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Bivouac at top of couloir
High pt at top of a ridge on NE Face.

The two-man team approached the mountain (known as the true Mera Peak) from Lukla and an eight-day trek to BC; they crossed the Zatrwa La and from Tangnag village across the Mera La, north up the Hinku Valley to BC in the Nup Hinku Valley.

From BC, which they established on 12 October, they spent the first week acclimatizing by climbing some hills in the area and with a member of the British Hunku team, Gary Smith, trekked to the West Col near the normal site for Baruntse base camp. Then back to Peak 41 BC and two days rest.

On 23 Oct the two Britons set out to scale Peak 41. They left BC at 5:20 am to cross a large moraine field, which once was the Hunku Tang Glacier but no longer a glacier, to the base of a 600m long couloir on the NE Face of the mountain. Their first pitch was on very thin ice, which was climbable but without any protection: the ice was too thin and the rock underneath broke up when hit. They bivouacked here at the top of the couloir at 5650m at 5:15 pm.

The next day, the 24th, they encountered sugar on top of very loose shale; the snow cover got thinner and thinner as they climbed to 5840m at the top of a ridge on the NE Face. They turned around. It was just 10:00 am. They went down to BC at 3:30 that afternoon. Snow was falling and the sky was very very cloudy.