In mid-September, Mick Fowler and Vic Saunders, two famous British mountaineers, reached the summit of Yawash Sar, 6258 m. in Pakistan, a hitherto virgin peak with the mouth of a sharp Matterhorn. A new first for a team who, 37 years ago, opened the Golden Pillar on the almost neighbouring Spantik. Not surprisingly, Mick Fowler is 68, having survived cancer in 2017, and his companion Victor Saunders is…74. A good age for a fine alpine style, in a remote corner of the Karakoram: a lesson in mountaineering, and above all, a lesson in life.
Over there in Pakistan, in the magnificent Hunza valley, from the heights of Karimabad, it’s impossible to take your eyes off a luminous pillar, which rises to 7028 m on the summit of Spantik. This golden marble pillar, the Golden Pillar, was climbed in 1987 by Mick Fowler and Victor (Vic!) Saunders. Their ascent, which Stephan Venables and Andy Fanshawe selected for their famous book L’Himalaya en style alpin, thrilled a whole generation. For example, Emmanuel Guy, Emmanuel Pellissier, the Hungarian Attila Osvath and the famous Slovenian Marko Prezelj, in 2000, in the very good time of 5 days.
Since then, Mick and Vic have had many other Himalayan adventures. They’ve recounted them in a great book, Les Tribulations de Mick et Vic en Himalaya, published by Éditions du Mont-Blanc. Fowler’s style is one of the most demanding: unfamiliar mountains, technical routes, and descent via another, equally unfamiliar slope… The list of his ascents is