원정 개요

BC on Chuwa Khola
C1 on North Ridge
C2 on Col in ridge.

Changla is in northwest Nepal, northeast of Mt. Saipal on the border with Tibet. The team took a bus to Simikot and not far beyond, to the end of the road, then trekked along the Chuwa Khola east to Damjam and followed the river as it turned north to the border. The base camp was pitched beside the small river.

Next, they made a reconnaissance to find a good climbing route, and they had a temporary C1 at 5000m where they stayed for four or five days while they observed the SW Face. Their decision was to get onto the North Ridge, which delineates the border, from the SW Face of this ridge (the face is on Tibetan side of the border). Their temporary camp was actually at the bottom of this face.

They returned to BC on 14 Sept. A period of rain and snow kept them in camp until the 21st, when they returned to the camp and climbed higher and pitched a permanent C1 at 5500m on the ridge. On the 22nd they started to make the route along the ridge on mixed rock and ice. They finally established C2 on the 26th at a col on the ridge at 6090m.

The following day, 27 September, the four members attacked the summit from C2. They left the camp at 4:00 am on "a beautiful day - no wind, no clouds." They gained the top at 11:40 am after having surmounted a 300m high icefall just above C2 (from 6100m to 6400m, where they fixed the only rope on the route).

They got back to C2 at 11:30 pm. Their return was very slow because they decided they should descend via the long fluted North Ridge into Tibet and down to the glacier at the foot of the ridge. They walked along the glacier and then up onto the ridge to C2.

On the 28th, Nakatsukasa and Shibayama descended to C1 while the Kobayashi and Yamaguchi packed up their high camp and joined their teammates in BC on the 29th.

They left BC on 2 October, trekked to Simikot, flew to Surkhet, and took a bus to Kathmandu, which they reached on the 6th.