ASIAN ALPINE E-NEWS
Issue No 55. September 2019

Contents

UK-German Nalakankar Expedition 2018
Christof Nettekoven and Bruce Normand

Page 2~12

Bondit peak in Pakistan by Nathan Dahlberg

Page 13~16

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UK-German Nalakankar Expedition 2018
reported by Christof Nettekoven and Bruce Normand

Nalakankar Himal
While looking for expedition goals some years ago, both of us had stumbled independently overa fascinating group of peaks in Far West Nepal. Google Earth (see the Appendix) shows a circleof five pyramidal peaks around a single glacier basin, reminiscent of the points of a crown. To
our mutual surprise, further research revealed all five peaks to be unclimbed: Til Kang (6369m),
Takphu Himal (6395m) and unnamed peaks we labelled P3 (6422m), P2 (6521m) and P1(6613m). They form part of the Nalakankar Himal, which stretches along the far northwesternborder of Nepal and extends into Tibet, where one finds its highest peak, the famous Gurla
Mandhata (7694m). The Nalakankar Himal lies immediately to the south of the holy Lake
Manasarovar and Mt Kailas, which are sacred to four religions: Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Bön.
Although parts of the range were explored by Japanese teams as early as 1963, and more
recently in 2000 and 2008, the first approaches to the area around Takphu Himal were made bya Japanese team in summer 2016 and a German team in autumn 2016, both of which climbed
smaller surrounding peaks.
The Team
While preparing to visit the Nalakankar area in October 2018, we learned of a British team withthe same ambitions, and everybody on both sides was in favour of joining forces rather thancompeting. The leader of the British team, Julian Freeman-Attwood, is a true expert on theregion after nine expeditions to Far West Nepal, and his knowledge, connections and logistics
were of invaluable assistance. Nick Colton is perhaps most famous for his Colton-McIntyre routeon the Grandes Jorasses, but has also climbed new routes on Denali and in the Himalaya. Ed
Douglas has summited Shivling (West Ridge) and made the first ascent of Xiashe in Sichuan.
Christof is a serial explorer and expeditioner with experience in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Xinjiang
and Nepal and Bruce has made many 6000m first ascents throughout High Asia.
Preparations
We arrived in Kathmandu on 23rd Sept and spent four days working on the organisation of
trekking and climbing permits, with the help of agents Royal Mountain, and on the provision offood and supplies not available in the remote Far West of Nepal. For the latter task, we gathered-1-

a few items of mountain food while our cook, Ngima Geli, and our sirdar/guide/helper, Lhakpa
Sharpa, amassed large supplies of base camp (BC) food and equipment. From Kathmandu weleft on the 27th by minivan and domestic flight to Nepalganj, and on the 28th we continued byTwin Otter to Simikot (2985m), the capital village of the Humla district. This mountainous region,
with just 50000 inhabitants spread over 5600 square kilometers, of which 70% is above analtitude of 4000m, forms the most northwesterly tip of Nepal.

