Those Who Climb this Wall Shall Remember Me.

Everest, the world’s highest peak, is no longer the subject of awe.

This year alone, as of June 22, over 167 people have climbed to the summit of the mountain. With the advent of commercial climbing, it is now common to see climbers ascending with ropes, using the routes created by other expeditions. Hence, some people disparage the climb, saying that “there is a highway on Everest.”

However, that does not mean that the spirit of challenging alpinism has disappeared. Since the 1980s, climbers from European countries, where climbing is advanced, have not been satisfied with simply climbing the mountain, and have focused on developing new routes, rock wall climbing, and exploring peaks not yet charted.

Korea is no exception, home to three of the eleven climbers that have climbed all the peaks over 8,000m in the Himalayas.

On June 25, a five-man expedition team, led by Yoon Dae-hoon (36), headed towards the Trango Tower, (also know as the Nameless Tower,6,239m) will depart to Pakistan’s Karakoram Mountains. This expedition’s purpose, commemorating the 15th anniversary of the climbing magazine “People and Mountain,” is to create a new route on the world famous walls of Trango Tower, and name it the “Korean Route.” Most of the funds used to cover the costs of the 45 million won expedition were paid by the publisher of “People and Mountain,” Hong Suk-ha.

The Trango Tower, notorious in the Trango mountain range for its rugged difficulty, is a granite wall with 1,300 m composed only of vertical walls. The expedition team will set camp at 700m below the summit, at around 5,500m somewhere in the middle of the wall, and will ascend and descend the wall installing rivets (big screw nails that are nailed to stone in order to hold ropes) for a week, and then finally go for the top.

How will they sleep on a vertical wall? They will sleep and rest in a portal-edge, a type of tent that has its top fixed against the wall, just like a beehive, with a shelf hanging in the air. The planned date for challenging the apex is July 30.

Expedition leader Yoon says, “I think the term alpinism itself includes challenges for something new. In my opinion, climbing to the top or creating new routes are all worthy tasks and part of climbing’s diversity.”

On the other hand, the Chung-Jook Alpine Club with its upcoming 20th anniversary will climb an unnamed peak (6,150m) and the Garmush peak (6,244m) in the Karakoram Mountains on the same day. Their six-member team is composed of leader Shim Kwun-shik and five others in their 40s and 50s. They chipped in to cover for the expenses and are very excited to climb a peak that no one else has ever stepped on.

Chang Jeon jeon@donga.com