The Story of K7 West

Steve House / Sep 10, 2007 / 1 Min Read / Climbing

If you’ve been following the sat phone updates from Steve House here on The Cleanest Line you know that he, Vince Anderson and Marko Prezelj recently summited the previously unclimbed West Peak of K7 in Pakistan’s Charakusa Valley. Today we present a complete recap of the climb as told by Steve House. It’s tales like this that get us fired up for our own missions, however remote or difficult they may be.

Please note, this recording is just over 30 minutes long. If you don’t have time to listen to it now, right-click on the link and save the file for playback later on your computer or iPod.

Listen to Steve House Update 7 (mp3 – 7.49 MB)

Many thanks to Steve for taking the time to make the calls that comprise this recording. We hope to hear from him one more time before the team packs up and comes home. Between the weather and the short time the team has left in Pakistan it’s questionable whether they’re going to be able to attempt K6 West. But it sounds like they hope to still make one more climb, somewhere, before hitting the road. Stay tuned.

Previous posts from the series:

Airfare and Intervals
K6: Travel, Weather and Acclimatizing
K6 & 7: Acclimatizing on Two New Routes
K6 & 7: The Weather Strikes Back
K6 & 7: Scouting and Starting K7
K6 & 7: K7 West Goes

Steve, Vince, Marko and the support crew would like to give a shoutout to the Kiwanis Club of Parachute, Colorado.

Author Profile

Steve House

Reinhold Messner called Steve House “the best high-altitude climber in the world today.” But for Steve, climbing is about process, not achievement. He says, “The moment your mind wanders from the climbing at hand will be the moment you fall.” Steve has earned Messner’s praise by leading the charge to climb bigger routes, from the Himalaya’s to the Canadian Rockies, faster and with less equipment than anyone before. He is the author of two books: Beyond the Mountain and Training for the New Alpinism: A Manual for the Climber as Athlete (cowritten with Scott Johnston). In 2012, Steve and his wife Eva cofounded Alpine Mentors a non-profit organization to mentor young climbers to safely become better alpinists.