• Peak: Tahu Rutum (6,651 m / 21,820 ft), Karakoram, Pakistan
  • Route: The Leopard of Higher Ground
  • Wall: West Face (1,500 meters)
  • Team: Siebe Vanhee, Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll, Symon Welfringer
  • Style: Alpine style (up to 7a+/7b, M6, WI5)

Before Siebe Vanhee, Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll, and Symon Welfringer arrived in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, the 1,500-meter West Face of Tahu Rutum remained completely unclimbed. The wall presented a raw combination of sheer granite, overhanging rock, volatile weather, and unstable snow mushrooms guard-railing the higher sections.

They climbed in alpine style without fixed ropes or haul bags, carrying everything on their backs.

Into the Big Wall

The climb demanded constant adaptation across every pitch. Below, high-friction slabs and vertical splitter cracks meant climbing in rock shoes. Higher up, as winds channelled down the Karakoram corridors, the team was scratching up thin ice runouts and squeezing through icy chimneys in crampons.

Multi-day push conditions meant tight, freezing bivouacs. On one tiny ledge where the three climbers had to take turns even sitting down, Sean pulled out his tin whistle to break the silence and cut through the misery of throbbing, frozen toes.

They named their 1,500-meter creation The Leopard of Higher Ground—a clean alpine-style big wall free climb grading up to 7a+/7b rock, M6 mixed, and WI5 ice.