Well it’s been a rollercoaster ride for me. This year I have guided fourteen National 3 Peaks Challenges, weeks working on Skye including completing the full traverse, numerous days mountaineering in the highlands, over forty mutipitch rock climbs in the mountains, countless days building up strength on single pitch crags, guided a friend attempting all [...]
Well it’s been a rollercoaster ride for me. This year I have guided fourteen
National 3 Peaks Challenges, weeks working on Skye including completing the full
traverse, numerous days mountaineering in the highlands, over forty mutipitch
rock climbs in the mountains, countless days building up strength on single
pitch crags, guided a friend attempting all the great ridges on Ben Nevis and
countless days on the bike. Allot of this has been down to the joys of working
in the mountains but in some way shape or form it was all part of the training
for Lunag – I put SO much effort into this expedition to now be sitting on my
sofa two weeks early trying to make head or tail of it!…….moaning over, I
have to shed light on the trip as being very successful. The fact that all of
our trekkers and in country staff successfully made it to BC and returned
totally unharmed only enlightened by their experience is a great success and worry
of my mind. Everyone did excellent, they thankfully listened to all of our advice
and coaching on the best way to acclimatize and survive in what can be one of
the most hostile environments on earth. The team found the trekkers open and
honest with only a few of the ‘trade mark’ signs of living together being apparent
over the entire trek so a very well done to all of you – I hope you all enjoyed
it.
So what happened to us? Well it was a barmy 20 degrees up near the
Tibetan border which doesn’t make of good snow and ice climbing especially with
such a complicated mountain face to try and scale to the summit of an unclimbed
peak. With only one climbable ‘line’ that took our eye which led to the summit
of Lunag IV Tek; our cook, was unable summon the mountain gods to give us the
cold weather we needed to climb it. We did explore toward the Nangpa La where
sign of any western travelers is at an absolute minimum. We discovered that
beyond Lunag V there is another maze of moraine and glacier leading to a
completely separate massif in its own right and to the West lays a secluded
corrie with towering unclimbed faces and ridges connecting Chamar (7287m) to
Jasemba (7350m). The days were long sitting at Base Camp so I made a personal
attempt on Nangpa Goteya (5790m) to the West of BC. I managed to stand on its
South summit; a towering pinnacle only 50 meters shy of the main summit at
which I was of course very happy to have achieved something after so much time
waiting. It was after this though that we decided to abandon BC and head toward
Chuule where we planned to attempt an unclimbed rock wall. Nail and Matt had
gone ahead to assess the possibility but decided, quite rightly that we didn’t have
the ear to accommodate our aspirations.
Camp below Jobo 5400m
Overall I put my harness and climbing boots on only once and never on
the whole expedition did I tie into a single rope. This for a climber with such
aspirations isn’t easy to deal with – better to try and fail than to do nothing
– RIGHT? On this occasion, for this particular side of that particular mountain
I’ve had to accept that we made the right decision. A failure such as this can
turn a person either way from the Himalaya, particularly as it was my first
attempt at an unclimbed peak. On return to Kathmandu I decided that I would be
filing for another permit. It will be for a controversially un/climbed peak in
the same area but with a different aspect and different Base Camp. Not only
that but I will be attempting it in winter outside of the normal climbing
seasons just to be sure of some cold
weather. As I write this I console myself that the expedition wasn’t a waste of
time for any of us. It was a spectacular trip and one that I have clearly built
on with my section for next year………
To all that took part thanks for a great trip!
Steve