Tengkangpoche 2019
by Juho Knuuttila
Quentin Roberts, Tim Banfield and I arrived in Nepal in mid-September. We had already abandoned our plans for Kashmir (considered unsafe) and the North Face of Chamlang (already climbed in the spring). Now our new plan was to try Tengkangpoche`s (6487m) North Pillar - one of the last big unsolved problems in the Khumbu.
We spent the first few weeks acclimatising around Khumbu, but the long monsoon and my week long fever didn't allow any climbing before the end of the month. We tried to climb Cholatse in the beginning of October via the normal SW ridge route, but snowy conditions stopped Quentin and Tim at 6100m.
After Cholatse we went back to Namche Bazar to recover and then moved up to the beautiful village of Thengpo (4350m), which is located just below the northern aspect of Tengkangpoche.
After studying the face for two days from the village of Thengpo, Quentin and I packed food for seven days, gas for nine, pitons, double rack, a single rope, 6mm tag line and a light tent to our two 45l backpacks. No portaledge, bolts or hand drill. This climb would go with pure means or not at all.
In the early morning of 11th October we approached the face and a ramp spotted by Tino and Alan, friendly Americans climbing another peak close by. The ramp gave us easy access to the middle of the face skipping the lower moss covered and snow free part of the wall. We passed our planned bivvy spot early and reached a better one at 2pm at 5400m. A very good start!
Our second day on the wall was quite short. Only 150m ascent to the base of the steep headwall (5550m), but thin ice ramps and tricky mixed slabs offered enough action. Climbing was like on the North face of Grandes Jorasses. Quentin fixed a rope some 30m up the headwall in the evening before we crashed into our tent.
We set out when the morning sun hit the wall with pitch after pitch of steepness. It was definitely Quentin's terrain as he fluently aided, free climbed and mixed climbed, sometimes doing all of the above in one pitch. We passed Matt Maddaloni's and John Furneaux's (2006) highpoint at 5600m. That was the highest rap anchor we found. They had climbed 9 days to that point. We had used 2.5 days. Now the terrain would be totally virgin even though our line lower on the mountain was also different from theirs.
Soon the cracks were filled with ice and it took a long time to find protection and even climb them. We hauled both of the bags and I jumared as a second. On the headwall, on pitch seven, it became dark. Spindrift was quite strong and made everything much harder. When I reached Quentin under a small overhang, he suggested a bivvy. We were still in the middle of the headwall and conditions were hard. We managed to set a sitting bivvy with the tent covering our bodies and our legs dangling, and spindrift pouring all around us. It was the longest and most uncomfortable night I can remember.
In the morning it was now my turn to lead. The angle of the face kicked back and the ice was finally climbable. At times only a 15-20cm wide ice strip was holding if you climbed carefully but then you couldn't protect it as the crack was behind the ice. I did two long itches to the head of the top of the headwall. These pitches were probably the best in terms of quality on the route. We found a suitable bivvy spot on a snow ridge at 5880m, but spent a few hours cutting ice with our axes to make the ledge bigger for our tent which still leaned towards the void.
Day five was our rest day. That miserable night in the middle of the headwall took a lot of energy and we thought that staying still, eating and hydrating would help. It did, but it also took away some of our motivation after so many days on the wall. In the afternoon Quentin fixed the rope almost 50 metres higher, battling up the hardest and most bizarre pitch yet. It was a scary lead to watch. In the tent we talked about the next day. It seemed that we still had many question marks, but the hardest terrain would be under us. We would try to reach the summit ridge tomorrow. And the 6487m summit the day after that.
Day six was cold and we jumared up in the shade. Then Quentin tackled a snow ramp hoping to find features or ice behind the corner that would allow us to reach the next snow ramp which would give us access to the snowy slabs below the ridge. There was nothing. All the ice we had seen from the village was probably just snow, blown off by the wind. Now the rock was compact without any cracks! This section proved to be unclimbable by pure means. The crux of the pillar turned out to be right on the top after all...
So we started rappelling down the pillar. A long way down, passing all the sections and meters we’d gained during the past six days. It was heart-breaking but rapelling went quite fine and we managed to leave minimal amount of pitons, wires and cord. We reached the village of Thengpo when it was dark, greeted by Tim and Phurba, who flashed lights to guide us back to the world of warm beds and delicious dal bhat
.Note: We hope that future attempts respect the mountain and climb in alpine style too, without bolts and a hand drill. Like it should be.
Juno received a small grant from the AAC(UK) Expedition Fund.
Quentin leading difficult pitch high on the headwall Photos Tim Banfield
Our bivvy at 5880m
Quentin and Juho
Small houses at Thengpo
Evening time at Thengpo with Spanish team
Quentin leading on day one
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