American climbers August Franzen, Dane Steadman, and Cody Winckler completed the bold first ascent of 6,667 meter (21,873 ft) Yashkuk Sar I in Pakistan’s Karakoram range in September 2024. The team was awarded the prestigious international 2025 Piolet d’Or award for this incredible feat of alpinism.
“The trio climbed the mountain’s north pillar and named it Tiger Lily Buttress (2,000m, AI5+ M6 A0). They descended by the upper west and lower north faces.
During acclimatization, they also climbed a new route on Sax Sar (ca 6,200m). Their route spiraled around the mountain, starting on the south side and following a glacial basin westward to eventually gain the west ridge, where they bivouacked.”
( 20205 American Alpine Journal – “Up, Up and Away: The First Ascent of Yashkuk Sar I | Pakistan, Karakoram, Baturah Muztagh” )
Read Dane Steadman’s account of the climb in the 2025 American Alpine Journal.
August Franzen’s story will be the feature article in the upcoming issue of Alpinist 92 (due to release in November, 2025).
You can read about the team’s Piolet d’Or Award honor and a summary of the climb on Les Piolets d’Or website.
The purpose of the Piolets d’Or awards is to raise awareness about the year’s greatest ascents across the world. They aim to celebrate the taste for adventure, the bravery and sense of exploration that lie behind the art of climbing in the world’s great mountain ranges. The jury was full of praise for this highly committing ascent and descent, and the young team, who embody the spirit of alpinism, searching journals and earth imagery for far-away objectives that push the boundaries of both technical difficulty and exploration.
Team member August Franzen is an Alaskan Alpine Club member from Valdez. The club has supported August’s dedication to preserve the archives of photographs, journals, and climbing history of Andrew Embick, Brian Teale, John Weiland, Jeff Benowitz and other legendary Alaskan alpinists. August presented a slide program with hundreds of images from these archives at the UAF Pub in early October, 2025.