Distaghil Sar

Disteghil Sar or Distaghil Sar is the highest mountain in the Shimshal Valley, part of the Karakoram mountain range in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. It is the 19th-highest mountain on Earth, the 7th-highest in Pakistan, and the first of the high peaks after Shishapangma to be the tallest independent summit of its own subrange. Disteghil sar is a Wakhi language word suggested by the Wakhi people of Shimshal, meaning "above the inner ranch." The mountain has a 3 km top ridge above 7,400 meters elevation, with three distinct summits: Northwest, 7885 m; Central, 7760 m; and Southeast, 7696m or 7535m.

Climbing history
The first attempt to climb Distaghil Sar was made in 1957 by an English expedition led by Alf Gregory. That team attempted to climb the mountain from the south and the west, they reached 21300 ft but were defeated by bad weather. Unfavourable weather also foiled a 1959 Swiss attempt over the southeast ridge led by Raymond Lambert.

The first successful ascent was made in 1960 by Günther Stärker and Diether Marchart who were part of an Austrian expedition led by Wolfgang Stefan. The expedition climbed the western part of the south face and continued over the southwest ridge to reach the highest summit on 9th June.

The eastern summit is independent of the main, western, summit and about 100m lower; it was first climbed over the east face in 1980 by a Polish expedition which included Tadeusz Piotrowski. All participants of the expedition reached the summit. It was reascended in 1983.

It was more than 20 years before a second successful ascent of the highest, western summit. The Himalayan Index lists another ascent of the peak in 1980 and a Spanish team made an ascent in 1982 by following a route close to the one taken in 1960.

Two attempts over the daunting north face, in 1988 and 1998, were unsuccessful.

An attempt on the north ridge in 2008 was abandoned soon after the party arrived because dramatic changes to the terrain, which had occurred over the previous ten years or so, had resulted in conditions becoming extremely dangerous.