, after 6,995 meters Kohe Tez, 6,993 meters Machhapuchhareand 6.992 million Rishi Pahar, according to 8000ers.com.
The first attempt
A Canadian expedition led by Ernest Frederick Roots first attempted Sang-E-Marmar in the spring of 1964. According to the American Alpine Journal, the Canadians arrived in Hunza in May 1964 to explore the region south of Batura. They planned to locate and climb a peak known as Hachindar Chhish, which previous expeditions had not visited.
The Canadians explored Hachindar Chhish from three sides of the massif, but concluded that there was no safe way to reach the mountain.
Their attention then turned to “a pyramid-shaped massif of about 6,949 meters,” which the party called Sangemarmur (written with “u”). It means ‘marble’ and refers to a striking band of yellow marble across the top. The Canadians established seven camps on the southwest side of what we now spell as Sang-E-Marmar. Ultimately, they had to withdraw without reaching the summit due to bad weather and high avalanche danger.
The first ascent
Twenty years later, in 1984, Osaka University organized an expedition to Sang-E-Marmar. The Japanese team consisted of Takashi Matsuo (leader), Akira Noguchi, Hiromi Okuyama, Takehiko Hirota, Tokyo Kozuki, Masaya Oishi, Toru Sakakibara, Kenya Sato, Sibichi Miyata, Tomoyoshi Mizukava and Hiroyuki Onishi. Their chosen line went up the southwest ridge.
To reach Camp 1 at an altitude of 5,100 meters, they climbed over ice of 40 to 50 degrees. The southwest ridge has two front peaks. They established Camp 2 at 5,800 meters, at the foot of the first forepeak.
The Japanese set up camp 3 at an altitude of 6,400 meters. On July 11, six men left Camp 3, trekked around the second front summit on the Batura side of Sang-E-Marmar, and finally reached the summit. Two days later, the other members also reached a peak.
During the climb they repaired 3,000 meters of rope. Although their successful line followed the most logical route, the southwest side was very challenging, highly technical and dangerous. Theirs remains the only successful ascent of this peak.
Before the recent Polish attempt, another party had attempted a second ascent. In the summer of 1986, a Belgian expedition led by Jacques Collaer attempted the southwest side. The technical difficulty of the route, poor snow conditions and falling rocks prevented them from reaching the summit. One climber escaped with broken ribs due to falling rocks.
The height controversy
The Belgians indicated in their report American Alpine Journal that the height of Sang-E-Marmar was 7,050 meters. This differs from the consensus height of the three other expeditions: 6,949 meters. However, none of these heights are correct.
In 1964, the Japanese called its height “about 6,949 meters”. Several later sources, including the Belgians, called it 7,050 meters, so for a while it was considered a 7,000’er.
However, according to Eberhard Jurgalski of 8000ers.com, the correct height is 6,990 meters.
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