Impeccable planning and permissions set the three up well, but the weather is something that can never be relied upon and due to unseasonably warm, wet and cloudy climates the team was prevented from achieving their original climbing objective. They did however succeed in the first ascent of an unnamed 6,365m peak (suggested name of Dunglung Kangri) before returning to the UK.
Their full expedition report is here on the Montane Website and an excerpt is below:
"Our decision was vindicated when it started to rain as we abseiled. Rocks were starting to fall down our line as we reached the bergschrund and there was water in the v thread holes we drilled. Tashi and Satya made us soup for breakfast as we reached the tents. We left one tent pitched, filled it with food, gas and gear and went back down to ABC.
A rather dull ten days followed. It snowed every day and sometimes it rained. The sky was constantly grey and everything dripped. The peaks were shrouded in cloud. But we clung on to our foothold at ABC until the last possible moment, until we knew that there wasn't time for the face to clear and us to climb it before the porters arrived. Then we went back up to the cwm to retrieve our gear. The upper cwm was thigh deep in snow, and we were lucky to find our tent; only a couple of inches showed above the drifts.
We wound up ABC and everyone went back to BC. But we were still optimistic about finding something to climb. There haven't been many expeditions to the North Terong and whilst Harish Kapadia and other members of the 1985 expedition had climbed several of the 6,000ers in the basin, there are plenty more still to be climbed..."
The expedition was supported by:
Polartec, Montane, Lyon Equipment, High5 Sports Nutrition, Needlesports and Swaledoor Outdoors.
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