Approach
In Simikot we spent the 28th repacking our gear into mule loads, buying more items in thebazaar and waiting for baggage that didn’t leave the ground in Nepalganj. Finally on the 29th ourtrain of 16 mules, partially controlled by 3 muleteers, set out “up” the valley of the Humla Karnali,
which in fact entailed first a high traverse above the river and then a long drop to meet it at
2300m. The Humla Karnali is one of the holy rivers rising in the sacred Kailas area and finallyjoining the even more sacred Ganges – Ganga Mata.
As a result this route represents an importantpilgrimage to Lake Manasarovar and Mt. Kailas forthe four religions, although pilgrims who can afford ahelicopter flight to the border at Hilsa can shorten astrenuous trek of several days to just twenty minutes.
At the same time, this path has been an important
trade route to Tibet since ancient times, and so weshared the way with spirited pilgrims from India andcaravans of yaks, horses, donkeys and even goatsloaded with staple foods or commodities ranging
from Chinese housewares to Lhasa beer.
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We followed the lush green valley of the Humla Karnali upstream
through small villages in cascades of small fields carved out of thesteep hillsides. The blaze of dark purple colours interspersed among
walnut, cedar and pine trees indicated Amaranth crops ready for
harvest. Balsam Apple, a kind of spiky cucumber, added to our local
fresh food. The villagers were working hard to bring in both their crops
and the straw for their cattle to last throughout the long, cold winter tocome. We camped first at Dharapori (2600m) and then at Kermi(2800m).
Beyond Kermi
the fields andvillagesarereplacedbyforests and thebeautiful snow
ridgesofmighty Saipal (7031m) appear to thesouthwest. At this point we left the Humla
Karnali and turned north into the Salli
Khola, entering a forest tinted in bright autumn colours. Low in the valley we met local women
who were drying yak cheese as part of their preparations for the winter. The road rises steeply
here the vegetation changes dramatically, thinning out above 3500m and disappearing beyond
3800m, where high alpine meadows dot the barren, rocky slopes.
We pitched our tents in a meadow at 4100m beside acamp of Tibetan yak herders, who were at the end of
their season and were driving their animals downvalley as the temperatures fell. The muleteers left ourmules grazing freely overnight as usual, but in themorning realised their mistake: the animals were easily
smart enough to know where the warmer forest was,and it took most of the day to round up the escapees.
In the end, Ed was ill and the fact that we moved up
only a short distance – to a final lake camp at 4500m
below the Nyalu La (5001m) – was not a big loss.
The next day we crossed the windy pass, marked by rock cairns and the prayer flags of all thetravellers sending their wishes to heaven. Impressive unclimbed peaks of around 6000m rose to
the east. On the northern side we descended far into Talun valley, setting up camp at 4300 in
storm-force winds that brought some snowfall in thenight. After a cold and sunless start to the next morning,
we trekked past the beautiful Talung Tso (lake) and
forded two of its tributary streams before descending a
curious steep sand dune into Traktse. This broadmeadow at the confluence of three rivers marks thenortheastern end of Limi Valley, and its trails are lined bymani walls, the eroded engravings of mantras, prayers
and stupa symbols reflecting the importance of this place
to the people (mani stones provide protection from evil
spirits and bad karma). Li-Mi means “people living
between two rivers” in Tibetan and the language and-3-culture are entirely Tibetan in origin. The altitude, harsh climate and infertile fields allow only
subsistence agriculture, while yak are the basis for cross border trade with Tibet, mostly via Hilsa
or the Lapche La. This isolation, combined with the close proximity to the sacred sites of Lake
Manasarovar and Kailas, have preserved the ancient buddhist and shamanist traditions, and themonasteries in the villages of Til, Halji and Jang are more than a thousand years old.
From Traktse we climbed the Phulgong
La (4775m), another pass marked withprayer flags, mani stones and yak skulls,
where bitterly cold winds welcomed us
onto the Tibetan plateau. Geographicallythis is Tibet, but politically the area has
belonged to Nepal since borderregulations were agreed in 1961. The
temperatures were significantly lower
than usual for the time of year: the postmonsoon season has the advantage of
stable weather, but the disadvantage isthe sinking temperatures of late autumn.
Still, the cold on the high plateau gave us
a good idea of what to expect higher up. The rounded hills of the plateau to the north and east
contrast with steep, sharp peaks and the gigantic summit of Gurla Mandhata to the northwest.
We turned west into the wide, flat Sakya Khola, where we set up a camp at 4750m.
Base Camp
Early on the final morning of our approach (6th Oct),the spectacular icy spire of Til Kang broke through theveil of clouds at the end of Sakya Khola. However, it
was still a long and somewhat troublesome route, withsome flooded swampy areas and some points where
the river has cut deep gorges into the soft rock. Somepassingsnow
squalls made ourkitchen porter andmuleteerstry
torevolt, claiming thatthe end of the valley
was impossible fortheiranimalstoreach. The simple expedient of sending the money to ourdesired BC with Bruce convinced them to continue on the flat,broad trails, and finally we were able to reach a glacial lake
1km before the snout of the glacier itself, where we set up our
BC tents at 5000m in another snow storm.
While most of the climbers took a rest day, Ngima and Lhapka
worked to improve the BC and Bruce went out to reconnoitre
the glacier. Behind the lake he ascended the glacier snout andcontinued up the main Takphu glacier, then turned north oversnow-covered moraine to reach the Takphu North glacier,which is the gateway to the north side of Takphu Himal and P2.
Very unusually for the post-monsoon, the weather wasintermittently cloudy and the snow on the glaciers was knee-4-

