Gasherbrum IV - West Face (The Shining Wall)

One of the most legendary mountain faces in the world, the west face of Gasherbrum IV has seen some of the best climbers in history, and has only been climbed twice. The 1985 ascent by Kurtyka and Schauer, taking 11 days instead of the planned 5, has become a legend despite not reaching the actual summit and is sometimes called the greatest ascent of the twentieth century. An inexperienced Korean team finally scaled the wall via its central rib in siege style in 1997, coming within 2 meters of the corniced summit.

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Route List

1: Northwest Ridge, ED+ 5.9, G. Child, T. Hargis, T. Macartney-Snape, 06/1986
2: The West Face, Central Rib, ED+ 5.10 A3, Hak-Jae Yoo, Tong-Kwan Kim, Jung-Ho Bang, Sung-Dae Cho et al., 07/1997
3: The Shining Wall, ED+ 5.7, W. Kurtyka, R. Schauer, 07/1985

Sources

• “Mountain Profile: Gasherbrum IV”, Michael Kennedy, Alpinist Magazine, Issue 02, Spring 2003

• “The Shining Wall of Gasherbrum IV”, Wojciech Kurtyka, AAJ, Vol. 28, Issue 60, 1986

• “The West Face of Gasherbrum IV”, Jae-Hag Jung, AAJ, Vol. 40, Issue 72, 1998

• Tim Macartney-Snape

• American Alpine Journal

• Alpinist Magazine

• Summitpost

• Florian Ederer/Wikimedia

Updates

Jul 16, 2023: First version published.

Jan 17, 2026: Minor graphical update

Feb 27, 2026: Minor graphic and caption update