ASIAN ALPINE E-NEWS
Issue No 73. August 2020

West face of Tengi Ragi Tau in Nepal's Rolwaling Himal.TENRAGIAUCCONTENTS

THE PIOLETS D'OR 2020 AWARDS
AT THE 25TH LADEK MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL
Dolpo – Far west Nepal
Introduction
Inaba Kaori’s winter journey 2019-2020
Tamotsu Ohnishi’s 1999 & 2003 records.

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Page 2 ~ 6Page 7 ~ 48

Piolets d’Or 2020

©Lucyna Lewandowska© Erik Decamp
apangma (8015m)

An International Celebration of Grand Alpinism

Press Release # 3 - August 2020
THE PIOLETS D'OR 2020 AWARDS
AT THE 25TH LADEK MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL
Four remarkable ascents will be awarded Piolets d'Or in Ladek-Zdroj on
September 19. The year 2019 turned out to be very rich for modern alpinism, witha substantial number of signiﬁcant ﬁrst ascents from all over the globe. The
protagonists were alpinists of wide diversity. There were notable ascents by the"old guard" of highly-experienced high altitude climbers, but also ﬁne
achievements by a promising new generation of "young guns".
Our eight-member international technical jury had the diﬃcult task of making a
choice, the intention being not to discard any remarkable climbs, but to choose a
few signiﬁcant ascents as "ambassadors" for modern, alpine stylemountaineering. In the end the jury chose what we believe to be a consistentselection of four climbs. These will be awarded next month in Ladek.
The four ascents comprise two from Nepal and two from Pakistan. Most had seen
previous attempts and were on the radar of number of strong parties. All climbed
to rarely visited, or in one case virgin, summits. They are detailed, in no particularorder, in the following pages.
***
Announcing this year's recipients of Piolets d’Or is a moment of joy, and thepresentation ceremony will undoubtedly be a superb celebration of high-end
alpinism. However, we also want to use the occasion to inform the entire
mountaineering world of sad news - the passing away of Jan Kiełkowski, one of theworld’s greatest chroniclers of alpinism, and author of many guidebooks to theGreater Ranges. His death on the 5th April, 2020, was a big shock to the Polish
mountaineering community but was poorly publicized outside his home country.
Born in 1943, Kiełkowski was a talented alpinist. In common with mostPolish climbers he started his career on the limestone rocks of thePolish Jura and the granite walls of the High Tatra Mountains. In 1963
he discovered a passion for the vertical world, and in the late 1960sand '70s put up many new lines in the Polish mountains. He created six
new routes on Kazalnica, the highest wall of the Polish Tatras, more than any otherindividual climber. He also climbed in the Cordillera Huayhuash, Caucasus, Pamir,
Hindu Kush and Himalaya. But his biggest contribution to world climbing was his
documentary work. Starting with the ﬁrst edition of Mount Everest Massif in 1985, hepublished over 20 guidebooks for alpinists on areas of the Himalaya, Karakoram andAndes, including 11 volumes of the well-known “Mountaineering Series” between
1995 and 2015. Together with his wife Małgorzata he was the main editor andco-author of seven volumes of Wielka Encyklopedia Gór i Alpinizmu (Great
Encyclopaedia of Mountains and Alpinism), published from 2013 to 2017. This work,
currently only available in Polish, is the world’s biggest resource of its type.
With the announcement of the 2019 awarded ascents and Piolet d’Or Carrière, we
now wait for the forthcoming Ladek Mountain Film Festival. There, we will pay tributeto the outstanding career of Catherine Destivelle, and the incredible climbs achieved
last year in the world's mountains. But we will also remember Jan, whose works haveplayed a pivotal role in the development of exploratory climbing over the last 35
years.

