We were nine: girl’s party Tina Di Batista, Tanja Grmovšek and Aleksandra Voglar, youngsters Matjaž Jeran and Matevž Kunšic, Nejc and Aleš Cesen and “veterans” Silvo Karo and me, Andrej Grmovšek. We came to Islamabad on 6th of August. Flights to Skardu were impossible due to bad weather and the KKH road was also blocked by some landslides and destroyed bridges. Anyway we came by van to Skardu in three long days and continued to Trango base camp. There the changeable weather continued for most of our 25 days stay. Only three weather exceptions appeared. First, the only two totally cloudless days on 19th and 20th of August, totally bad week of rain and snow at the start of September and quite stable and warmer second week of September. Weather permitted we try to climb as much as possible.

Silvo and I decided to climb rather then walk for our to the unnamed and unclimbed peak in Uli Biaho group. On 17th of August we climbed Warming up ridge (V, 6b, 450m, 700m long, 6h) to its summit and named it Uli byapjun (cca 4800m). We were back in BC for dinner. After a day of rest we headed again to Uli Biaho group. We found the way to the base of unclimbed Uli Biaho Great Spire (5594m) on our first climb. After afternoon approach trough big gully and bivouac we started at the col in early morning of 20th of August. We climbed via NE wall and S ridge to the rocky summit. The route Three hundred eggs (V+, 6b+, 600m, 800 long, 8h) was named after ordering more food to our cook. We were back in BC for late dinner on that same day. Again we took only one rest day. On 23rd of August we stood on a summit of Great Trango (6286m) together with Sandra, Tanja and Tina. We did normal route from Nameless col in snowy and changeable weather. Our acclimatization plan was achieved and after rest we were ready but the weather was not on our side. Anyway we were craging in walls above base camp.

The best of “base climbs” was our first ascent of Piranski zaliv (V+, 7a obl. R, 650m, 800m long, 8h) on 31st of August in a wall above base camp, which we christened Base camp slabs (cca. 4700m). All our first ascents were without bolts, we used some pitons for few rappels only. But after few days of bad weather we decided to clean filled cracks and exfoliated granite and nicer the line of Piranski zaliv. We added single bolt to instead unprotected slaby crux (another 7a, R, crux is still without bolt).

Our time was already running out, high summits were packed with snow from continues snowfalls but we got nice weather forecast for last few days of our staying. In such conditions a fast, one day attempt in legendary Eternal Flame in Nameless tower (6239m) was the only possible and interesting idea for us. The route is steep, sunny and there was at least snow in it. On 7th of September at 4a.m. we started climbing from the south col. I was leading first half of the route and Silvo was jumaring harder pitches and climbing easier with a small pack we had. At 8a.m., on shoulder we met all other Slovenian parties who started day before (Sandra, Tanja and Tina headed for Eternal flame too and Matjaž and Matevž, Nejc and Aleš heading for Slovenian route).

When traversing and overtaking girls party in first pitches above shoulder I used some aid, but climbed rest of my leader block free. We switched lead on small ledge on pitch 19 and were at 2p.m. already on big ledge just 6 pitches before the end of rocky wall. There the snow shower with icy wind frizzed us and stopped us for half hour. After it was over we climbed slower, mostly aiding due to cold and harder pitches. At 9p.m., already two hours climbing in moonlight we finally came 150m below summit, where snowy mix terrain begins. We thought we will be soon on summit, but there were a lot of snow and mix terrain up to M5. We were tired and with ice gear only for the first, second had to climb snow in lightweight snickers. We reached summit just a little bit before midnight.

We rappelled trough the night without problems and were back at the col at 4a.m. Our 24 hour roundtrip marathon remembered us on our similar marathon on Cerro Torre in year 2005 (32 hours roundtrip “Sitting start for C. Torre”, 1700m). The first one was much longer, but the climb on Nameless happened on higher altitude, with a lot of free climbing and is maybe more chalenging. We climbed the route at grade VI, 7b, A2, M5, 1000m. We headed home one day after.

First ascents:
- Warming up ridge, V, 6b, 450m, 700m long, Uli byapjun, cca 4800m
- Three hundred eggs, V+, 6b+, 600m, 850m long, Uli Biaho Great Spire, 5594m
- Piranski zaliv, V+, 7a, obl., 650m, 800m long, Base camp slabs, cca 4700m
Ascents:
- Eternal flame, VI, 7b, A2, M5, 1000m, Trango Nameless tower, 6239m, (20h)
- American route, ice and snow up to 80°, mainly 40°-60°, Great Trango tower, 6286 m
- Oceano Trango, IV, 6a/b, 250m, 300m long, Base camp slabs

Written by Andrej Grmovšek

	Photos             Uli Biaho Group   Uli Biaho Great Spire   Bouldering around   Climb on Eternal flame               On Uli byapjun FA   Summit of Uli Biaho Great Spire   Hands after 24 hours of hard work   Midnight on the summit