It was a busy weekend for the Field Touring Alpine Team who managed to put six climbers on the summit of Ama Dablam on Saturday, amidst windy, but otherwise good, climbing conditions. The team will now move on to Lobuche to attempt a "Himalayan Trilogy" that includes Island Peak, the mountain the team used for acclimatization last week. Lobuche is a 6119m (20,075 feet) mountain in the same region.
The latest dispatch from the Mountain Madness Team is from last week, where they report a summit bid on Thursday, but were turned back 1200 feet from their goal thanks to poor weather, including high winds. The dispatch makes it seem like they gave it all on that push and were intending to head home afterwards, but there is no information about whether or not they did indeed leave BC following the attempt or gave it another go over the weekend as well.
Meanwhile, ExWeb is reporting in their Monday Himalaya Wrap-Up that Japanese climbers Kazuya Hiraide and Kei Taniguchi have opened a new route in the Garhwal Himalaya on Mount Kamet, the second highest peak in the region at 7756m.
Apparently, the route was completed two months ago, and includes difficulties up to A5 on ice, and M5+ on mixed terrain. The route now bears the name "The Samurai Direct", and is said to be over 1800m in length. Hiraide and Taniguchi spent a month scouting the face and acclimatizing before going up in alpine style over a seven day period.
The Garhwal Himalaya region is found in northeast India, where that country meets Nepal and Tibet. Although it doesn't get as much attention as some of the more high profile climbing regions, the Garhwal HImalaya does contain more than 100 peaks of more than 20,000 feet in height, with Nanda Devi being the most prominent amongst them.
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