PRESS & MEDIA, CONTACT US : presse@pioletsdor.net

THE PIOLETS D'OR AWARDS 2020
CHAMLANG (7,321M) > MAREK HOLEČEK - ZDENĚK HÁK (CZECH REPUBLIC)NORTHWEST FACE, UFO LINE, 2,000M, WI5 M6, AND TRAVERSE OF THE
MOUNTAIN, MAY 17-23 ROUND TRIP FROM BASE CAMP***
Since he ﬁrst saw it in 2001 Marek Holeček had dreamed of climbing the great
northwest face of Chamlang in Nepal's Mahalangur Himal. Others had shared thesame dream, and after more than half a dozen attempts the face had become oneof the most coveted in the country. When Holeček and Zdeněk Hák arrived in spring2019 it was obvious the face had little snow and a lot of hard water ice. Outﬂanking
objective dangers in the lower section would prove to be one of the keys.
From a bivouac at 5,300m on the glacier below the face the two Czechs headed up
more or less directly below the summit. On the fourth day they reached the upper
east ridge and bivouacked 80m below the top. On May 21 they crossed the summit
and spent the rest of the day trying to navigate the Original Japanese route on thesouth ridge. This proved more diﬃcult than expected. Two more bivouacs - without
food - and diﬃcult down-climbing and rappelling in often poor visibility wereneeded to reach the valley.
The route was named UFO Line as a tribute to Reinhold Messner and Doug Scott,who in 1981, with Sherpas Ang Dorje and Pasang, were the ﬁrst to climb the northside of the Chamlang massif and reach one of the middle summits. There, they werepuzzled by a box-like object that hovered above them, shining magniﬁcently in the
midday sun.

UFO Line on the northwest face of Chamlang (7,321 meters). The seventh
bivouac site - on the descent - is hidden.
(H) marks the high point of a 2019 attempt on Chamlang’ s unclimbed
north pillar.
©Andy Houseman (autumn 2012 photo) / American Alpine Journal

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THE PIOLETS D'OR AWARDS 2020TENGI RAGI TAU (6,938M) > ALAN ROUSSEAU - TINO VILLANUEVA (USA)WEST FACE, RELEASE THE KRAKEN, 1,600M, AI5 M5+, OCTOBER 13-17 ROUNDTRIP FROM A GLACIER CAMP BELOW THE FACE***
In 2012, on their ﬁrst expedition to the Himalaya, Alan Rousseau and Tino Villanueva
made the ﬁrst ascent of Langmoche Ri on the north ridge of Tengi Ragi Tau in Nepal's
Rolwaling Himal. Walking below the west face of Tengi Ragi Tau they weremesmerized by its sheer magnitude and ﬁne ice runnels through beautiful granite.
They returned in 2014 to attempt a direct line, climbing to around 6,500m in lessthan ideal weather before retreating. Five years later and the face was now
attracting the attention of several strong parties.
After crossing the Tashi Laptsa pass and camping on the Drolambo Glacier, the two
Americans climbed the initial dry-tooling pitches to access the snowy face, thenmade three bivouacs before reaching the summit. A tricky rappel descent was madedown the line of ascent. With a multi-pitch ice crux high on the route, followed bysteep ﬂutings of unprotectable snow, this technical and elegant line on one of themost outstanding unclimbed faces of the Rolwaling was just reward for theperseverance of two experienced alpine guides. Their ascent was only the second of
this diﬃcult mountain and the ﬁrst in alpine style.

©Tino Villanueva / American Alpine Journal

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THE PIOLETS D'OR AWARDS 2020
LINK SAR (7,041M) > MARK RICHEY-STEVE SWENSON-CHRIS WRIGHT-GRAHAM ZIMMERMAN (USA)FIRST ASCENT VIA THE SOUTHEAST FACE, 2,300M, AI4 M6+ 90°, JULY 31-AUGUST 8 ROUND TRIP
FROM AN ADVANCED BASE AT 4,700M.
***
Another much-coveted problem, this time in the eastern Pakistan Karakoram, Link
Sar had received at least eight attempts before 2019. But the diﬃculties are notjust about climbing the peak: the Indo-Pakistan conﬂict has made this region an
on-oﬀ aﬀair (largely oﬀ) when it comes to obtaining a mountaineering permit.
Steve Swenson ﬁrst attempted Link Sar in 2001 with a strong American team, andthen again, after a number of failed permit attempts, in 2017 with Chris Wright andGraham Zimmerman. Having now discovered a feasible line of ascent, these three
decided to reinforce the team in 2019 with the addition of Mark Richey.
Six days after setting out from Advanced Base, they reached the top. During thattime they had waited out a 36+ hours storm, and on the summit day recovered froma 35m leader fall due to avalanche and overcome an ungradable ﬁnal pitch of deep,
steep and unstable "Peruvian" snow. A little over two days were then needed toreverse the route. These climbers succeeded because they were persistent, usedtheir 126 years of combined climbing experience, and understood what partnershipmeant.

