원정 개요

Approach: Taplejung, Ghunsa

BC 06/09 4700m
Biv1 13/10 6200m
Biv3 14/10 6900m
Smt 15/10 by both members at 13:40.

Fixed rope: twice for preparing next day’s climbing start (see route notes): 1 60m pitch on the 12 Oct; 2 pitches (100m) on the 14 Oct. 160m all-in-all.

Inital Plans:

Plane from KTM to Bhadrapur. From there, car until Taplejung, which should be reached on the 4 of Sept. Then Kangbachen on the 8 of Sept, then Lhonak. This year, instead of acclimatizing directly on Merra Peak from the BC, the duet prefers to acclimatize first near Lhonak, which is nowadays equipped with lodges and comfort. So they will scramble on local hills around Lhonak before reaching BC at least on the 20 of september. There they might possibly further acclimatize on Merra Peak.

Then on Jannu East, Vedrines and Jean will try again for the same line on the N Face than 2024, hopefully exiting to the top by the East Ridge. They proposed to Sam Hennessey to join them this fall in memory of his lost friend Michael Gardner, but the American declined.

Last fall’s cameraman Thibault Marot will accompany them for the drone footage.


• Acclimatization: Merra Peak

On the opposite to the initial plan, the duet went straight up to its base camp and not to Lhonak: “instinctively, we felt it better like that, to be able to stay straight in the place”. Conditions were very wet, with seemingly lesser good snow conditions than in 2024 in low altitude. From then and despite a generally much rainy September (rain wouldn’t stop until 5 to 6 of Oct!), the duet would acclimatize on the south flanks of Merra Peak, its NE summit in particular (6200m).
1st round of acclimatization: duet first made a few round trips from BC until 5500m, then almost until 6000m.

Then they spent a night at 5500m, followed by another night at 6100m on the next day. On day 3 they went back for lunch at the BC, before going up on the same day again at 6100m for another night. On day 4, back to BC.

2nd round of acclimatization: spent the night at 6227m atop of the NE summit of Merra. On the next day, flew down (by paraglider) to BC, going back up to 6227m for the night. Went back down to BC on the next day by foot.

All-in-all, duet spent 4 nights above 6000m during its acclimatization.

• ANID: first ascent by the West Face and North Ridge.

In late Sept, the weather was still complex to deal with. On the 20th of Sept, the duet aimed to try for the peak on the day after, but it didn’t feel right as they were walking up to its camp under the rain and they finally renounced.

A few days later, the weather forecaster (French Yann Giezendanner) announced a window of half a day for the 26th of Sept, with rain expected for the end of the afternoon... Yet short, the duet felt confident/secure in this short window to go for a try.

25 Sept: from BC, approach and bivouac at a small lake at 5500m afoot of the West Face.

26 Sept: started from lake camp at 2:50 am. West Face section negotiated straight. Then the North Ridge got generally more delicate to deal with, the duet facing inconsistent (unprotectable) snow for which they got tight roped with 60m of distance; it was hard to pass the rope on any mushroom/snow pinnacle to get some minimal protection. Out of this, only one (harder) pitch got luckily protectable!

The duet first reached the east summit at 10:05, then the main one at 10:15 approximately. The climb on the North Ridge plus arrival to the tops got fully covered by drone footage.

Then the climbers descended by paragliders to the base camp, reaching the latter at 10:30.

• 5830m peak (lying straight above BC to the north)

After the snow had filled the initially dry couloirs lying straight above BC (to the latter’s north), the duet chose to play a bit in that backyard, they now found in winter-little-like conditions.

On the 8th of Oct, the duet first climbed up a couloir, passing through a natural cave located in it. Then another couloir followed (45-50° steep roughly) from which they exited leftwards, now climbing through the lateral slopes of the couloir until touching a vertical crest. The latter was dominating a beautiful glacier located below Merra Peak and led them straight to the top.

• JANE: 1st ascent by the North Face and East Ridge

A few days later, Giezendanner announced a perfect weather window of 4 days, yet not much longer and with wind expected on Friday (17th of Oct). The duet didn’t carry its paragliders since the reliability in the aerologic forecast was too weak 4 days in advance (in addition, yet not too heavy (1 kg) the paraglider took room in the bags).

Saturday 11 Oct: on this day duet decided to postpone its departure, as it feared it was still too windy up there (100km/h on the previous days) and that risked to generate spindrifts.

Sunday 12 Oct: from BC to ABC (5100m) afoot of the face (12:20 => 15:45). Snow on the glacier, relatively warm, then cold as soon as they would lie in the shadow of the (impressive) North Face.

On this day duet chose to fix the first 60m pitch above the rimaye (latter at 5180m) with two snow stakes at the belay. Interestingly, when the attack wasn’t in conditions at the beginning of the expedition (hard year compared to 2024, with rain up to 6000m and beyond), bad weather of the last two weeks had eventually made the attack suitable.

Monday 13 Oct: woke up at 4 am, started the ascent of the fixed rope at 5:30 am. From then Nicolas lead the first part of the route, Benjamin the second part. Out of the delicate snow conditions which were hard to protect (often climbed in free solo, carrying heavy bags), the climbing difficulties mainly consisted in ice (3+,4), with one harder rocky section located down to the 300m snow slope lying below bivy 1: the pitch for that section got estimated to M5+/M6. Delicate to protect otherwise was the rightwards traverse located below.

Stopped climbing on that day at 15:30, establishing first bivouac at circa 6200m in the face. Feet had been cold on that day, which wasn’t reassuring for the following days.

Tuesday 14 Oct: woke up at 4 am, started to climb at 6:10 am (hard start!). On this day the duet passed its 2024 high point, excitingly discovering new ground happening to be generally well protectable. They would haul the bags in the steep snow-ice veneers, which happened to be significantly less practical than when sharing the carrying job as a team of 3 climbers.

Non-stop climbing until reaching bivouac 2 located on the East Ridge at 6900m, significantly above the Kumbhakarna La. Here the duet first feared to look at the ridge above, so went up straight to check the conditions: that was passing, which was reassuring regarding their summit chances for the next day. Having fixed 100m above the bivouac (2 pitches), they went back down to their bivouac 2 at 15:30. Weather on that day: crystal-clear sky, coldness with a few spindrifts.

Wednesday 15 Oct: woke up at 3:30 am. It was super cold in the morning, with “hot aches everywhere”. Up to 7150m the climbing was well protectable; from there, there weren’t any more protections in the deep snow and on the steep ridge. “Mystical ambiance on that final ridge, feel lucky to be here”. First reached the eastern summit at 13:10, then the higher (by circa 4m according to the Iphigenie device) west summit at 13:40. Wind at 30-40 km/h coming from southwest and warm enough in the sun. Arrival to the summit was fully covered by drone footage.

Then duet started its descent by the same route, mixing 350m of downclimbing then about 10 abseils before reaching bivouac 2 at 19:20.

Thursday 16 Oct: woke up at 6 am. From then the duet started its long descent, needing circa 40 additional abseils in the face. In the last 350m down to the face, the duet chose to abseil straight down into the unknown (ascent route lying more to the left/east): the option proved stressful as the possibilities for building belays were scarce there. The footstep of the face was eventually reached at 15:00, after 50 abseils.

Duet reached base camp at 17:30, congratulated with a warm welcome of the Nepalese team and a little dance!

On the next day the waking up got difficult, yet the dream had come true.

Left BC on 18 Oct.

Oxygen: not taken, not used

Records:1st ascent of JANE, first ascent of the N Face of JANE

Other peaks: ANID (1st ascent)