Part 1 of 2: Recently reported by Alpinist Magazine, Alan Rousseau and Tino Villanueva wrapped up their second expedition in the Rolwaling Himal with the support of the AAC’s Lyman Spitzer Award and Beal ropes.
The following report and stories are the words of Alan Rousseau:
Photo by Alan Rousseau. |
Photo by Tino Villanueva. |
Photo by Alan Rousseau. |
We watched the West face of Pachermo for a couple days, took a recon mission up to the start of the technical sections, and gave our bodies a chance to acclimatize. Then, on our fourth day in basecamp we set off to attempt Pachermo via the (to our knowledge) previously unclimbed West face. We felt confident the line would go and decided to climb it light with one 60-meter Beal Joker 9.2mm rope. The climb involved 4000’ of technical climbing with difficult sections that reached up to AI4, M5. It started off with firm neve, water ice runnels, and solid granite. However, as often is the case in the greater ranges, the real difficulties began high on the route where, deep trail breaking through faceted snow in steep terrain was the norm.
Photo by Alan Rousseau. |
Pachermo Route Profile. Photo by Tino Villanueva. |
We wanted at least 48 hours for the face to settle. To make the most of the waiting period, we decided to get to a lower elevation than our base camp to fully recover from Pachermo. So without any further delay, we began the trek down to Thame (3800m) that afternoon. This involves going over Teshi Lapta Pass (5775 m), then descending 2,000 meters into the Khumbu Valley. No small feat, especially to reverse, but we still had over two weeks left of the trip. So we fortified our camp, packed up our bags and headed to moderate elevations with hopes of feeling strong again.
Continue reading to discover what happened when they got back on Tengi Ragi Tau:
Pioneering in the Rolwaling – Part 2 of 2
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