altamania.com: After first visit of Rolwaling region in Nepal last year I headed back this autumn with new climbing objectives.
My company and climbing partner on this trip was Sam Hennessey, who I met and climbed with a few years ago in Yosemite. Despite the fact that the tourism in this area is rapidly growing and is visited by many national and international hiking groups, comparing to the popular trekking sites in Nepal the number is negligible. That is what still gives this traditional land of Sherpas the charm of an authentic cultural experience. And yet there is also lots of interesting mountains and virgin faces to be climbed.
By a set of coincidences, just as we approached Rolwaling we met a local that remembered me from the last year, and who arranged us with an accommodation in a house of an elderly Sherpa couple, instead of staying in a lodge in last village before the mountains, Na Gaon (4200m). This was our base camp. In that way we enjoyed even greater comfort and more delicious and diverse traditional cuisine. By the way, because of their religious belief, the Sherpas in higher villages of Rolwaling do not kill animals, even though they eat meat, so we brought most of our dry meat supplies from the valley. However, just before we arrived there, a bull in the village impaled and killed a yak, which is why this year our dinners were exceptionally rich in meat dishes.
Our climbing objective was first ascent on a virgin West Face of Chukyima Go (6259m) and an actual “first” ascent of the mountain. Nepalese authorities have opened the peak for climbing in this year. Before our departure to the mountains, when we were sorting out the formalities in Kathmandu, the ministry claimed that the peak was yet unconquered, although before our expedition we have found a record that the first ascent was made by the English-Nepalese expedition in 1952. We have not found any other records of ascents on the mountain.
After arriving to the base camp we started with acclimatization. The first departure was onto a glacier and eponymous ridge called Rimposhar, from where we examined the peaks in the area and checked climbing conditions. Following that we have spent 3 days under and around Chukyima Go, to see the West Face and sleep at the altitude. We also climbed Yalung Ri (5630m), which offered a good view on our climbing objective.
For the present, 14 days since we arrived in Rolwaling, the weather was still unstable, post-monsoon with clear mornings and cloudy afternoons. It even occurred a couple of times that the weather forecast we were receiving showed partial clouds, only in reality it snowed with occasional thunders.
After few rest days and waiting for nicer weather after acclimatization, the forecast showed 3 days of improvement and clear sky before the next weather front. We decided to give it a try and started packing.
Part of the gear that we used for acclimatization tour was already stored half way up of the approach to Chukyima Go West Face, so we started with lighter backpacks on the first day. We pitched our tent on the glacier bellow the wall, only to be surprised by light snowing. Instead of exposing our gear and tent to the wet conditions already on the approach, we cooked and spent the rest of the afternoon under an overhanging boulder nearby. The evening though sky cleared up. Early next morning we entered the wall in the light of headlamps and started climbing. We encountered different conditions during the climb. In first, lower part we were sinking in the snow and waded through the terrain; the middle revealed excellent alpine ice and some mixed terrain; while in the upper part of the wall we were slowed down by the fresh fine snow. It took as whole day before we reached the ridge, found a bivy place and pitched our tent before the sunset.
Next morning we waited for the sun, left the bivouac gear behind, and started with lighter packs. There were only about 150 meters that separated us from the summit, but because of the sharp ridge, fresh drifted snow and some rocky sections, the progress was slow. In three hours we reached the summit. Based on the available information we did second ascent of the mountain. This was also the first time we viewed the South and East faces of the mountain, and thought that the English-Nepalese expedition did a good effort to reach the peak in 1952, because the terrain of the mountain was visibly technically demanding on all sides. The same day we descended back by our route and continued further to the base camp, which we reached at night.
The day after we came down from the mountain saw 3 days of bad weather and snowing. During that time also the unfortunate event under Annapurna occurred. Later we have found out that the changeable weather of this season has been, like last year, caused by the typhoon in the Indian ocean that carried poor weather conditions to the Himalayas. We persisted on staying in the base camp for the next two weeks, hoping for better weather, because we had new climbing objectives. We made one attempt, but it ended already on the approach first day, cause due to snow and thunders in the afternoon and evening, coming morning we just descended back to the valley.
Since the long term weather forecast did not show any improvements, we made a decision to spend rest of the trip elsewhere. Sam travelled south to the jungle, while I decided to explore Ganesh Himal region and its mountains. But this is a new story altogether.