Zamberlan Polish ambassadors Marek “Ragan” Raganowicz and Marcin “Yeti” Tomaszewski have completed a new route on the northwest side of Great Trango Tower, one of the largest walls in the world. Bushido (VII– A4 VII+) takes a mostly independent line on the right side of the wall and then joins the Azeem Ridge (southwest ridge, Cordes-Wharton, 2004) for some distance, about three-quarters of the way up the face.
The two big-wall aces climbed their route capsule-style with four portaledge camps. After fixing ropes to Camp 1 atop the eighth pitch, they spent 20 days on the wall, climbing a total of 46 pitches. They ended the climb at night in a storm, at the top of the main southwest ridge. It took another two days to rappel the route.
“The last day of the climb had over 24 hours in a snowstorm and freezing cold,” Raganowicz said. “The raps down were one of the biggest challenges in our mountain careers. The ropes were totally frozen and stiff; snow and hail covered all gear. We reached the portaledge extremely exhausted with two last ropes left.”
The Poles placed 21 belay bolts and eight protection rivets on the route. Raganowicz said he believes they climbed mostly to the left of the Cordes-Wharton route, though he’s certain they followed it for three pitches.
