Gasherbrum I

The eleventh-highest mountain on Earth, 8,080 metres in the Karakoram range on the border between Pakistan and China. Gasherbrum I was originally named Hidden Peak by the British surveyor William Conway, who saw it from the upper Baltoro Glacier in 1892 and noted that the mountain remained hidden from view until a climber rounded the final bend in the glacier. The Balti name Gasherbrum is sometimes translated as "beautiful mountain" — a descriptive rather than the more romantic interpretation that English-language climbing literature has favoured.

The first ascent came in 1958 by an American expedition led by Nicholas Clinch — the first 8000er climbed by an American team, and one of the relatively few Karakoram peaks first ascended by climbers from outside Europe. The summit team was Pete Schoening and Andy Kauffman, climbing the Northwest Ridge. Schoening was already known in mountaineering for his role in the 1953 American K2 expedition, where his self-arrest on a falling team had saved five climbers. Gasherbrum I was his summit.

The standard route via the Japanese Couloir on the southwest side of the mountain is technical and exposed — steep ice, rockfall risk on the lower section, and a long summit ridge that holds avalanche danger throughout the climbing season. The fatality rate is approximately 9 percent — moderate by 8000-metre standards, low compared to neighbouring K2. The mountain is climbed by perhaps 20 to 40 people in a typical year, mostly by climbers seeking serious objectives outside the Everest commercial circuit.

What Gasherbrum I offers is the Karakoram experience without the K2 fatality rate. The approach through the Baltoro Glacier — the largest glacier outside the polar regions — is among the great mountain walks on Earth. Climbers who reach the summit have spent weeks on ice that has flowed from the highest peaks of the range. The setting is the mountain.