First ascent attempt in India

Imagine that you are trying in your toughest project, approaching a chain, and suddenly, with a very small mistake, your foot slips and you fall down. The dream of your hardest RP will disappear in a second. You know it was the best attempt! Just a little bit of luck and the route would be climbed! Or you do not hold the TOP on the last boulder at a contest and you will not win, you will finish second.

Two days trip to the base camp

But there are no second places in the mountains. There you either send the route or not. It does not matter whether you ended a few metres under the peak in a terrain not being so difficult or you failed just in the second pitch. You just didn't send the route!

Acclimatization

Our attempt began with the alarm clock ringing at 3 o'clock in the morning under the NW wall of Bhagirathi III. The classic reluctance of digging out of a warm sleeping bag lasted until it was overcome by dragging a heavy pig in the sea of endless scree. With the first light we stand under the wall, brew tea and watch the 1,400 m high “mordor” we have above our heads. Beauty! This will be a battle! The trip to the BC lasted six days and the next week we spent on acclimatization, so we were really hot for climbing. The first six pitches were just a masturbation in a light and broken terrain with heavy backpacks.

Lower barrier

Then finally the climbing came! The sun swung over the top and we enjoyed climbing in the sun-drenched Himalayan granite. We chose the most effective and fastest tactic of the procedure where the first climber climbs easily and the second climber jumars with a backpack and assists the first climber to pull the pig. In the evening we find small shelves for bivouac so we build the “kitchen” and start cooking. At night we are pulled from sleep several times by the rumble of falling rock. Fortunately, we sleep under quite a large overhang so we are safe and can continue snoring.

First bivouac

It is cold in the morning, we are sprinkled with snow and we do not want to put on climbing shoes at all! Two difficult pitches Ondro hooks in shoes and we finally reach the top of the first rock barrier. Behind the edge we can see a beautiful mixed terrain in super winter conditions. Alpine firn, ice-covered corners and everywhere quite a good option for belaying. Even the pig can be handled with ease on the snow fields. J In the afternoon there was a classic weather deterioration, and when we were digging the sleeping shelves in the water for an hour, it started to blow and snow.

Snowfield under the second barrier

I don't even know whether I want to write about the night that Ondro called the worst in his life?! We didn't sleep for a minute. The icy wind was blowing, and tons of snow were constantly falling on us from above. After a few hours, we completely resigned and stopped digging out and cleaning the shelves. We just sat under the snow with a small breathing hole waiting for the daylight ...  

The morning was cruel. There was only a slight hesitation from abseiling. But looking at the beautiful second barrier in super winter conditions, Ondra and I started to pack the bivouac and prepare to climb. As a reward we received three unbelievable alpine pitches full of ice, hard snow and heavy mix passages. At the last belay station below the edge of the second barrier, we anticipated the last approximately fifteen metres of climbing. Great! Just one pitch and we're on the snow! Yippee, we started to rejoice!

Excellent winter conditions in the second barrier

Within five minutes, however, such a hell came that we almost drowned in the snow. Visibility one metre, the wind that swept us on the belay station and from the top ever stronger, and avalanches larger. We thought that we would wait for the storm to end to continue climbing. We'll get it, buddy!

After fifteen minutes we were covered with snow and frozen to the bone. The avalanches were already so strong that it was difficult to withstand them. If we don't want to stay here forever, we have to get down! Endless abseiling into the first bivouac that we barely found because of the fog. Snow up, rain down. Sleeping bags soaked with water. All night we shivered with cold and prayed for the morning to come. With the first light, we started abseiling and sometimes at lunchtime we were down under the wall ...

Mixed parallels between the first and second barriers

There are things that have escaped me in my life, and whenever I think of them, I will regret not to be able to do them. When looking back, I know exactly what should have been done differently or better. But it is very easy to evaluate things that have already happened. The important thing is that I put everything in it!

We climbed 900 m in a new route on Bhagirathi III up to an altitude of approximately 6,000 metres above sea level. We returned just from below the top snow fields. We climbed to the top on clean rock, aid climbing, ice and mix, with difficulties 7a, C2, WI5+, M7.

Base camp in background Holy Mountain Shivling

Thank you very much for your support TENDON,with great material as Master 7.8 TeFIX, which are thanks to TeFIX technology and permanent bonds the sheath to the core very strong and flexible.

Ján was using twins Master 7.8 TeFIX