Himalayan Peak Climbed for First Time, Then Skied
The previously unclimbed summit sits in the shadow of the iconic peak Rakaposhi
Yannick Boissenot and Julien Herry have made the first ascent of a mountain in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan, an area home to five of the 14 8,000-metre peaks.
The two experienced alpinists waited for a good weather window before making a quick ascent and descent of a 5,050-metre mountain near the famous Rakaposhi (7,788 m). After their success, they worked with locals to name the summit and landed on Chota Dumani, which translates to Little Rakaposhi.
Worried about avalanche conditions, Boissenot and Herry carefully selected their path. “Unfortunately, this couloir ended 80 metres below the summit,” Herry said. “A long horizontal traverse to the right only led to deeper, unstable snow. Finally, Yannick found a straighter line with less accumulated snow to the short, final ridge. I caught up with him just before reaching the summit together at 8:30 a.m.”
“Despite being already above 5,000 metres,” said Herry, “the main summit of Rakaposhi still rises almost 3,000 metres above us!” Also this week, Pasang Rinzee Sherpa, Vinayak Jalla Malla and Pasang Kami Sherpa made the first ascent of another peak in Nepal called Patrasi Peak (6,450 m).
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