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Notes from Alexander Sternfeld's Instagram:

West Nepal 1/4: For the past 6 weeks I have been on a climbing trip to west Nepal with 3 friends. I have been amazed by the friendly people, the culture and the mountains. In 4 chronological posts I will share a bit about the expedition.

In Kathmandu, we had around 1.5 days to do groceries and arrange the permit at the ministry of tourism. Sufficient time, although we could have spent an entire afternoon admiring the local products in the supermarket!

We started the trek by walking from Simikot to Dojam, the last village in the valley. The second day brought consistent rain, soaking a fair amount of our luggage. Fortunately, the weather was good for the remainder of the approach. After 6 days, a comfortable base camp was established at 5040m.

During the last 2 days of the trek, I was suffering due to the altitude. Fortunately, this improved quickly and I was able to start carrying loads to set up our high camp on the glacier. We accessed the Angsi glacier via a col on the border of Tibet. The glacier is mellow and not difficult to navigate, making the approach quite comfortable. However, finding a sheltered spot for the tents proved to be difficult. The wind sweeps through most of the glacier, and our chosen spot did not escape it.

On October 7 we set off for an attempt at the NW ridge of P. 6013, to our knowledge previously unclimbed. The route was technically not difficult and hence a good acclimatization peak. In the upper part, we were all breathing heavily and feeling the altitude. Nevertheless, the views from the summit ridge were great, providing a full 360 degree view of the region.

On the way back, we spotted our small tent being flipped upside down by the wind. Next, we saw both our sleeping mats doing aerial acrobatics across the glacier, this is a view I won't forget quickly. With 1 broken tent pole and no sleeping mats, Bas and I decided that descending to base camp was the sensible choice. Florian and Diogo made a nice first ascent of the S Ridge of the Ganglung Kangri 1 the next day.

We were now all quite well acclimatized, and had scouted potential climbs in the area!

After some days rest, Bas and I headed back up to the high camp. We brought our technical gear and had our eyes set on an attractive couloir on the unclimbed P. 6119. The next day, we started at first light and quickly reached the foot of the face. What followed was hard work on steep and powdery snow. We managed to plough our way up, and were elated to reach the summit in the afternoon. Just before dark, we were back at camp.

In the evening, Bas noticed that his finger had turned purple. Unfortunately, the next morning we saw that it had deteriorated and a large blister had formed. We went to base camp, where we used the sat phone to contact a doctor. Following his advice, we called the helicopter and the same afternoon Bas was evacuated. We were happy the rescue was organised this quickly, but also worried for Bas. Luckily, it later turned out that Bas can keep his finger and should make a good recovery.

The next day, I went back up to high camp where I met Diogo and Florian. As they were going to attempt the line that Bas and I opened on P. 6119, I was left to make a plan for myself. In the end, I decided to link up the traverse of the Angsi Dong Dong and the Ganglung Kangri 1 & 2. These were both tracked by Florian and Diogo, which made it a lot faster and safer on the glacier. It was a nice experience to move alone in the mountains, isolated with just my thoughts.

Unfortunately, Florian and Diogo had to turn around on their attempt as it was too cold. The next day, we went back to base camp with heavy backpacks for some well-earned rest and good food.

Pictures are from the route on P. 6119, in the next post pictures from the Angsi Dong Dong and Ganglung Kangri traverse will be shown.

After returning to base camp, we had several rest days due to poor weather. During one of these days, we decided to have a hike to the border with Tibet. Here, we were surprised to discover that China had built a road right up to the border. Shortly after, Diogo headed back down to Simikot to recover, as he had a second trip planned for which he wanted to be rested.

Florian and I planned for an attempt on P. 6222. The chosen route would first go up a snowy north face, followed by a bivy on the flat glacier above. Then, the next day we would reach the summit by following a steep ridge. Unfortunately, on the approach day, Florian was already feeling a bit ill and was thus struggling with the heavy backpack. Overnight, this deteriorated due to the altitude and bitter cold. The next morning, he descended while I went to have a look at the face. Due to unconsolidated snow over the bergschrund, I turned around at the bottom of this face and joined Florian on the descent.

Our time was now up, and together with the mules we made our way down. Slowly, the surroundings became greener and the air thicker. In the evenings, we feasted on the food that was brought up with the mules, and Florian tried to recover with both ibuprofen and the local tobacco from the mule men.