deep. This seems to have been the result of a major snowstorm in late September that wascentred in the Indian Himalaya, and now it is too late in the year for the new snow to transform.
Instead it blew around filling up our tracks, so that every day a new trail had to be broken. On thefollowing day, Bruce, Christof and Ed set out for a proper acclimatisation climb of the “Japanese
Takphu North” (6153m). Bruce made it to the summit and everybody got good views of this sideof Takphu Himal and P2. Another afternoon snowstorm accompanied the climbers back to BC,
where everybody rested on the next day.
Takphu Himal and P6055
With Julian and Nick recovering from heavy colds, on 10th October Bruce, Christof and Ed set off
again with overnight and climbing equipment. After a full day of hard trail-breaking they set up ahigh camp at the top of the Takphu North glacier (5700m). Low temperatures suggested a rather
late (8:00am) start, and again kneedeep trail-breaking in the deep
shade made progress very slow.
With a lot of extra time needed towarm up toes and fingers, it took
three hours to reach the col at
6130m between Takphu Himal andP2. Initial joy at the warming sun
and expansive views to the north, of
Gurla Mandhata, and south, of theTakphu cirque, was soon temperedby cold wind and incoming clouds.
The conditions deteriorated to neartotal white-out, but navigation along the West Ridge was not difficult. The team continued topush forward and finally reached the summit of Takphu Himal at an altitude of 6395m.
The wind and cold did not allow much of a summit
celebration and the climbers quickly headed back down.
At one point Ed began to head the wrong way into theSouth Face, but a clearing in the clouds revealed the
problem. Safely back at high camp, Christof discoveredthat his toes were numb with cold damage, while Ed’s
fingers were also frost-nipped. Yet another afternoon
snowstorm set in, which persisted well beyond dark, andwinds blew the snow around all night. By the nextmorning the approach tracks had been completely erased
and the climbers had to break a new trail all the way backdown to BC.

At the same time, Julian and Nickhad been using this “window” of poor
-5-

weather to start their acclimatisation by climbing a rounded peak 5km north of our base camp.
Although they reached the summit of P6055, Nick suffered some frostnip on his toes and Julian
finally succumbed to a proper respiratory infection. He was forced to take antibiotics and had togive up any further plans of climbing on this expedition.

On a day of rest and recovery in BC, Bruce prepared to go
round to enter the Takphu cirque from the south side of Til
Kang. Ed was ready to go with him and packed
accordingly, but Christof decided not to risk further damage
to his toes. The weather continued unsettled and cold, withclouds around the summits every day and occasional snow
showers on persistent winds.
Til Kang
On the next day (14th Oct) Bruce and Ed set off to Til Kang,
heading southwest beside the Takphu glacier to reach the
5358m pass over to the Syogang valley, on the south sideof the mountain. After 400m of descent they discovered arock ledge allowing a scrambling traverse to a tiny glacierat the base of the South Face, from which they could begin
to climb again over moraine and snow slopes. After a long
traverse beneath a corniced rock band, at last light theyreached a steep final climb into the col between Til Kang
P3, which is theentry point for theTakphucirque.
The climbers dug
into deep, soft
snow directly on
the col at 5800m.
On a cloudless but very cold morning, the two started
their climb of Til Kang with a long traverse throughdeep snow to reach the West Face. This steep snow
slope has seracs on its left side, but no debris beneath;the snow was at first deep but improved as the heightincreased, and the upper half was mostly good firn.
After 700 vertical metres the climbers reached the-6-6369m summit and were rewarded, finally, with full panoramic views in all directions: north past
the commanding bulk of Gurla Mandhata to the red plateau lands of Tibet and south over thejagged white carpet of Nepal. Again the cold wind was persistent and the climbers soon headed
back down their route. Again their trail
across the flat glacier had been blown inand needed to be rebroken, delaying theirreturn to high camp until after dark.