(A) Changi Tower.
(B) K6 Main.
(C) Link Sar (7,041m) from the southeast, showing the line of the 2019ascent, advanced base camp, and bivouacs.

©Matteo Della Bordella / American Alpine Journal

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THE PIOLETS D'OR AWARDS 2020
RAKAPOSHI (7,788M) > KAZUYA HIRAIDE - KENRO NAKAJIMA (JAPAN)
SOUTH FACE AND SOUTHEAST RIDGE, 4,000M FROM BASE CAMP, JUNE 27-JULY 3 ROUND TRIP
FROM BASE CAMP.
***The Hunza region of the Pakistan Karakoram holds a number of impressive
mountains that fall only a few hundred metres short of the 8,000m mark. One of
the most outstanding is Rakaposhi, ﬁrst climbed via the southwest ridge in 1958.
Whilst the south side of the mountain - leading to the crest of the great southeast
ridge - had been reconnoitred in the past, it remained untouched, climbers unable
to ﬁnd a feasible route. An ascent from this less visible side of the mountain would
be highly exploratory.
From a 3,660m base camp at the snout of the glacier, and in generally unstable
weather, Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima climbed the south face to 6,100m,
both to acclimatize and conﬁrm that their chosen line would go.
On their second outing they took three days, strenuously climbing through often
deep soft snow, to reach a camp at 6,800m on the southeast ridge, where they wereforced to wait two days in bad weather. After this they climbed to the summit andback in a single long day, and on the following reversed their line of ascent all theway down to base camp.
Although the route does not feature the high technical diﬃculties of the threeother awarded ascents, its huge length, and the commitment and style of Hiraide
and Nakajima's determined ascent on a rarely-climbed mountain, makes it of equal
merit for a 2020 Piolet d'Or.

©Kenro Nakajima / American Alpine Journal

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DOLPO – Far West Nepal
Tamotsu (Tom) Nakamura
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: 122 Days Winter Journey 2019 – Kaori Inaba
Part 3: Dolpo 1999 & 2003 – Tamotsu OhnishiPart 1: Introduction
Dolpo (Standard Tibetan: དོལ་པོ ) is a high-altitude culturally Tibetan region
in the upper part of the Dolpa District of western Nepal, bordered in thenorth by China. Part of the region lies in Shey Phoksundo National Park.
The sparse, agro-pastoral population, known as Dolpo in standard Tibetan
and Dhol-wa in the local dialect, is connected to the rest of Nepal via Jufal
airport, which can be reached in three days by horse. There are no precise
population numbers for the region, with estimates including less than 5,000
and 18,000
The Dolpo are generally adherents of Bon, a religion whose origins predate
Buddhism but whose modern form is officially accepted as a fifth school ofTibetan Buddhism. The remote region has preserved its Tibetan culture in
relatively pure form, making it attractive to Westerners. Dolpa was thelocation for the 1999 Oscar-nominated film Himalaya and more recently for
the German documentary Dolpo Tulku.
In spite of the near inaccessibility of the region and tourism restrictions
for the more remote parts, Dolpa is a popular destination for trekking
tourism.

Geography
Dolpo is geologically part of the sedimentary Tibetan-Tethys zone. It issurrounded by Himalayan mountain chains including the Dhaulagiri (8,172
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metres (26,811 ft)). These cloud barriers cause a semi-arid climate, with
reported annual precipitations of less than 500 millimetres (20 in). The
regionishistoricallydivided

into

four

valleys:

Tsharka("goodgrowing-place"), Tarap ("auspicious excellent"), Panzang ("abode of monks"),
and Nangkhong ("innermost place"). They constitute four of the seven village
development committees (VDCs) that were created in 1975. The valleys
south of the watershed drain into the Bheri River. The VDCs in this area are(roughly from east to west):
Chharka (Tsharka Valley)
Mukot
Dho (Tarap Valley)
Phoksundo.
The northern valleys between the watershed and Tibet drain westward by
the Langu River, a tributary of the Karnali River via the Mugu Karnali. The
VDCs in this area are:Tinje (Panzang Valley)
Saldang (Nangkhong Valley)
Bhijer.
Dolpo can be roughly divided into four valleys, each of which isrepresented since 1975 by a village development committee (VDC): Dho(Tarap Valley), Saldang (Nankhong Valley, the most populous), Tinje(Panzang Valley), and Chharka (Tsharka Valley). There are also smaller
VDCs at Bhijer, Mukot and Phoksundo.
Agriculture is possible at heights of 3,800 to 4,180 metres (12,470 to
13,710 ft) (villages of Shimen Panzang Valley and Chharka, respectively) but
often requires irrigation. Apart from barley, crops include buckwheat, millet,
mustard, wheat, potatoes, radishes, and spinach. Similar to transhumancein the Alps, the population migrates between villages and high-lying (4,000
to 5,000 metres or 13,000 to 16,000 feet) summer pastures, in a lifestylereferred to as samadrok (roughly "farming nomads").
Dolpo makes up the greatest part of the area of the Dolpa District, but the
district's population is concentrated in the lower southern parts, where also2most of the VDCs are located.

