American alpinists Scott Adamson and Christopher Wright have made first ascents of two 6500m peaks in the northwest corner of Nepal’s Khumbu region.
The pair established the new routes earlier this year during a month spent on the Lunag Glacier in the Nepalese Himalaya. After setting up base camp at 5050m on October 10, the men headed first for the Southeast face of Lunag West, a climb encompassing easy mixed terrain and snow with more than 100m of overhanging ice flow, before continuing onto an upper ice field and ridge. Here they sheltered in a crevasse before pushing for the summit later that night, reaching the top at 11.45pm. They then down climbed to the ridge and abseiled back to advanced base camp, having taken just 26 hours to complete the route.
A week later, the duo shifted focus to the NE Face of Pangbuk North. Setting off early, the climbers traversed easy ice on their way to the first cliff, which they were forced to ascend in high winds and spindrift, encountering mixed terrain and rotten vertical ice while facing several technically difficult pitches. On reaching a high snowy ridge the pair set up camp for the night, but left early the next morning wading through collapsing snow to reach the knife edge summit at 4pm.
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Photo Credit: Christopher Wright