P1
Ed was exhausted and ready to return to BC. Bruce had every intention of climbing all five“points on the crown” and continued the mission by heading down the glacier, past the foot of
P3, to the North Face of the highest peak in the cirque, P1. The right part of this face is broken
by a large serac band, causing him to follow an old avalanche track to enter the left side of theface at 5600m. Above the seracs he traversed through the middle of the upper face to the crux
rock band, where he found a gully that could be surmounted with only 10m of vertical rock andice moves. Beyond this the climbing was again 50-degree firn slopes to the summit ridge, where
he crossed the cornice at its smallest point and finished up an easy ridge to the summit at-7-

6613m. Despite the sunny morning, high clouds had moved in again and the extensive views
were somewhat spoiled
by low light. The usual
cold southwest wind
was blowing across thesummit, but had notbeen a problem on theface. For the descenthebypassedtheverticalsectionbyfinding
some
50degreefirnslopesslightly to its right, andotherwise retraced his
steps to the base of theface. There a familiar
scene played out, withthe approach trail fully
blown in by the day’s
winds and a slow
ascent to regain thehigh camp after dark.
P3
With P3 clearly a shorter and less technical peakthan P1, Bruce opted for a later start. Yet again
the morning was fine, apart from the usual cloudon the south side of Til Kang, but high clouds
moved in during the day. Bruce followed theprevious day’s trail beneath the North Face of P3
and then headed up towards the col separating itfrom P1. The first 150 vertical metres werestraightforward 45-degree firn, but the next 250
were soft snow that in places was knee-deep.

From the 6000m col the going was solid, andhe zig-zagged up southwest-facing slopes to-8-the summit at 6422m. The summit vistas were a rerun of the previous day, but with significantly
lower winds. The descent was also quick and unexpectedly easy because, for once, the trail on
the glacier had survived the daytime winds.

P2
With only one peak left to complete the set, early on the morning of 18th Oct Bruce crossed theglacier basin one more time to reach the south flank of P2. Starting at 5600m he climbed a scree
slope to reach 40-degree snow slopes at 5800m. The winds were cold, but on this day the skies
remained cloudless and the only disappointment was a camera failure. Enjoying views far into
the Indian Himalaya to the west, and of the Takphu cirque behind him, he zig-zagged up thesnow to top out on the very sharp west ridge at 6460m, then side-stepped across to the 6521m
summit. The other half of the vista, to Gurla Mandhata and even Kailas in the far distance, wasfor once crystal clear all afternoon. With the wind suddenly dying, restoring “proper” postmonsoon conditions for the first time all month, Bruce decided to continue down the long East
Ridge of P2 to the col with Takphu Himal. From the point where he, Christof and Ed had stood 1
week earlier, the easiest and most aesthetic route was to carry on up and over Takphu Himal,
then descend to the cirque by its southern slopes. Both the snow and the vistas were excellent
all the way to the col with Til Kang, but the demise of the camera meant that the experience wentunrecorded. Back in the cirque, Bruce was able to limit the deep-snow work to a few hundredhorizontal metres, before finding a wind-scoured route around to his and Ed’s old access trail to
Til Kang, which he followed back to the col camp at sunset.

-9-Return
After a rather slow start on the next morning,
Bruce dropped back into the Syogang valley,
crossed the ledge traverse and made his way
back over the 5358m pass, now windy and cold
again, to return to BC by late afternoon. The teamwelcomed him enthusiastically, partly out of relief
to see him back and partly because now they
could go home: the mules had already arrived,
two days ahead of schedule, so the next day saw
the expedition pack up and leave. The return trek
was made in beautiful weather, which allowed
much better views of the landscape andmountains than the team had gained while
trekking in, but there is no doubt that the highplateau is a cold and windy place by late October.
The team was back in Simikot after 5 days on the trail, then flew back to Nepalganj andKathmandu one day later (25th Oct) to end the expedition.

