FIRST AND SECOND ASCENT IN THE KHUMBU - OCTOBER 2007

In October 2007, Halvor Dannevig and I traveled to Nepal and the upper Khumbu in hope of finding interesting climbing on “not to high” peaks. For us, who consider how-you-do-it more important than what peak you actually climb, snow plodding fixed ropes on famous peaks are not interesting. And for me, a Himalaya rookie, the peaks around Gokyo seamed like a perfect start to my Himalaya climbing.

Our main objective was an unclimbed line on the north face of Phari Lapcha (6017m). Staying at Gokyo Resort Lodge we had perfect view across the lake to the north face, and the more we looked threw binoculars, the more we realized that it was not ice, but snow that was plastered to the face. 

For acclimatization we tried to climb a new line on an unnamed peak (5906m) between Dawa peak (5920m) and the Renja Pass. Standing in a cave underneath a thin ice-curtain, after climbing 200 meters of powder snow and really bad ice, we were not very optimistic. I continued, and for half an hour I climbed 15 meters of snowcovered M5. With no protection in sight and no ice I abseiled off and found myself 2 meters outside the cave.

The only place we saw ice on the north side of the Phari Lapcha-massif was on Snotty’s Gully (M5+ WI5 ca. 1000m), a line climbed by the two accomplished British alpinist, Nick Bullock and Jon Bracey last year. With so many unclimbed lines it didn’t feel right when we walked the approach to the base of the climb, but we had traveled to Nepal to find nice climbing, so it didn’t really matter that much. We started climbing at 05.00 the next day, carrying chocolate in our pockets and one small pack with just water and two down jackets. Being from Norway, we like to think that we have the best ice climbing in the world. But when we stood on the summit at 14.40 the same day, we realized that some of the pitches of perfect water-ice would have been super classics in any valley in our home country. We abseiled and downclimbed to the Machermo glacier and hoped to have a look at the south side of Phari Lapcha - to see if there were any interesting lines there. Because of afternoon clouds we never saw this side of the mountain, but stumbling into the village of Machermo at 18.30, happy for dinner and a warm bed, we decided to try something up there after a couple of rest days.

Pitching a tent at 5250m, close to the Machermo glacier, we saw a gully of snow, ice and rock on the southwest side of Phari Lapcha. At 0300 the next day we climbed 100 meters of rock to get into the gully. 300 meters higher, after climbing snow and perfect ice up to WI 3, we found our self at the crux witch was two long pitches of verglassed rock. It was not too difficult to climb (M4), but very interesting to protect! After three more mixed pitches, we were in the upper part of the gully, safe from rock fall and on easier ground. 200 meters higher, after climbing steep snow with short sections of rock, we joined the southeast ridge. At 0900 we stood on the summit of Phari Lapcha, after climbing a route we believe was a first ascent. “The end of the beginning” (M4 WI3 ca. 900m) was climbed in the same light style as the second ascent of Snotty’s Gully, with just one small pack and in 6 hours. Both of us found the route very similar to the Eugster Direct on the north side of Aiguille du Midi in the French Alps. 

Even though, we didn’t climb what we came for; our main goal was attained - to have fun and do some good climbing. And going home, in hope of a winter with good skiing and even better climbing, we were already talking about other things to do in the beautiful country of Nepal.

Text: Nils Nielsen
Photo: Nils Nielsen and Halvor Dannevig