A good crowd of 50 plus turned up to hear Guy McKinnon recount his experiences climbing in eastern Tibet in late 2009. After a 48 hour train journey from Beijing, Guy, Bruce Normand and Yan Dong-Dong arrived in Lhasa.
The original plan was to access the eastern Nyenchentangla range. However, things in China are never what they seem. The team was given the boot from this part of Tibet for not having correct documentation. Guy’s talk really emphasised that without the correct documentation the chances of moving anywhere remote in China are not going to happen.
So with a mountain of gear they decided to head to the western Nyenchentangla range which they had spied on the train to Lhasa. After using horses to porter their gear up the valley they had a couple of short climbs to get acclimatised. The peaks in this area looked stunning – good straightforward walking up glaciers and then some classic mountaineering. The team reached five summits between 6100m and 6600m. The big boy of the region is Nyenchentangla Feng at over 7000m which looked spectacular and has seen a few ascents, notably Mick Fowler in 2005. It was easy from Guy’s photos the great lines available in the area, including a great rock route on one ridge. However, with low temperatures (ten degrees below) the rock routes were not on.
Probably the most fascinating aspect of the evening was that Guy had no idea if these mountains had been climbed before. Furthermore as they had no permits to climb these mountains then they cannot publicise their routes as possible first ascents. After a few questions from the audience, the remainder of the club night was spent polishing off a few ales.
Capt Custard
