Nathan White, Jack Morris, Connor Holdsworth, and Dave Sharpe of the UK took advantage of a short weather window last month to set two new lines on 6,000’ers in Nepal’s Rolwaling Valley.
The team reached Rolwaling on October 22 and acclimatized on Pachermo, an easier peak in the area. When they returned from the mountain, they found that crows had ravaged their camp, and a significant amount of food was either eaten or soiled.
With their supplies down to a minimum, they had no time to waste. They headed back to the peaks right away, seizing a tight weather window that had just opened. For efficiency, they split into two climbing pairs.
Two peaks
After a two-day approach, Dave Sharpe and Connor Holdsworth climbed Takargo East (6,152m) via the east face, a first. Nepal’s Nima Tenji Sherpa’s team had previously climbed the northeast ridge in 2014, and John Kelley of the U.S. soloed the south face in 2016. The Brits tried to link the summit of Takargo East with Takargo Main’s peak (6,771m), but they retreated short due to illness.
Connor Holdsworth and Dave Sharpe. Photo: Dave Sharpe
Holsworth reported that they climbed the 600m face without roping up, on difficulties they assessed as “mostly Scottish II with some steps of III and finally one harder, looser step of IV right at the top.”
The climbers set their first bivouac shortly after reaching the summit. Incredibly, in the morning, there were snow leopard pawprints all around their tent. They spent the next two days on the long ridge leading to Takargo Main, but except for short sections of good ice, all they found was “very loose rock and bottomless untransformed snow,” said Holsworth.
On the third day, Holsworth’s health declined. “I had been feeling pretty rough since we left the glacier, and some specks of blood in my vomit made it feel like the right decision was to head down,” he said.
The weather was also turning for the worse, and the climbers made it back to camp just before a snowstorm hit.
Dave Sharpe with the main summit of Takargo behind. Photo: Connor Holdsworth
Linkhu Chuli 2
Meanwhile, Nathan White and Jack Morris went for an impressive ridge that splits the north and northwest faces of 6,659m Linkhu Chuli 2.
“While the serac-covered walls were very active, the ridge line provided an incredibly direct and objectively safe passage through the chaos,” the climbers reported.
A couloir led the climbers to the ridge, where they found sustained difficulties and a precarious bivouac location. Check the video below.
