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Hagshu north face, Indian Himalaya |
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30.10.2014 |
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After we had been declined permission to climb Phola Gangchen in Tibet, our team of three, Marko Prezelj, Luka Lindi? and Ale? ?esen, put all our energy into obtaining a permission to climb in the Indian Himalayas. After numerous bureaucratic difficulties and new declined permissions for Rimo III and for Mukut Parbat, the Indian agency Rimo Expeditions and the IMF (Indian Mountaineering Foundation) suggested that we climb Hagshu, a mountain in Zanskar region, which had been added to the list of open peaks quite recently. With some hesitation we accepted this proposal, because we did not want to throw away all the work we had already put into preparing the expedition. |
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Due to the lack of information and the lack of our time before the departure, our knowledge about the mountain was very limited. The only two successful ascents to the summit of Hagshu were accomplished in 1989. In that year a Polish team opened a route on the SE ridge and a British team climbed a route in the E face. We did not know any details about any of these routes. Since then there has not been a successful ascent to the summit despite many attempts, mainly from British alpinists. Recently, British alpinists have had 4 attempts in the north face of Hagshu, each of them unsuccessful.
During the two-day approach to the base camp, the three of us started to understand the great climbing potential of the mountains surrounding the Hagshu glacier. Stunning steep faces with demanding lines, leading to mountain tops, most of them above 6000 meters high, are almost countless. The north face of Hagshu, a goal we had been contemplating already before our departure, made a great impression on us the moment we saw it for the very first time. It became clear to us that we shall try to leave our footprints on it. |
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Mount Lagan
The mountain which locals call Lagan, with its knife sharp ridge to the summit, was an obvious choice for our first acclimatization ascent. As far as we knew, there had been no ascents to its summit. After a 4-hour walk from the base camp, we reached a snowy col (altitude of 5100 m). From there on we expected the climbing to be more technically demanding, so we set up a tent and stayed the night. The next day, we continued the climb carrying only one backpack for all three of us. We found the route more difficult and much longer than we expected. After 8 hours of climbing we finally reached the summit at the altitude of around 5750 m. We managed to get back to our tent on the col just before dark. |
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Hana?s Man peak
The east face of Hana?s Man peak was an excellent choice for our second acclimatization climb as it offered a great opportunity for research. From this mountain we had a great view on the summit ridge of Hagshu and on the Polish route, which we planned to use for the descent from the summit of Haghsu. Till the elevation of 6000 m, we were climbing mainly on snowy terrain and progressing quickly. Above this, we were enjoying superb quality granite rock up to the summit ridge (6200 m), where we found a place for a reasonably comfortable bivy and spent a cold night in it. The next day we climbed the north summit of Hana?s Man peak (6300 m) and descended via SE couloir. |
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Hagshu
At 3 am we began our march from ABC (advanced base camp) towards the base of the north face of Hagshu. First part of the climb was not technically demanding, although quite challenging due to wading through waist-deep powder snow. But then a bit higher the face got much steeper and a big portion of it was polished, hard and fragile ice. Because of that the climbing was slower than we expected and the darkness caught us when we were still only about halfway. Due to the steepness, there were not many chances for a good rest, let alone for a bivy till the altitude of 6320 m, where we found some flat snow behind a rocky spire and could finally rest after 23 hours of hard work. The next day we started relatively late. We climbed up the final rock barrier and followed snowy ridge till the main summit of Hagshu (GPS reading: 6657 m). Approximately 10 meters below the summit, we set up a relatively comfortable bivy on a snow cornice. It took us 11 hours to descend the following day, taking the Polish route from 1989. After what we had seen during this descent, we all agreed that the Polish team (Pawel Jozefowicz and Darek Zaluski) did a great job 25 years ago. |
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We would like to express a big appreciation to Slovenian Alpine Associations, who made the expedition possible with their financial help.
Ale? ?esen |
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