Latok III Attempt. After losing ten days to lost luggage, Phil Powers and I attempted the unclimbed west face of Latok III (6950 meters, 22,802 feet). On July 30 and again on July 31, we climbed the 500-meter-high snow gully on the

left side of the face and traversed 300 meters to the right, carrying fuel and equipment. On August 2, we retrieved our cache and continued up steepening ice sheets to a small bivouac on the left side of the large gully or funnel system. On August 3, we climbed mixed ground to a good bivouac atop a snow-covered spur at 20,500 feet. August 4 was stormy and we could only fix our three ropes over difficult rock and water ice to a pistol-shaped snowfield. The storm increased during the next three days and with the porters coming on August 9, we spent the 8th cleaning and descending the route via 29 rappels.

G r e g C o l l i n s , National Outdoor Leadership School