Trade
Local products are not sufficient to guarantee survival. The Dolpo
traditionally trade salt from Tibet to the lower parts of Nepal, where they
maintain netsang (literally "nesting place") relationships, first described by
Kenneth M. Bauer. According to Bauer, each family in Dolpo has netsang
partners in most villages of Dolpo District, a network that facilitates travel
as well as trade. In return for salt, the netsang provide grain and shelter.
The netsang partners trade with each other on preferential terms, basedon fictitious family relations that may last for several generations. Recentchanges such as the easy availability of salt from other regions and theclosed border with Tibet have put the netsang system under pressure.

History
Dolpo appears in historical records since c. 8th century. In the time fromthe 6th century to the 8th century the Tibetan Yarlung dynasty conquered
most Tibetan-speaking territories. This seems to have caused a southwardmigration towards Dolpo and the peripheral areas along the upper KaliGandaki River (Lo and Serib). In 842, Tibet fell apart, and Dolpa fell under
the kingdom of Purang. Purang and Dolpa became temporarily part of the
kingdom of Guge in the 10th century, but soon became separate again whenKing sKyid lde Nyi ma mgon divided Guge among his three sons.
During the reign of the Ya-rtse king A-sog-lde around 1253 both Dolpo andSerib were lost to the ruler of Gungthang, mGon po lde. The latter thenreunited both the Dolpo and Serib and classified them among one of threeprovinces of mNga' ris. It is also known from historical documents that
Mongolian troops reached Dolpo to conquer this province when theyconquered many parts of Tibetc and finally handed over the power to the3ruler of the Sakya period.
In the 14th century Dolpo fell under its eastern neighbor the Kingdom ofLo, which controlled the trans-Himalayan trade route through the KaliGandaki Gorge. The Dolpo had to pay tax and travel to Lo Monthang toprovide manual labor.
For some time between the 15th century (1440?) and the 16th century,
Dolpo was temporarily independent and ruled by a king from the Ra nag
dynasty. In 1769, the Gorkhas conquered Kathmandu and established theKingdom of Nepal, which would soon reach the country's modern extent. In
1789, Nepal swallowed the Lo kingdom and with it Dolpo. The kingdom's
attempt to wrest nominal suzerainty over Tibet from China ended in a
massive Chinese intervention that left Nepal paying tribute to China.

The region in film
The 1999 French-Nepalese movie Himalaya, which gives insight into the
local customs, was the first Nepalese film to be nominated for an Oscar
award and also a huge success in Nepal itself, drawing the country's
attention to the region. Kenneth M. Bauer notes that the film's authenticity
was in large part artificial, as dialogues mixed the standard Tibetan of theprofessional actors with the villagers' local dialects and all external
influences in the region (such as clothes, Maoists and tourists) were hidden.
The 2009 documentary Dolpo Tulku accompanies Sherap Sangpo (born1981 in the Tarap Valley) on his journey from India back to his home region
and his first steps as a Buddhist spiritual leader of the Dolpa. in Karnataka.
After 16 years in southern India his education was finished, and in 2008 hereturned to his home region to take over the responsibilities of his
predecessor as a Buddhist spiritual leader of the Dolpa.

