Batura Muztagh is Ultra peak of 7,388 meter, and a sub-range
of the Karakoram Range in Hunza Valley, GB Pakistan. It is ranked 70th highest
peak of world and 31st highest peak in Pakistan. Moreover Ultar Sar is the southeastern most
foremost peak of the Batura Muztagh, a sub range of the Karakoram range. It
lies about ten kilometers northeast of the Karimabad, a town on the Karakoram
Highway in the Hunza Valley, part of the Gilgit District of Gilgit–Baltistan,
Pakistan. Batura Muztagh has notable features and climbing history.
Though it is not one of the highest peaks of the Karakoram,
Ultar Sar is notable for its exciting rise above local terrain. Its south flank
rises over 17,388 feet above the Hunza River near Karimabad, in only about 10
km of horizontal distance. Combined with its strategic position at the end of
the Batura Muztagh, with the Hunza River bending around it, this makes Ultar a
visually striking peak.
Ultar Sar also gained fame in the 1990s as supposedly the
world's highest unclimbed independent peak. This was improper, as Gangkhar
Puensum in Bhutan is higher, and remains unclimbed in 2007. Moreover; two other
higher peaks are also reputedly unclimbed and of independent stature. However
that perception did increase to the appeal of the peak, and a numeral of
expeditions attempted to climb it. Therefore during the 1980s and 1990s over 15
expeditions made attempts, resulting in no success, but in a number of
fatalities; the peak proved to be quite tough.
The first two ascents were made in July 1996 by two separate
Japanese expeditions, the first from the Tokai section of the Japanese Alpine
Club led by Akito Yamazaki who summited, but unluckily died on the descent and
the second led by Ken Takahashi. The first summit team consists of Yamazaki and
Kiyoshi Matsuoka who also died one year later on the adjacent peak Bublimotin.
They climbed the peak from the southwest in alpine style, doing much of the
climbing at night to evade danger from falling rock and ice. After their
successful summit, they faced strong storms and bivouaced several days without
food before returning to basecamp.
Nevertheless, Akihito Yamazaki died at
basecamp of an internal disease due to the relentless stress of climbing. The 2nd
summit team comprised Takahashi and 4 others: Masayuki Ando, Ryushi Hoshino,
Wataru Saito, and Nobuo Tsutsumi. They climbed the south ridge. Then after 1996,
there have been no recorded ascents of the peak.
