In September 2019, KAILAS athlete Aleš Česen, Luka Stražar (Slovenia) and Tom Livingstone (U.K.) were honored by Piolets d'Or Award, the prestigious mountaineering award, for their new route on Latok I during the Ladek Mountain Festival in Poland.
Ladek Mountain Festival
Aleš Česen
Latok I’s formidable north ridge had been attempted by dozens of mountaineers before Aleš, Luka and Tom chose to leave the north ridge before the top to traverse onto the south face and onto the summit. It took them five days to reach the summit and three to reverse their route. They are the second team to reach the summit of the 7,145m-high mountain in the Karakorum, Pakistan after the 1979 first ascent by a Japanese team from the south, and the first one from the north.
