원정 개요

Approach: Jomsom->Kagbeni->Samar->Bhena->Shyangmochen->Ghami->west along Dhuya Khola

Biv on glacier.

From Jomsom, the two climbers went north to Kagbeni, Samar, Bhena and Shyangmochen to Ghami village. At Ghami, which they reached on 12 April, they trekked west along the Dhuya Khola and on 13 April made their first bivouac for their climb at 4000m. The next day, they bivouacked farther west near the khola at 5000m. On 15 April, they made their final bivouac south-southeast of the khola on glacier at 5300m.

From this last bivouac at 4:00 am on 16 April, Athans and Hessler climbed the West Ridge. The ridge was partly knife-edge rock with some snow cover at a steepness of 45-50 degrees and occasional rock steps, but no belays were necessary. They were on the summit at 10:30 am and descended to 5000m to sleep.

On the 17th they retraced their steps to Ghami village and on the 18th they were back in Jomsom.

The climb had not been difficult and they had fixed no rope. The hardest part had been finding access to the mountain and getting their gear in place, but did not need to retreat from any false approaches.

The team saw no other people after they had left Ghami. They were entirely alone with an unattempted mountain to find their way up.