Overview
- This week a KPCTA‑supported expedition completed a crossing of Phargam An Pass, a roughly 5,100‑metre Hindu Kush route that had not been traversed in 27 years.
- The team included women climbers who made the first recorded female summits of the pass and was led on the ground by guide Zamurd Khan, with Kamran Khan the first to reach the top.
- Climbers navigated glaciers, steep snow slopes, loose rock and avalanche‑prone sections and reported materially changed terrain caused by retreating ice and increased rockfall.
- The party recovered a 1975 memorial plaque for Austrian mountaineer Georg Kronberger, linking the reopening to the pass’s earlier exploration history and past fatalities in the area.
- KPCTA says the mission is part of the Tirich Mir Project to map historic high‑altitude routes and promote responsible adventure tourism, but the team’s safety findings mean access and planning will need stricter local staging and risk management.