4Part 2:122 Days Through Upper Dolpo 2019–2020
In Intense Cold Winter Season
Kaori Inaba

Winter in Dolpo
Late Tamotsu Ohnish was one of the great explorers of mountains of thewest Nepal. His footsteps widely spread over the upper Dolpo of far west
Nepal. Having been deeply moved and allured by his narratives, picturesand particularly excellent cartographies, my odysseys crossing the far-flungborder lands were conducted four times from 2007 to 2016 during the bestasseasons, summer full of alpine floras and autumn of cropping goldencolored barleys. There are autumn leaves even in less-vegetated barren
Dolpo. They tinge mountains to red color and sunshine makes amorous
breathtaking beauty in the surroundings.
I have come back to Dolpo after three years. How has the borderlands beenchanged? How is the villagers’ life in immense coldness of winter? How is5

landscape of mountains in winter? I was unable to overcome temptation to
return to Dolpo in mid-winter. Ohnishi’s report of 2018 soloing two weeks
journey to uninhabited area of northwesternmost rim of Nepal triggered torealize my dream of passing winter in Dolpo.
Ohnishi’s outstanding accomplishments will remain as an enigmas forgenerations.

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Explanation of route taken:Blue――Dunai via Bagala to Saldang (8 days) November 18
Red ― ― Travelling during winter (83 days), stayed at Saldang from
November 19 to February 10 visiting other places
Pink――Planned but given up because of worse snow conditions
Green――Return way-from Saldang to February 15 to 25 via Choila 5,058m
Stayed one day at Dho because of heavy snowfall
I left Osaka on November 11, 2019 and returned home on March 11, 2020.
It was three months field work in mid-winter with an objective to research
how local inhabitants are living in very severe environments of sterile andwaste highlands. Five points were focused: (1) foodstuffs (2) cooking (3) fuel(4) water (5) communication.

Geographical features of the region
To enter the upper Dolpo you must cross the high passes of 5,000m
spreading existing in every direction. Local villages are scattered at about
4,000n in average. Circumstances are very severe. To reach Saldang two
high passes at 5,000m must be crossed. The passes are totally closed in
winter. Tibetan culture is dominating the area.

Brief itinerary of journey
November 11 – 15: Osaka~Kathmandu~Juphal
November 16 – 24: Dunai (2,091m) ~Bagala la~Lanmuse la~Saldang
November 25 – 29: Saldang (4,043m) 0℃-minus 13℃
Supplies for winter journey were procured in Dunai
November 30 – December 4: Saldang~Nisalguan (3.834m) ~Musigaon(4,229m)
December 5 – 9: Musigaon~Mengala~Mushigaon
December 10 – January 9: Saldang
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January 9 – 14: Saldang~Namdo (4,047m)
January 15 – 19: Namdo
January 20 – 24: Saldang~Nisalguan
January 25 – 30: Nisalguan~Tilin (3,782m)
February 1 – 8: Tilinz~Saldang
February 8 – 14: Saldang
February 15 – 20: Saldang~Dho
February 21 – 25: Dho~Dunai
February 26 – March 1: Juphal~Nepalganji~Ppkhara
March 2 – 11: Pokhara~Kathmandu~Narita

Best place of base for winter journey – Saldang
Saldang is a village in Dolpa District in the Karnali Zone of north-western
Nepal. Saldang lies at an altitude of 3,620m in the Nankhang Valley, in thehistoric Tibetan region of Dolpo. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census,
Saldang had a population of 1,714 in 386 individual households, [1] and as of2011 it has a population of 2,103 people.
The British Tibetologist David Snellgrove wrote in 1967: "Like many other
Dolpo villages, Saldang consists of a group of scattered houses built high on
an 'alp' well above the gorge. The name probably means just 'Raised Place' ".
The most populous of the sparsely populated valleys making up theculturally Tibetan region of Dolpo. To the northwest of Saldang is the villageof Bhijer and Shey Phoksundo National Park. Payang Town in Shigatse,
Tibet, is about 80 kilometres (50 mi) by air northeast of the village. It is a
two-day walk from Saldang to Yang Tsher Monastery to reach Kato, amarket on the border with Tibet where salt and wool from Tibet and foodgrains from Nepal are traded.
The village contains Shree Shelri Drugdra Lower Secondary School, which
was founded by Lama Karma Dhondup in 1997 after forming a School
10Management Committee. The school opened in 1999 with 33 children and 2teachers. In 2004 an Upper School was built for older children. As of 2019 it
has around 80 children from pre-school to sixth year, teaching a curriculumof Nepali, Tibetan and English languages, science, music, dancing, sports
and games. The following picture is Saldong in summer.

Photo Gallery of Kaori Inaba

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Part 3: Dolpo 1999 & 2003 – Tamotsu Ohnishi

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