Every spring for over a century, the American Alpine Club has announced the American expeditions they will support with a Cutting Edge Grant. The grant supports pure alpine-style projects to difficult, remote mountains.
This year sees action on five peaks: Shivling, Yashkuk Sar, Jannu East, Ultar Sar, and Chiling II. This series looks at the climbing history of each one. We have already written about Shivling, Yashkuk Sar, Jannu East, and Ultar Sar. Today, we finish the series with India’s Chiling II.
Base Camp in the Lalung Valley with Chiling I (left) and Chiling II. The steep, unclimbed north face of Chiling II (lightly shadowed) faces right. Photo: Innes Dean
The Chiling peaks
The Chiling peaks lie on the boundaries of Zanskar, Kishtwar, and Suru, in India’s Lalung Valley. According to Lindsay Griffin in the American Alpine Journal, the area’s climbing history is only roughly documented. Many different names and altitudes have mistakenly appeared on many of the region’s peaks, features, and valleys. In the past, the Chiling peaks have been referred to as Lalung or Z2.
Later, the Indian Mountaineering Foundation identified these remote peaks as 6,349m Chiling I, 6,253m Chiling II, 6,155m Zanskar I, 6,152m Z2 (though most documented ascents of Z2 were probably of Chiling I), 6,243m Lalung I, 6,157m Lalung II, and 6,120m Lalung III.
The relatively low heights of these peaks don’t make them easy. On the contrary, the area is a paradise for accomplished mountaineers aiming for technical, highly committed ascents.
As climbers Alex Mathie and Marthew Harle wrote, Chiling I and II form an aesthetically pleasing pair. The first is an impressive pointed spire of rock and ice. The second is a squat granite fortress, defended by smooth fins of steep, orange rock on its southerly, easterly, and westerly aspects. A steep wall of ice and mixed terrain dominates its northerly aspect.
The twin granitic peaks dominate the skyline above the Lalung Glacier and make for obvious objectives. However, other attractive peaks hang over the glacier too, including the summits of Lalung I and III. Lalung I has an enticing, expansive north face, but access to it would be long and complex. The head of the glacier is heavily crevassed, according to Mathie and Harle.
Chiling I (left) and Chiling II from the Lalung Glacier. Photo: Tad McCrea
Past expeditions on Chiling II
According to the American Alpine Journal, Tad McCrea hoped to attempt Chiling II in 2015 but deferred to the American team of Kitty Calhoun, Renny Jackson, Jay Smith, and Jack Tackle.
The American foursome attempted the east ridge. After six days, they reached their highest point, which was just 80m below the summit. The party turned around because of the extreme cold.
Oriol Baro and Lluc Pellissa completed Chiling II’s east ridge one year later, in 2016.
In the summer of 2018, Alex Mathie and Matthew Harle aimed for the unclimbed 1,400m north face of Chiling II. Unsafe snow conditions, poor weather, and heavy spindrift avalanches made them abort.
Map showing the position of a 2022 landslide that blocked access to the north face of Chiling II. Photo: Timothy Elson
In the autumn of 2022, Timothy Elson, Innes Dean, and Alex Mathie also tried the north face. They drove from Leh in a van via Kargil and Rangdum to near Pensi La. From there, they walked for a day up the Lalung Valley to a base camp just short of the glacier snout.
To reach the bottom of the face, they followed the same approach that Mathie had taken in 2018. That meant a slog up the Lalung Glacier, over the col linking it with the Chiling Glacier to the north, then up to the face.
But when the trio wanted to drop onto the Chiling Glacier, they realized that a fresh landslide from a nearby peak had hit the route. They were unable to navigate through and gave up on their original goal, turning their attention to other peaks.
Chiling II’s north face in 2024
Chris Wright and Stian Bruvoll will attempt to ascend the north face of Chiling II this year. Wright and Bruvoll met while guiding on Norway’s Lofoten Island.
“It is one of the most handsome unclimbed north faces on the planet,” Wright says.
Chiling II (right) from the west. Photo: Alex Mathie and Matthew Harle
