Western Nepal, first ascent of Lukeko Baref 6122m

Did you know that "Himalaya" means the "abode of the snow" in Sanskrit? Fittingly, this fall there was too much snow in the Himalaya. Our dreams of steep faces plastered with sticky neve were buried by massive amount of fresh snow. What followed was an epic in trail breaking and an exercise in teamwork.

It all started a few years ago as we realized that the Academic Alpine Club Zurich is about to turn 125 years old. Throughout the years, club members have made a number of important first ascents across the world: from the southern summit of Mt. Ushba to the North Ridge of Piz Badile to the Northeast Face of the Eiger. Many larger-scale expeditions were also carried out, some of them as part of Jubilee celebrations. This time as well, a motley crew from the club coalesced around the goal of going somewhere interesting and unexplored. We tinkered with a plan to go to Antarctic, some people were keen to visit Greenland with skis and I proposed going to Karakoram. In the end we settled for Nepal's wild, wild west. 

Initially planned for 2021, we shifted it by a year due to Covid risk. We tried to take a few things seriously, not only Covid. Both seasons we organized rescue workshops to practice glacier emergencies and high-angle rescues. Sarah, the doctor of the expedition, organized extremely useful medical training courses to ensure that we can deal with the unexpected in the hills.

Ropework training in Siggenthaler Flue

Medical training day

Is there anybody in there?

Glacier training on the Rhonegletscher

High-angle rescue training in Furka

Throughout the year, we went climbing with the expedition members, which in my case included some very fun days, such as climbing Metro in Kandersteg with Hansueli, going up the Prachtsexemplar on Bockmattli with Daniel and summiting Mont Blanc via Brouillard pillar with Bruce.

Hansueli exiting the Metro line

Daniel on Bockmattli

Bruce at the start of the Brouillard pillar

Finally, it was go time in September and right after landing in Nepal, the standard expedition business started: not enough supplies were purchased, the discussions with the liaison officer took the whole evening in Kathmandu, the plane that was supposed to take us from Nepalganj to Simikot turned out to be too small and the camping gas did not make it to Simikot at all. Through persistence, cunning and sometimes luck we got through the hurdles and after multiple modes of transport and with the help of 40-plus mules we made it to the base camp at about 4300 meters above the sea level. We were in the beautiful and remote Lachama valley, with the namesake peak crowning the mountain chain.

Kathmandu business

Making our way west

The plane that took us to Simikot

Stoke is high!

Simikot downtown

They have amazing apples in Simikot!

A lot of food and even more packing

The team

Who is guiding who?

As we were going up, many animals and herders were going down

Sarah was in a very high demand as a doctor

Bruce finally finds someone for a serious discussion

One thing you cannot cheat your way around is weather though. The monsoon season this year was unusually intense and it was immediately clear that the mountains look very different to the year when Paul Ramsden and Mick Fowler made the first ascent of Gave Ding. Nevertheless, we had a few pleasant days acclimatizing and still had some hopes of getting some climbing in.

Acclimatization hike 

Daniel about to summit the acclimatization peak

But then it started snowing. A few days into the snowstorm we still tried kidding ourselves that somehow it may be not too bad, but as the snow continued for the whole week, the illusions slowly dwindled away. By the end of the snowfall, our initially green base camp had a meter of snow around our tents, with the kitchen tent even collapsing once.

Hansueli warming up

Still snowing

As the time was passing by, we realized that the big faces were out of question and even for the objectively safe more moderate mountains we will have to work hard. Thus commenced the great trench-digging mission. Every day we would go out into the storm and make a bit of trail with the hope that some of if survives the snowfall. Four members of the group decided to go to the south fork of the valley, while the remaining folks aimed at the North valley. Blinded by the promise of dry post-monsoon season we had not packed any snowshoes so every step forward was quite a fight.

After studying the maps, we have identified a peak at 6122 meters of elevation that had a seemingly safe path to the summit. Most of the approach would take place on slopes that were less that 30 degrees steep, the only steep snow section was facing southwest, suggesting that it would stabilize quickly. To top things off, from what we could see, the summit ridge had no significant cornices. The key to success was getting established onto a hidden glacier that also gave name to the peak, which we started calling the Hidden Glacier Peak, or Lukeko Baref in Nepali.

Once the snowfall stopped, we packed our bags for the next week and took off. A group of us would break trail for a few hours, switching the lead every five minutes or so (after which the leader would then take a while to catch the breath). After doing this for a few days, we would then move the camp and restart the process.

That's how it went for a long time

The sun finally broke through the clouds

One day, at about 5200 meters, Javi, Max, Yannick, Hansueli, Daniel and me spent all of our juice during several hours of protracted effort and only managed to break a few kilometers of trail. While we were having fun and enjoying the banter, we started to doubt if we have enough food and time to make it to the summit. It was pretty clear that we need more firepower if we want to maintain the progress and have a chance to summit. When we returned to our last camp, Javi channeled his revolutionary anarcho-budhist vibe and convinced everyone that they need to chip in and break some trail. The following day was key, as eleven of us were taking turns and working hard to reach the hidden glacier and make a camp there.

On the way to camp 2

Some impressive rock for the next visit

Charlotte enjoying the afternoon sun.

Daniel enjoying the afternoon nap.

Getting close to the peak

It then took us another day to break trail halfway to the ridge of the peak and we were set for the summit push. Leaving early the following morning, we enjoyed the crisp conditions on the glacier and the pleasant romp up the snow slope to the ridge. A pretty ridge scramble followed and we were soon approaching a spur with beautiful granite buttress. Daniel, Hansueli and me ended up choosing a direct rock spur, which proved to be quite exciting to climb. Unfortunately, there were some loose blocks on the spur and one of them ended up partially damaging the precious new rope that we had borrowed from Bruce.

I'm eying the ridge above

Daniel and Hansueli getting into business

Meanwhile, Andi, Charlotte, Javi and Max found a way to walk around the spur and discovered an easier passage. Andi then quickly got into his element and quested up the ridge, finding the optimal path through snow and rock. Pleasant climbing with solid protection ensued and a few hours later we emerged on the apex of the peak and started soaking in the experience.

It was a great feeling to see the last three members of our group crest the final spur and come onto the summit. After days of weathering snowfall and another week of hard work breaking trail it was extremely satisfying to have everyone work as a team and ten of us stand on the summit as a reward. The people on the summit spanned ages from 25 to 62, a few lifetimes of experience in the mountains and a ton of positive vibes. On the summit, we did a cool dance with a celebratory tune - a rendition from Daniel and Javi. There wasn't a gust of wind and spectacular views stretched as far as the eye could see.

Summit party!

The route can be seen in the pictures below, with the difficulties coming in at an approximately AD grade and it would certainly be a classic back home in the Alps.

There was one more challenge left - given the vast amount of snow in the basecamp, we were not sure whether the mules can come up and help us to carry the load down. What followed was a combination of clearing the snow at the base camp, carrying some loads down for a stretch and trying to convince the mule herders to give it a go. Needless to say, when we glimpsed the first few mules on the approach to base camp, we were delighted.

In memory of Steven A. Brown (1970-2022)

Sadly, six weeks after returning from Nepal, our expedition member Steve had a fatal accident while landing his plane in Canada. He was a true adventurer of life, from climbing in remote mountain ranges to flying his students to the arctic circle to perform research during the Covid pandemic. He will be greatly missed and we were very lucky to enjoy his company and wit in the Himalaya this fall.