Kokshaal Too, Kyrgyzstan 2023

Despite being dropped 8km short of their planned base camp and facing generally adverse weather conditions, this team of four was still able to make attempts on two summits – one on Pik Zabor and the other on Pik Gronky. The first failed due to harder than expected technical ground, which slowed progress, and the discovery of heavy snow higher on the route. They had more success on the second, climbing a snow gully which runs behind the mountain’s west face and a ridge of mixed ground which eventually joined the summit ridge. Following this, they arrived 100m below the summit but were turned back by the approaching darkness. They dubbed this incomplete route ‘If you like Pina Coladas’ and offered a grade of TD+, VII. High winds prevented them from undertaking further large-scale objectives, but the team did climb a number of shorter routes on and around Pik Gronky.