Another Japanese team has just returned from the Kangchenjunga region of eastern Nepal. Hidesuke Taneishi and Daiki Yamamoto attempted the north face of Pholesobi Peak.
Pholesobi Peak lies west of Mount Jannu and not far from Kangchenjunga and the frontier with Sikkim, India. Map by MarCarta
The peak (6,554m, according to Mapcarta) remains unclimbed, as Taneishi and Yamamoto had to retreat at 6,200m because of Yamamoto’s health problems.
“It was a shame,” Taneishi wrote on social media. “We had a lot of fun and great climbing on a steep face that reminded me of Alaska’s mountains.” The pair hope to return next year.
Yamamoto described the face as a 1,400m high wall that became consistently steeper, all the way to the summit.
Yamamoto noted that he was relieved to be able to descend on his own, and that his health problems hospitalized him right after the expedition.
“If I want to return to the mountain, first I need to recover,” he wrote.
Hot spot for Japanese teams
Several Japanese teams have attempted mainly unclimbed 6,000’ers in the same area this fall. Last weekend, Takahiro Kaneko, Saki Terada, and Takahiro Ishikawa launched an attempt on Sharpu VI, but retreated after a long climb because of an impassable section at 6,000m. Instead, they summited Tha Nagphu (5,980m), a secondary peak along the way.
Some days before, another Japanese team from Meiji University’s alpine club attempted the beautiful Anidesh Chuli (6,960m). The peak is nicknamed the White Wave because of its steep, flute flanks completely covered in ice and snow.
