UKC

'It's important to come back - and as friends.' Tom Livingstone writes about his recent expedition to Pakistan. Although it was unsuccessful in terms of summits, the trip provided important lessons on the value of bailing and trusting your judgement in the mountains.

For my seventh trip to the Greater Ranges, I teamed up with Tad McCrea. He's a tall, strong Californian and likes to loudly say, 'RESPECT!'

We chose the Charakusa valley in Pakistan. I'd wanted to visit for a long time, attracted by the ~7000-metre peaks like K6, K7, and Link Sar. But surrounding the idyllic, flat base camp are everything from granite bouldering, cragging, big walls, and alpine routes of every flavour.

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Great read. How are these trips financed out of curiosity?

You can look at past reports to see the finances of any BMC/MEF grant supported expeds: https://www.thebmc.co.uk/expedition-reports/Default.aspx

Great to read these articles.  Keep climbing and stay safe!

What is a ghost v thread?!

Don't think I've heard that term before, but I think it refers to when you do a v-thread but instead of threading tat, you thread the rope. Means you don't need loads of tat to bail and also means you don't leave any litter behind. I guess the 'ghost' comes from the not leaving anything behind bit. Works well in my (not extensive) experience.

Yes, @Fellover is correct. It's a type of abseil anchor built into the ice. You can thread a piece of cord or, to save needing to use lots of cord, your climbing ropes. Americans call it a 'naked thread.'
Here's a video:
https://www.neice.com/2018/01/make-naked-a-thread-rappel-anchor/
It works well except when there is a risk of your climbing ropes freezing into the ice thread (for example, when the ice is warm and melting slightly...!)