Report from Nepal

Cholatse (6400m) (Photo; Roeland)

Back from my expedition in Nepal. Very cool trip and a beautiful country Unfortunately we had a sudden end to the trip earlier than expected. Our main objective for the trip was to climb the north face of Cholatse. A mountain in the Khumbu valley with a beautiful line up the middle of the face. I went there with Dutch climber Roeland Van Oss, he had been looking at this mountain for a long time and needed someone to go with. As soon as he asked me, I said I was in!


We arrive in Kathmandu at the end of September. We stayed at a small hotel in Thamel. So many people, cars and scooters in such a small area. After a day in town you are covered in fumes and dust. Got ready and flew as soon as possible to the mountains.

Lukla airport

Hiking in this part of Nepal is very enjoyable. Walking on good paths and you are never far away from guest houses to spend the night or places to eat and drink. We paid two porters to carry our climbing equipment to our base camp so we only had hiking gear and sleeping bags with us for the walk in. It is also very convenient to acclimatize because you ascend slowly every day and there is trekking peaks next to the path that you can hike as day trips.

Setting of from Lukla (Photo; Roeland)

Over six days we went up to the village Dzongla that became our base camp. Roeland did some guiding and climbing in the Alps before he left so he felt strong all the way, but had not been at altitude for a long time. So on day four went up Chukung Ri, a 5500m  I got hit by the altitude. After a rest day to catch up and some good cake in Dingbouche I was back on track.

(Photo; Roeland)

 It is impressive how everything that does not come from nature is carried up by Sherpas on the same trail we hike up. All the food, furniture and material. It is wise to not buy bottled water or eat meat. In the Khumbu valley it is not allowed to kill animals, so all the meat has to be carried from Lukla into the villages.

(Photo; Roeland)

 Pangboche

Chunkung Ri (Photo; Roeland)

Chunkung Ri (5546m)

We have now arrived at our base camp, Dzongla (4840m) and for the first time we get to see the mountain we came to climb. We found a very nice guest house called Dzongla mountain home. Very nice owners and good atmosphere.

(Photo; Roeland)

Here we spend a few days resting, hiking and climbing. Every morning we woke up to the view of Cholatse. The guest house we stayed in had normal beds, water and a dining room. Very comfortable compared to how you normally eat and sleep on an expedition.


 Day hike to Chola pass (5420m)

(Photo; Roeland)

To acclimatize we climbed peak on the other side of the valley, Lobuche east (6119m).

Dinner at Lobuche camp (5500m)

(Photo; Roeland)

 (Photo; Roeland)

Camping on the Lobuche summit ridge at 6000m.

(Photo; Roeland)

We came down from Lobuche, went back to Dzongla and had a look at the weather report. It looked good so we took a couple of rest days and packed our bags. Our plan was to start early from the guest house, climb for as long as we could and then sleep on the mountain. Second day we summit and descend the other side via the south west ridge.

01.00 wake up for a brew before the big day

(Photo; Roeland)

 It's a very special feeling when you start climbing at night in the tiny bubble of your head torch, knowing that above you is over 1000m of vertical terrain you have never been before.

 (Photo; Roeland)

(Photo; Roeland)

(Photo; Roeland)

(Photo; Roeland)

The climbing conditions were not too bad, climbing 80-90 degree hard snow is really fun because every axe placement feels solid like climbing a ladder. The downside is that there is very little ice to put screws in. This means very long sections without protection. The mind is swinging between protected climbing and a free solo mind set.

 (Photo; Roeland)

After 16  hours of climbing we stop for then night, you know it is a good day when you climb during the sunrise and the sunset. We stopped at about 6200m and started chopping out a ledge.

After making a ledge we could almost lie down on we started melting snow for dinner. It felt good because we only had a couple of hundred meters left to the summit.

View from our bivy, evening clouds and mount Everest in the back (Photo; Roeland)

The morning after felt good, we even had a few minutes of sunshine in the morning. Very excited to get to the summit. This high up the snow was very bad. Too soft and difficult to climb. We tried two different ways to reach the summit ridge that did not work.

First pitch of day two (photo; Roeland)

The third try, a snowy ledge system. Roeland started climbing the unconsolidated snow. He spent a long time on a steep section with powder. Cleaning snow and kicking steps that kept collapsing. Suddenly I hear him shout and I see him sliding down. With accelerating speed down the gully, ripping out a snow stake and continue tumbling down past me. Only a few seconds, but the brain do the math quickly. It is about 30m of rope between me and him, all of the force will be on me and the belay. My belay should not hold for this. The rope goes tight and surprised I am still attached to the mountain.
I can not see him so I shout down, no answer. I start tying of the rope to be able to go down. After about 30 seconds I hear, "Mike, I'm ok!". After another 30 seconds, "Mike, I'm coming up!". He arrives at my belay, but he has a lot of pain in back, hips and ribs. This is the end of this climbing trip, we have to get off the mountain and down to a hospital.

The satellite phone does not work well on this steep side of the mountain, we get no signal. We start abseiling but one of our ropes got damaged in two places during the fall. This makes abseiling very difficult and time consuming. After about 400m of descent we decide to stop for a bivy. We find a boulder with a small snow ledge underneath where we can squeeze in and spend the night.

Melting snow to rehydrate after this stressful day (Photo; Roleland)

Our satellite phone has not worked anywhere on the face all day. Ideally we should get to a hospital as soon as possible. When the night falls we see some lights from the tiny village below. We start blinking with our head torches and they blink back. Hopefully they see we are in trouble.

Next morning at around nine we hear the sound of a helicopter, it is for us. We are taken down and able to go straight to the hospital in Kathmandu. Roeland gets examined and he had a small crack in a vertebra and some bruises. He just needs some rest, such good news to hear!

View from the helicopter

So this was the end of the journey, but up until then it was amazing. Good country, good people, good mountains. It is possible that this kind of thing that happen. You don't want it to and you do everything you can to avoid it. Everything but staying home...