Muztagh Tower Expedition

Vittorio Sella photographed the tower from the upper Baltoro during the Duke of the Abruzzi's K2 expedition. Seen end-on, the twin summits looked like a single unclimbable spire.

John Hartog, Joe Brown, Ian McNaught-Davis and Tom Patey climbed from the Muztagh glacier. Brown and McNaught-Davis reached the west top on 6 July, and Hartog and Patey the higher east summit on 7 July.

Days later Guido Magnone, André Contamine, Paul Keller and Robert Paragot reached the east summit from the Younghusband glacier, on 11 or 12 July depending on the source. Their route has never been repeated.

A seven-strong British team repeated the northwest ridge; Mal Duff and Tony Brindle, then Jon Tinker and Sandy Allan, reached the top in late July. Andrew Greig wrote about the trip in Summit Fever.

Göran Kropp and Rafael Jensen climbed the original route with a different lower line.

Pavle Kozjek and Dejan Miškovič climbed about 1,800 m of the northeast face to the ridge at around 6,800 m without summiting. Kozjek was killed when a cornice collapsed on the descent.

Dmitry Golovchenko, Alexander Lange and Sergey Nilov climbed the northeast face spur in 17 days, reaching the east summit on 25 August. It is the fifth and most recent known ascent.

Muztagh Tower is 7,276 m high according to the standard list of Karakoram summits and Wikipedia. You will also see 7,273 m, the figure on Peakbagger, which matches the 23,860 ft measured by the British team in 1956, and 7,284 m, the height used by the American Alpine Journal and most climbing news. The differences come from different surveys, not from a change in the mountain. Muztagh Tower has two summits a few metres apart: the east top is the main summit and is about three metres higher than the west top, and the 1956 British report gave them as 23,860 ft and 23,850 ft. Its prominence is about 1,710 m, which makes it one of the ultra-prominent peaks of the Karakoram. Whichever figure you use, it is a 7,000 m peak that is climbed far less often than its neighbours on the Baltoro.

Muztagh Tower is in the Baltoro Muztagh range of the Karakoram, on the border between Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan and Xinjiang in China. It stands just north of the Baltoro glacier, between the Baltoro basin and the Sarpo Laggo basin on the Chinese side. All the routes climbed so far start in Pakistan, from the Muztagh glacier or the Younghusband glacier, two side glaciers that join the Baltoro from the north between Paiju and Urdukas on the K2 trek. Base camp is five to six days' walk from Askole, the last village, which is reached by jeep from Skardu through Shigar. Do not confuse it with Muztagh Ata, the 7,546 m snow dome in the Chinese Pamir near Kashgar, which shares part of the name but is a completely different mountain and a much easier climb.

Muztagh Tower was first climbed in 1956 by two expeditions within a few days of each other. A British team led by John Hartog, with Joe Brown, Ian McNaught-Davis and Tom Patey, climbed the northwest ridge from the Muztagh glacier. Brown and McNaught-Davis reached the slightly lower west top on 6 July, and Hartog and Patey crossed to the higher east summit on 7 July; Hartog's toes were frostbitten on the descent. A French team of Guido Magnone, André Contamine, Paul Keller and Robert Paragot climbed the southeast ridge from the Younghusband glacier and reached the east summit on 11 or 12 July, depending on the source. The French route has never been repeated. Both ascents came almost fifty years after Vittorio Sella's photograph had made the tower look unclimbable.

Only five expeditions are known to have reached the summit of Muztagh Tower. They are the British and French teams of 1956, a British team in 1984 whose members Mal Duff, Tony Brindle, Jon Tinker and Sandy Allan summited on consecutive days, Göran Kropp and Rafael Jensen in 1990, and the Russian team of Dmitry Golovchenko, Alexander Lange and Sergey Nilov, who climbed a new route on the northeast face in 2012. That makes about seventeen climbers on the top in seventy years. We have found no ascent since 2012, although teams have tried the southeast ridge in 2006 and 2016. One climber, the Slovenian Pavle Kozjek, is known to have died on the mountain, in 2008. Compared with Spantik, which commercial teams climb every summer, Muztagh Tower remains one of the least climbed big peaks of the Karakoram.

Muztagh Tower is one of the most difficult 7,000 m peaks in Pakistan, and every route on it is technical. The northwest ridge involves a steep ice wall of around 1,900 ft to the west col, a rock chimney, long sections of fixed rope and a hard rock step between the two summits. The southeast ridge crosses two great rock towers and has never been repeated since 1956. The 2012 Russian route on the northeast face is graded ED 6a A2 M6 and has near-vertical rock above 6,600 m. On top of the climbing there are cornices, loose granite and limestone, icefalls and long periods of bad weather. Only experienced alpinists who can lead steep ice and mixed ground at altitude, and who have already climbed technical 6,000 or 7,000 m routes, should consider it.

Muztagh Tower is in the 7,001 to 7,500 m royalty band in Pakistan. Under the per-person system reported since 2025, the summer royalty is US$500 per climber, with lower rates in autumn and winter. The official Gilgit-Baltistan tourism website still lists the older rate of US$2,500 per team of up to seven, so the exact fee should be confirmed with your operator for each season. The Baltoro beyond Askole is a restricted zone, which means a liaison officer is assigned to the expedition, and each member pays the Central Karakoram National Park fee, currently about US$200. Climbers need a mountaineering visa, applied for online against a sponsorship letter from a licensed Pakistani operator, which takes about four to six weeks. We handle the permit application, the liaison officer and the park fee for every team.

Every known ascent and attempt on Muztagh Tower has been made between June and August, the summer climbing season in the Karakoram. The 1956 teams set up base camp in late May and June and reached the summit in July. The 2008 Slovenian attempt and the 2012 Russian ascent took place in August, and the 2016 attempt in July and August. Outside these months the Baltoro is colder, the approach is harder for porters and there is no record of a successful climb. Even in summer the weather is unreliable: the 1956 British team reported bad weather on about half their days. We recommend planning for four to six weeks on the mountain, which with the five to six day trek each way and the days in Skardu and Islamabad makes an expedition of about 45 days.

Our Muztagh Tower base-camp service costs from $4,550 per person, which matches the average of what Pakistani operators charge for the same service. It includes the royalty and permits, the liaison officer, jeep transport from Skardu to Askole and back, porters to and from base camp, the base camp cook and staff, tents and all meals at base camp, and the Central Karakoram National Park fee. It does not include international flights, the Islamabad to Skardu flights unless agreed, travel insurance, personal climbing equipment or personal expenses. High-altitude porters, a climbing guide, fixed rope and oxygen are not part of the base package, because most teams on Muztagh Tower climb alpine style and look after themselves above base camp. If you want high-altitude support, we quote it separately for your team and route.