Stefano Ragazzo and Silvia Loreggian complete the first enchainment of Great Trango Tower, Little Trango Tower, and Nameless Tower without returning to base camp. Nine consecutive days in the mountains climbing some of the Karakoram’s most iconic faces.
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In July 2026, Italian climbers Stefano Ragazzo and Silvia Loreggian wrote a new chapter in mountaineering in the Trango massif in Pakistan, completing the first link-up of Great Trango Tower, Little Trango Tower, and Nameless Tower. The three mountains were linked in a single progression, without ever returning to base camp.
From July 14 to 22, the two remained on the mountain for nine consecutive days, tackling the Great Trango Tower (6,286 m) via the American Route, the Little Trango Tower (about 5,445 m) via the PM Wall, and the Nameless Tower (6,238 m) via Eternal Flame.
Between one rock face and the next, Ragazzo and Loreggian traveled on foot, relying on some food and gear caches prepared in the previous weeks. The idea was to approach the Trango massif not as a succession of separate ascents, each with a return to base camp, but as a single mountaineering traverse, where rock faces, glaciers, passes, bivouacs, and transfers would become an integral part of the same adventure.
The idea wasn’t simply to climb three mountains in the same expedition. We wanted to truly connect them, set off and keep moving without returning to base camp, transforming rock faces, glaciers, passes, and bivouacs into a single journey. Bringing the link-up concept to the high mountains means adding everything else to the climb: altitude, weather, recovery, logistics, and above all, the ability to continually adapt to what you encounter. Ultimately, this was the most interesting aspect of the project.
Stefano Ragazzo
From Castle to Great Trango: The Beginning of the Journey
The initial project was even more ambitious. The plan was to start from Castle Trango, continue towards Great Trango, Little Trango, and Nameless Tower, and conclude the crossing on Monk.
Ragazzo and Loreggian left base camp on July 14, ascending about 1,300 meters of a steep gully to the col between Castle and Great Trango. The weather window, however, arrived later than expected. Snow and clouds had completely soaked the Castle face, making it impossible to tackle the new route the two had envisioned as the first chapter of their project.
With only five or six days of stable conditions forecast, the decision was therefore to forgo the Castle and initiate the Trango Link-up from Great Trango Tower.
On July 16, they attacked the American Route on Great Trango. Conditions immediately complicated their progress: loose snow, mixed terrain, and several sections of rock requiring ice axes and crampons made the climb slower than expected. Even the limited information available about the route led the two climbers to make several deviations from the most effective line.
The goal was to reach the summit within a day, and for this reason, Ragazzo and Loreggian hadn’t brought enough food or gas to spend the night on the face. The bivouac gear was waiting for them in the stash on the opposite side.
As night fell, however, it became clear that they would need to stop. The two bivouacked on a saddle at about 6,000 meters, just 200 meters below the summit.
On the morning of July 17, they resumed their ascent, completing the summit ridge and reaching the summit of Great Trango Tower, at 6,286 meters. From there, they descended along the normal route to the col, where the first cache of equipment awaited them.
From Little Trango to Nameless Tower
On July 18th, the link-up continued on Little Trango Tower, tackling the PM Wall. The route follows a system of chimneys and cracks that leads directly to the summit, while the descent proved more complex than expected.
Ragazzo and Loreggian had to set up belay stations and identify the best line each time, paying particular attention to the risk of the ropes getting stuck.
The next day the ascent of Eternal Flame began, on the Nameless Tower.
For Stefano Ragazzo, this was a particularly significant return. He had already roped the same route solo in 2024, spending nine days completely alone on the wall.
This time, however, Eternal Flame represented a stage of a much larger project.
The fatigue accumulated over the previous days didn’t deter the two climbers, who continued climbing until dark, reaching Snow Ledge where they spent the night. The next morning, they completed the upper section of the face and the final mixed section, reaching the summit of Nameless Tower, at 6,238 meters, on July 20th.
The summit, however, was not the end of the day: about a thousand meters of abseiling awaited them.
Three mountains were now connected. But the Trango Link-up still had one final chapter to write.
The last attempt on the Monk
July 21st was the last possible day before the expected worsening of conditions. Despite the fatigue accumulated after three walls and several consecutive days at altitude, Ragazzo and Loreggian decided to attempt adding Monk to the enchainment anyway.
After about 400 meters of elevation gain on snow, they reached the base of the face. As they ascended, the difficulties gradually increased until, just three pitches from the summit, they found themselves faced with a forced choice between two options.
The first involved a section of aid that would have required peckers and a larger supply of pitons. The second involved a wet offwidth, which could only be tackled with larger cams than the ones the two had brought with them.
Meanwhile, the weather was rapidly deteriorating. Given the conditions and the available equipment, they chose to abort the attempt and retreat.
Snow caught up with them during their final rappels, turning to rain as they descended toward the advance camp.
The biggest challenge was the growing fatigue day after day. Every morning we set off with a little less energy than the day before, but we always had another wall ahead of us, another move, another decision to make. Over the nine days, there were beautiful moments and others when I just wanted it all to be over. I think this was the most intense thing: continuing to move forward amidst an ever-deepening exhaustion, without losing the clarity needed to know when to keep going and when to stop.
Silvia Loreggian
Returning to a destroyed base camp
By the morning of July 22nd, the Trango Link-up could be considered complete, but for Ragazzo and Loreggian, the expedition wasn’t over yet. A final, unexpected event awaited them at base camp.
A radio communication informed the two that during the night a large landslide had hit the camp area.
The members of their expedition had managed to escape, but the camp had been destroyed. Tents, clothing, and equipment had been submerged in water, mud, and sand. Four members of another expedition had been injured, one of them with a head wound.
Ragazzo and Loreggian collected and loaded as much material as possible, immediately heading for base camp. However, bad weather prevented the helicopter from taking off, and the most seriously injured man was subsequently evacuated on a stretcher by a rescue team that arrived by land.
The Trango Link-up thus concluded after nine consecutive days in the mountains: three summits reached, a fourth attempt aborted just three pitches from the summit, and a continuous line through the heart of the Trango massif.
| Period | July 14-22 2026 |
| Duration | 9 consecutive days in the mountains |
| Alpinists | Stefano Ragazzo e Silvia Loreggian |
| Place | Trango Group, Karakorum, Pakistan |
| Great Trango Tower – 6.286 m | American Route |
| Little Trango Tower – about 5.445 m | PM Wall |
| Nameless Tower – 6.238 m | Eternal Flame |
| Monk | Attempt aborted three pitches from the summit |
| Castle | Planned as the starting point for a link-up with a new route; abandoned due to wall conditions and weather. |
