Ultar, Mountain summit in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.
Ultar is a mountain summit in the Karakoram range in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, rising to 7,388 meters (24,238 ft) above sea level, directly overlooking the Hunza Valley. The peak towers more than 16,400 ft (5,000 m) above the valley floor, making its profile one of the steepest vertical rises in the entire range.
Before 1996, more than fifteen expeditions attempted this summit and all of them failed, with several ending in the deaths of climbers. In July 1996, two separate Japanese teams each reached the top for the first time, taking different routes to do so.
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.
A full climbing attempt on this peak takes around 40 days and requires careful acclimatization at several stages before reaching high altitude. Those visiting the region without climbing plans can view the peak clearly from the Karimabad area in the Hunza Valley below.
The two Japanese teams that first summited this peak in July 1996 each used a different route, meaning the mountain was climbed for the first time twice within the same month. This rare coincidence is almost without precedent at this level of difficulty in the Karakoram.
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