The Everest frenzy last month made us miss a small team flying under the radar that climbed a new line on Kongde Ri Sar (6,093m), in the Khumbu Valley. It was the first route up the peak’s 1,250m north face.
Elias Hangweyrer, Max Muck, and Jakob Ritzl of Austria succeeded on a last-minute push right before heading home. Weeks of waiting out bad weather gave them a lesson in resilience and a cool name for their new route, The Edge of Patience (M7+, A2, AI6 R, 2,500m).
First try falls short
The climbers visited the area in May, captivated by Kongde Ri Sar’s 1,250m north face. They wondered why there were no direct routes on a face that lay just a few kilometers from Namche Bazaar.
With Muck sick in base camp, Ritzl and Hangweyrer launched a first attempt in mid-May. After four days on the wall, the difficulty forced them to retreat just 100m from the top. At the time, they were unsure if they were up to the challenge.
Waiting out weather
“We were pretty convinced that the season had become too warm and that we wouldn’t get another chance,” Elias Hangweyrer reported. “Then a storm front moved in and brought exactly the drop in temperatures we had been hoping for.”
Cards and patience games at a lodge in Thame. Photo: Austrian Kongde Ri Sar team
The storm was good news for the first few days, but then it became a test of patience, as the climbers waited in a lodge day after day. A new window refused to appear until the last week of their stay in Nepal.
Back to the wall
With this glimmer of hope, the climbers headed back to the mountain. They spent one day approaching the face, five days on the wall, and one more rappelling down the route. No one said it would be easy.
“Despite a few decent bivy spots, this was both physically and mentally one of the hardest things we have ever experienced in the mountains,” Hangweyrer wrote in his report. “The extremely compact rock made many pitches difficult to protect, and because of the poor ice conditions, we had to aid climb some sections.”
At a bivy on the north face of Kongde Ri Sar. Photo: Austrian Kongde Ri Sar team
“It was six days of loose rock, thin ice, wet sleeping bags, spindrift, endless traverses, and more uncertainty than confidence,” recalled Max Muck.
Sustained difficulty
Yet, they made it, struggling over vertical terrain of mixed rock and ice. “This wall gave us absolutely nothing for free from bottom to top,” they wrote.
Mixed, vertical sections on Kongde ri Sar. Photo: Austrian Kongde ri Sar team
On the upper sections, the team climbed onsight, not knowing if the next pitch would lead to a dead end. “Even in the last 30m, we still had to traverse in order to find a way out,” Hangweyrer said. “The relief I felt when I finally stepped onto the summit snowfield is impossible to describe. I couldn’t help but scream out loud.”
The reward
The descent was also a long struggle. The climbers were exhausted and severely dehydrated. Yet, they had friends in the Khumbu.
“One of the strongest moments came when, somewhere below the wall, long after dark, we suddenly saw headlamps moving toward us through the night. Our lodge family from Thame had come out carrying tea, drinks, and food because they thought we might return late and hungry,” Max Muck recalls. “After weeks in the mountains, that moment of sitting in the grass under the stars with warm tea in our hands is something none of us will forget.”
‘Edge of Patience’ route topo on Kongde Ri Sar. Photo: Austrian Kongde Ri Sar team
