Amy Rice and I just returned from the western Karakoram where we completed the first ascent of Nico Sar (19,000ft/5800m), which we summitted on August 12 in bad weather. It took two camps placed at 17,400ft/5300m and 18,500ft/5650m to complete the ascent. The route entailed 3000 feet of excellent ice climbing. The angle of ascent varied between 30 degrees and 70 degrees, but most of the climbing was between 40 degrees and 60 degrees.

Barely reaching Camp I by nightfall, we descended in a snowstorm as numerous small sloughs of snow avalanched over us as we downclimbed and rappelled the steep terrain.

The Borth Glacier, the starting point for the climb, is part of the Karambar Valley located about 20 miles south of the Afghanistan border. We were the first expedition to climb on the Borth Glacier and found the exploration opportunities extraordinary.

From the Borth Glacier we trekked out across the Afghanistan border to the Darkot An (pass), encountering a friendly greeting from the Taliban from Afghanistan and the less-than-friendly border police. En route, we put up several rock climbing routes ranging from 5.6 to 5.8+ on a wall christened the "Road to Afghanistan" near the trail in the village of Garhil. To say the least, it has been an exciting month.