the 4th ascent of the worlds biggest rock arch!!

As soon as BiRT was free, we drove to Kashgar- that was 8pm so we arrived at 2.45am. everyone sung along to cheesy music sitting on the bouldering mats at the back of BiRT as it got dark. We had a brief stop at Lake Karakul which was near Mustagh Ata (7000m peak that is quite accessible). Again we got a nice hotel and Hannah and I woke up at 12 the next day just in time to catch the end of breakfast- pancakes! We are in Beijing time here which is 2 hours ahead of Pakistan time, so a lot of people use local time, but businesses use Beijing time. It’s a bit strange but means we have light until 10pm. Kashgar is a busy city but has good pavements and is clean but very busy and smoggy. The people here have Turgistan influence so most don’t look typically Chinese. The womens dress is aweful- sequines and frills and bad colours- like children dressing up!
We had a brief day to sort ourselves out before getting taxis- modern jeeps- luxury!- to Shiptons Arch.
I now officially have the title of 4th ascent of the biggest natural rock arch in the world! It still sounds so cool! So after hearing from Duncan all the details about the climb, as he did it last year (the first ascent was by the National Geographic 10 years before). The arch is made of loose conglomerate rock so its not going to be world class climbing as every step you have to check the pebbles wont break off! Duncan explained his route as ascending a gully solo to a scary traverse with bolts spaced 8-9 metres apart, then a 60m abseil to the beginning of the route- this ment leaving static lines on the ab to jumar back up again to get off the route. After was a 3 pitch climb to the top of about Severe/HS grade. He described the bolts as probably ok- but they are essentially drilled into mud and pebbles!
The whole thing sounded scary but I was sort of intrigued! I casually agreed to climb with Graham but depending on what it looked like and how Danny got on on the first day.
Team 1 was Danny, Hannah and Seb and Veroni. Graham and I got up with them at 7am when it was still dark (after I slept just in my sleeping bag under the stars!) and set off along the half hour walk to the arch. The surprise at the archwas universal- ‘wow’ was all we could say as we looked up to the top of the arch and down into the depths of the valley. The guys decided to look at a different gully that the National Geographic took and found it cut out the scary traverse and abseil. At that point I decided I was climbing it!
The four reached the top at lunchtime- much quicker than expected so we decided to go for the summit that day. Roscoe joined us as a 3 and we started up the gully. I found this really scary as parts were so steep you had to bridge up with a long drop below you, having to trust the pebbles. At the top (about 100m) we had a terrifying traverse of 5 metres or so on loose stone over a massive drop- it felt so exposed! I was glad to reach a bolt and start using ropes! We met the other 4 at their last abseil point considering how to do the traverse pitch, so Graham led the pitch- I bolt in 20m with a second rope that could be fixed both ends and used as a static rope to clip into when abseiling.
The great thing about this is I could clip into the rope while climbing and avoid having to worry about the possibility of a 10+ m swing into nowhere and having to jumar up. The next pitch Roscoe led and it had no bolts until the belay, and the last pitch was longer with 3 bolts. The climbing was fine and not as loose as I was expecting. We went up the ridge line so could see miles in both directions with an amazing view on top down into the slot canyon and over the other mountains. The top was about 2m wide, so we enjoyed the view but were quickly ready to start abseiling down which Danny had said was he scariest bit. This was because it was down the ridge so if you slipped you would take a massive swing (possibly cutting the rope on sharp pebbles, worst case scenario) or hang in mid air in the arch and have to jumar up the rope. I didn’t want to test the bolts that well either! Roscoe wanted to go down first, which ment he then held the rope at the next belay to hopefully stop me from swinging if I slipped. We had no trouble though and got down to the top of the gully. As I had found the gully so scary, we used a bolt left by the NG (10 years earlier and no hanger so we tied some tat round it) and used it to ab off- it moved so not ideal! the ab finished just before the worst part of the gully- typical! about 7 hours later we were back on the ground and very pleased/ relieved with ourselves. back to reheat leftover dinner. the rest of the group had moaned so much about going to Shiptons arch becasue there is nothing else to do there- its in the middle of nowhere, that Danny walked all the way back to the road to ring the taxis to pick us up. so at 11.30 that evening we had to quickly pack up and again arrive at Kashgar at 2am.
just around the corner is a western restaurant owned by a new zealander and it sells proper cheese burgers- hurrah!! and it has chinese monopoly and pool. weve spent the last couple of days there including a party there which ended in the early morning. the owner produced a spicy vodka shot with a dead scorpian in the bottom- there was no way i was trying it, but a few oif the guys did, eating the scorpian- yuk! we visited the sunday market which was full of all sorts including a lot of fur, w saw a whole tiger fur, and i finally found a musical instrument. we go on to t!bet as soon as our liason officer turns up.

the 4th ascent of the worlds biggest rock arch!!

Tashkurgan, China