Appendix: Map, Overview Photograph and Google Earth Image

Far northwestern Nepal (Trekking Map 100 Series, sheet 110B).
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Gurla Mandhata and the peaks of the Takphu cirque viewed from the south. Here P4 marks Til
Kang and P5 marks Takphu Himal.

Image of the Takphu cirque showing P1, P2, P3, Takpu Himal and Til Kang viewed from the NE(Google Earth).

Acknowledgements
We are particularly grateful for the financial support of the Mount Everest Foundation, theMontane Alpine Club Climbing Fund and the German Alpine Club (Deutscher Alpenverein,
DAV). We thank Tetsuji Otsue for valuable and unpublished information about his expedition,
Shiva Dhakel and Mahesh Chhetri at Royal Mountain, Rinjin Lama for making everything
happen in Simikot and especially Ngima Geli und Lhakpa Sherpa for all of their tireless andcheerful work on our behalf. We would like to thank all the helpful and hospitable people we met
in beautiful Nepal for contributing to our experience.
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Bondit peak in Pakistan
Nathan Dahlberg
In Pakistan I recorded movie footage for a documentary movie I have been planning to
make for some years about the Balti mountain workers - especially the Porters.
For this I followed a trek over the Gondogoro pass and in filming the porters I was
more amazed than ever about their strength and ruggedness. I hope to have the film
ready by the middle of next year.
Following that we (3 New Zealanders and 1 Irishman) tried climbing two different
unclimbed peaks in the Kandi area of Hushe valley. We failed on both with very
dangerous conditions of rock and ice avalanches. I have written a small report that I
have included below about that at the request of my friend Ibrahim for 2 Japaneseclimbers who wish to go there next year. I am beginning a more complete report now.
Regards photos - I will begin sending them later today - some have been modified fromtheir original formats and that has reduced them in size - please let me know if thephotos are not big enough and I will find the originals. I am very interested in yourproject on producing a book on the mountains around the source of the Mekong. Let meknow If I can help in any other way.

Bondit peak is a very prominent mountain located in the Bondit glacier at
35’20’29’70’N, 76’16’26’75’E – peak height about 6000m +/- 100m. There are no
accurate maps or measurements I know of around this area. We climbed to 5300m+/- 50m on both Bondit and an adjacent peak – in both case’s the summit of Bondit
was very far above us and we seemed to have made no impression on the main partof the mountain. Several expeditions have now attempted Bondit – allunsuccessful.
1Our expedition left Kandi on August 6th – and a beautiful walk up to Bondit thru
grassy meadows saw us arrive on the 7th where 2 of us immediately set out toreccon the ice fall. The obvious route was up the Icefall/Glacier, onto an upper
shelf before climbing an ice wall onto the Western ridge – and then up the ridge tothe summit. The ice fall proved completely impassable though. We than looked at
an alternative route(s) to gain that same shelf but retreated after been constantly
being bombarded by rocks and ice. We than attempted a smaller peak – about
5600m +/- 100m West of Bondit – the result was similar with large rock avalanches
now coming down. We finally left 18th without any success. We also explored thearea around and there are several smaller peaks up glacial valleys – in each casethe peak was of extremely loose rock.
Timing is the essence for any successful attempt on Bondit. Ibrahim suggest
between June 15th and July 15th – after the spring snow avalanches but before thesnow leaves the glacier and makes the ice fall impassable. This seems very
reasonable. If one can reach the upper snow field, it looks possible to climb a steep
ice wall of about 2 -300 vertical meters through seracs to gain the Western ridge bywhich the summit is accessible. This could be done Alpine style – although Ibrahim
thinks putting in 300m of fixed rope here should be good – from a safe angle, I
think that it should be considered – a fast climb descent thru the seracs is probably
a good idea.
I highly recommend Ibrahim as a service operator, and if possible, his crew of
Karim (an excellent Cook) and Akbar as chief hand to serve you and also operate
Base camp. The area around Kandi is beautiful and there are dozens of un-climbed
5-6000m peaks there.

Bondit peak at night from Base camp2Same spot in the day

Suggested route is in yellow. Orange is potential alternative route if Glacier is to
cut up but snow conditions are still good – it goes through 2 steep couliors.

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The Ice fall and route to upper snow field is visible here4