Adam Bielecki and Felix Berg are doing it again: their “secondary” acclimatization peak (before attempting a new route on Annapurna) is a mighty challenge by itself. The grandeur of Langtang Lirung (7,227m) was equaled by the disbelief the climbers met when they revealed their plans to the locals in Langtang valley. “The owner of our hotel promised that if we climb it, we can drink all the alcohol he has in his restaurant for free,” Adam said. In fact, the mountain’s bad reputation is no wonder. Not many dare to approach a peak that has not been summited in over 20 years. One of the latest attempts was Slovenian superstar Tomaz Humar on a solo climb up its north face back in 2009 – never to return.
On the second try, the climbers reached Langtang Lirung’s SW ridge. Image by Adam Bielecki and Felix Berg from Bielecki’s fan page #BlackYakAnnapurnaExpedition2019 .
In spite of the somber looks, the two climbers marched on and set a lonely ABC at 4,700 meters last week. Scouting a possible itinerary up the mountain’s southeast ridge, their first push up was thwarted by poor snow conditions and constant avalanches. “The second time we managed to reach the ridge and set up C1 at 5300 m,” Adam reported. Then they proceeded up, but had to retreat after 200 meters of very technical climb and decided that on their next push up they would climb slightly further to the right. They also made a radical decision about the high risk of avalanches. “We will climb mainly at night and only in cold days,” Adam explained. “We have learnt to be patient and we are carefully getting familiar with the rhythm of the mountain.”
Camp 1 on Langtang Lirung. Image by Adam Bielecki and Felix Berg from Bielecki’s fan page #BlackYakAnnapurnaExpedition2019 .
https://explorersweb.com/2019/04/05/adam-bielecki-returns-to-annapurna/
