Nafees Cap

A recent grant from SPARC, the NZAC and the MEF allowed an Australian/Kiwi team of Adrian Laing, Scott Standen, Bruce Dowrick and Jon Sedon to travel to the Charakusa Valley, Karakorum, Pakistan. They climbed a new route on a huge buttress on the west side of K7 called Nafees Cap, 1000m of golden granite. The base of the new route was at 5000m and led on to 620 metres of new climbing, joining the original route, Ledgeway to Heaven. Unfortunately snow conditions on the upper low angle sections of LtH turned them around before the summit proper. They spent nine nights on the wall and placed two lead bolts. The mostly wide crack systems provided excellent protection and a constant supply of water. (Unfortunately Bruce and Scott suffered from altitude sickness beyond camp one and turned around, leaving Jon and Adrian to continue on to the the top of the route.)
Naughty Daddies is 600m long and has 20 pitches up to grade 25 (mostly in the low 20s). The original route on Nayser Brakk was also climbed by all team members on one fine day out!

Caption: Adrian Laing leading pitch six of Naughty daddies, Nafees Cap, Pakistan. JON SEDON