Ama Dablam (6856m) provides a rare view of perfect mountain symmetry for the weary trekkers on their vicarious pilgrimage to Everest base camp. Viewed from the tiny hamlet of Pangboche the mountain's North West and South West ridges give the illusion of a mother's unfolding arms shielding the Mingo Valley.

The South West ridge, which was the line of the first ascent of the mountain by Edmund Hillary's 1961 expedition, is now a justifiably popular way to the summit of and is often guided throughout the season.

The NW ridge however, is a much more daunting proposition and has repelled perhaps as many as ten expeditions over the years and was widely seen as one of the major unclimbed lines in the area. Two teams comprising, of the pairings of Jules Cartwright and Rich Cross, together with Scots Alasdair Coull and Sam Chinnery attempted the ridge starting up independent lines to gain the main horizontal section of the ridge itself.

Coull and Chinnery had to give up their attempt after being bombarded by "microwave" size chunks of rock, considering the way ahead too dangerous. Their retreat was without incident. Cartwright and Cross however were able to gain the main section of the ridge and spent an incredible 11 days negotiating the many obstacles the ridge presented. The main difficulties involved turning numerous gendarmes typically onto the cold north flank, regaining the ridge via tenuous climbing on snowed up slabs.

Although the pair reported that the technical difficulties on the ridge were not too extreme, the committing nature of the route and the time spent on the mountain made an impression on both climbers, with Cartwright commenting that the route was "harrowing" but no doubt as the story was being told cocktail bars of Kathmandu "harrowing" would have changed to "retrospectively pleasurable," as Fowler would say.

Despite the lure of the high mountains, which carry their associated burden of peak fees and liaison officer bureaucracy, Himalayan countries like Nepal have a myriad of trekking peaks, which despite their modest height compared to their larger cousins still offer fantastic Alpine style objectives all for the price of a trekking permit. One such example are the fine Kwangde peaks, which are popular as trekking peaks.

After their disappointing but totally understandable retreat from Ama Dablam, Coull and Chinnery moved down the Khumbu valley to attempt the North Face of Kwangde Lho, which is the largest and most impressive face on the Kwangde wall.

Finding favourable conditions they repeated the Jeff Lowe and David Breashears 1982 line, which follows a continuous line of ice smears up the highest and steepest part of the face. The route, which was described as "very serious" was graded by the first ascentionists VII/6 on the American/Canadian scale and was widely touted as "one of the hardest and finest technical climbs in the Himalaya".

Despite several attempts, the route has remained unrepeated until the Scots' ascent this year. Coull and Chinnery followed the 1982 route in its entirety apart from the crux pitch, which they turned on the right due to a lack of ice on the original line. They spent four days on the face with a further day to the summit, to descend the straightforward south face, in all seven days from tea house to tea house.

Also on the expedition were Jon Bracy and Owen Samuels, who not to be outshone by their climbing contemporaries, made a fine ascent of the French route on Kwangde Shar (6038m), which is immediately south west of Kwangde Lho. The route was first climbed in 1996 by French climbers Christophe Profit, Jérôme Ruby, Samuel Beaugey and André Rhem with difficulties reported to be steeper and harder than the Droites North Face.

Bracy and Samuels spent four days climbing the face, picking their way through delicate and at times steep ice runnels directly to the summit ridge. This last section of the route gave some sustained difficulties up to Scottish technical 6 and led directly to the summit. The Brits, chose to descend as Coull and Chinnery down the south flank of Kwangde and it was again a seven day round trip - the last two without food or gas - before their tired bodies were refreshed by the now famous Nepalese tea.

It is worth noting that Cartwright and Chinnery, who were in the same area late in 2000, climbed the French route on Kwangde Shar but chose not continue from the top of the face along the summit ridge. A team of Czech climbers have also been reported to have climbed the route, again only to the summit ridge, with Bracy and Samuel's ascent perhaps being the second overall ascent of the route.

There can be few recent British expeditions that have recorded such an impressive list of routes all climbed in such great style. The boldness and commitment displayed by all the climbers on this trip is remarkable and demonstrates that when it comes to this style of climbing, the Brits are up there with the best of them.

In these days of heavily sponsored expeditions, daily expedition digests uploaded by satellite for instant dissemination on the Web, it is refreshing to see what can be done by a group of lads, with a penchant for adventure and a rucksack full of gas, food and courage.

Pete Benson
7/12/2001