Remote Western Nepal is giving small teams the chance for new routes and unclimbed peaks. Most recently, on November 3, American alpinists Benjamin Lieber and Alex Hansen made the first ascent of 6,233m Changla Khang West on the Tibetan border.
“The expedition…matched the goals we had: go to a place we have not seen before, look around at all the mountains, and then try to climb one,” Lieber told ExplorersWeb.
They trekked to the Lachama Glacier and set up their Base Camp. For the next 10 days, they scouted side valleys for potential objectives.
“We chose this area after reading about two expeditions that had visited it before, including Paul Ramsden and Mick Fowler,” said Lieber.
“Our recon became jumbled in bad weather, and we lost about a week between storms and high winds,” Lieber explained. “Days passed by so fast that we ultimately opted for trying Changla Khang West, which had been attempted at least twice before.”
The route
On the summit ridge. Photo: Benjamin Lieber
The lower part of the route consisted of scrambly buttresses and steep snow gulleys that led to an incredible snow/ice ridge. This unbroken ridge took us nearly all the way to the summit, which was guarded by a few rock bands.It felt like we got off easy with the rock bands when we turned to look inside a chimney to find perfect water ice. After a horrifying top-out at the chimney’s end, we made it to the summit a short time later.
Views from the ridge. Photo: Benjamin Lieber
