The climbing permits issued recently by Nepal’s Department of Tourism list two intriguing lower peaks: 6,180 Swelokhan and 6,372m Pokhar Khang.
France’s Marine Margaux Minguet will lead a team to attempt the first ascent of Swelokhan in the Manaslu Himal on the Tibetan border. It just opened for mountaineering in 2003 and remains unclimbed.
List of peaks with climbing permits for this season as of April 9. Photo: Everest Today
Ethic Himalaya is the outfitter providing logistics, but we know no further details about this ongoing expedition. Until we learn more, here is the brief climbing history of this peak, which has been attempted just twice, in 2005 and 2007.
Swelokhan attempts
According to The Himalayan Database and the American Alpine Journal, a three-man party led by Sadmasu Kitagawa of Japan attempted Swelokhan in the spring of 2005. The party included Sadmasu Kitagawa and Hiroh Sogo from Japan, as well as Chhiring Dorchi Sherpa from Nepal.
They unsuccessfully tried two routes, the south face and the southwest face-northwest ridge.
On the south face, Kitagawa and Dorchi reached 5,200m, where a rock barrier blocked the glacier they were ascending.
On the second route, they reached 5,800m on the northwest ridge before turning around when they encountered a section of sharp, loose rock and fresh snow that was beyond their technical skill.
Two years later, in the autumn of 2007, Peter Ackroyd of the U.S. led a similarly small expedition to Swelokhan. He, Jim Frush, and Sam McClary attempted the southeast face and reached 5,120m on October 14 before aborting due to bad snow conditions. They noted that from here, they would have needed only one camp before the summit.
This year’s Pokhar Khang Expedition. Photo: Fair Step Trekking/Facebook
Pokhar Khang
A German party led by Konstantin Johannes August, including Moritz Quincke, Flora Voglic, and Fabienne Sophia Volle, will attempt 6,372m Pokhar Khang.
The peak lies in the Damodar Himalaya, between the upper Mustang and Annapurna. It was first opened for mountaineering in 2002. That autumn, a UK party led by Stephen Town achieved the first ascent. Richard Martin Scott, Dave Wynne-Jones from the UK, and Pasang Kaji Sherpa from Nepal summited via the south face-east ridge on November 17.
A Japanese team led by Koichi Kato attempted the mountain a little earlier that first season but only reached a foresummit at 6,346m on October 31.
Since then, two further successful expeditions have summited Pokhar Khang, in the autumns of 2009 and 2012. In all, 12 climbers have stood on the summit of this peak.
Both the Swelokhan and Pokhar Khang expeditions have already begun. We’ll report further when we hear news.
Earlier this spring, a Nepalese party attempted unclimbed 6,186m Khayang but aborted their attempt due to bad weather and difficult conditions.
Nepal has 96 unclimbed 6,000’ers in all, including 56 peaks under 6,500m and 40 between 6,501m and 6,999m.
