
Camp one on Labuche Kange III East. The team in high spirits before the severe beating began. Crevasse falls, full-on drenchings in hidden kettle ponds, and other delightful life experiences ensued in the following days. This is first ascent high altitude mountaineering in the Himalaya. Bring your big boy pants. Caption and Photo: Luke Smithwick

Forty degrees in average steepness doesn’t mean it was always forty degrees. A steeper section of the route, with Luke Smithwick dealing with fixing 8mm static rope for the group anchored with 22cm ice screws. Yes, that is alpine ice. This is not a snow plod. Caption and Photo: Luke Smithwick

Escaping the labyrinth. Getting to the upper snowfield and camps of LK3 takes route-finding skills, luck, and a willingness to keep going when it sucks. Caption and Photo: Luke Smithwick
We turned around only 400 meters from the summit after climbing for 8 hours up a blue ice wall that averaged 40 degrees in steepness. I felt OK and able to go on… along with the two Sherpas I was working with, however our group was fairly exhausted collectively, and I was guiding, so we retreated to our Camp Three at 6,276 meters (20,486 feet).

6,276m Camp Three on Labuche Kang III East. Surrounding this camp, Luke made “the death circle” with one of the climbing ropes. No one was allowed to leave the circle, as the perimeter was riddled with crevasses. Two crevasse falls occurred right on the edge of this camp, and they were big enough to eat someone. Fortunately, no one was injured on the climb. Caption and Photo: Luke Smithwick
About the Author

Ash Routen
Ash is an outdoor and adventure writer from the UK. He juggles a day job as a public health scientist with a second career in outdoor writing.
His words have featured in national newspapers, international magazines, and on various websites. Major bylines include Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Porsche, Outside Magazine, Rock and Ice, and Red Bull.
He holds two degrees in Exercise and Health Sciences, and a PhD in Public Health.
His areas of expertise are polar expeditions, mountaineering, hiking, and adventure travel. In his spare time Ash enjoys going on small independent sledding expeditions, outdoor photography, and reading adventure literature.
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Kabru has been climbed. Muchu Chish lacks prominence. Cheers…
Thanks Luke. Can you please clarify for our readers what you mean by prominence and what the prominence needs to be to ‘qualify’ as a separate peak?
The first ascent of Kabru was done by Col. Satish Sharma of the Indian Army and expedition leader of the 2013 NCC Everest Expedition where I happen to be the expedition photographer. Great effort Luke. As always.
Thanks Percy, this needs to be recorded somewhere. There is a great deal of information on the internet, as recent as February 2018, that states Kabru remains unclimbed.