Ultar, Mountain summit in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.
Ultar is a mountain summit in the Karakoram range that rises steeply to 7,388 meters above the Hunza Valley. This dramatic elevation of over 5,300 meters occurs over just 9 kilometers, giving the peak its distinctive vertical character.
Before 1996, over fifteen climbing expeditions attempted to reach the summit but all failed, resulting in numerous deaths among mountaineers. In July 1996, two separate Japanese teams achieved the first successful ascents, each establishing a different route to the top.
Local stories connect this peak to a fairy queen said to inhabit a mountain palace in its heights. This legend still shapes how regional people view and speak of the summit today.
Climbing this peak requires about 40 days, including substantial acclimatization phases and multiple climbing stages in very cold conditions. Visitors should prepare for extreme altitude conditions and a long time commitment.
This summit presented climbers with a technically extreme challenge long considered impossible to overcome. The fact that two separate teams succeeded in the same month reveals how thin the line was between unreachable and achievable.
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