Page 23 - 2013 AMA Spring

the team at a shrine north of Kangding: After the ascent. the team at a tibetan Buddhist shrine north of Kangding. Alex, Simon, rimon and Duncan
Sunset at ABc: Duncan enjoying the sun setting over tibet at ABc (4400m)
pinnacles, knife-edge crests, snowfields and a series of seeming dead-ends which always provided a way onwards just when we thought we couldn’t go any further. It seemed a genuine privilege to be up here in this unexplored wilderness, with the wild, tangled summits of Western Sichuan and Tibet and the peaks of the fabled Minya Konka range gradually coming into view as we ascended. We dug out small snow platforms for Camp 1 just below the ridge at about 5300m, sheltered from the increasingly strong winds, melted the sugary snow for water, ate the freeze-dried rations with little relish, and then the next morning, set out for the summit.
A lot of effort, rice and yak butter tea later, we were brought to a grinding halt at about 5500m by a gaping cleft in the ridge, hid- den from below. Overhanging rocks ahead and to the right, and sugary, useless snow on steep slabs to the left put an end to our hopes. Such is the reality of exploratory mountaineering! No way around. Bummer. So we turned back, regrouped in basecamp, in the freezing fog that rolled up from the valleys (it was minus 22 degrees at night; chilly!) and thought about what else we could do. There was another peak called Wupingfen just next door, and it was unclimbed as well. So that might be a goer. Assuming that we could actually get to it. Our early explorations had shown how broken and difficult these slopes were, making it very difficult to get from one part of the range to another.
The problem was traversing through the scree fields of house-sized boulders and forests of mini azaleas that guarded its flanks. But we managed that, found a way through the precipitous cliffs beyond by a system of ledges and a Scottish Grade III gully, then up and through the moraines above, and the glaciers after that, and found ourselves again in an area that no-one had ever been to. Not just no Westerners; no anyone! It was great. Just us and the Himalayan
Simon at camp 1 on Baihaizishan. the attempt ended just below the very highest rocks above the tent
Prayer wheels. An old tibetan woman walks the kora and spins the prayer wheels at a remote Buddhist monastery in Western Sichuan.
partridges. So we camped below a massive moraine, climbed the icefall behind, traversed some frozen lakes, more moraines, and fields of glacial slabs streaked like marble and covered in boulders. Then we got up onto the glacier beyond, traversed the snow-cov- ered slopes littered with crevasses and the debris from the seracs high up on the flanks of Wupingfen on the right, dug out some plat- forms for Camp 2 from the ice in a bergschrund at about 5400m, and the next morning set off in a howling gale.
The ridge was fantastic; finally we were climbing on rock-hard neve and ice. Sometimes we roped, sometimes we soloed. We needed pegs and ice-screws for a couple of bits, which made carrying them all the way up there much more worthwhile. As we broke out onto the final ridge, we met the full force of the winds, but the views and the unclimbed summit more than made up for it.
The rest is anti-climax really; took the photos, got down, and got back all in one piece. Discovered that the peak is 5640m high. Had a few gallons more yak butter tea, and tons of tsampa. Fin- ished off the yak meat. Whistled up the horses, walked out, had a longed for bathe in the hot springs [including a massage and scrub-down from a naked Tibetan horse-wrangler; not for the faint- hearted], had a look around some Buddhist monasteries, shrines and ethnic-Tibetan villages. Drove back to Chengdu and saw the Big Buddha (its REALLY BIG). Now it’s back to work and reality.
And my wife? Well, she could have come and made basecamp more attractive, but she got a better offer, and went off to go and stay with some friends in Japan who have toilet seats with hot and cold air jets and running water. But she loved the photos.
ARMY MOUNTAINEER 21