Langtang Lirung - October 2022

The first time I heard about Thomas Humar was in 2007 when he climbed the south face of Annapurna. The selfie he took at the summit marked me in many ways. In that photo, you can barely see the image of a cold face, high up in one of the wildest places that humans have been to, behind his shoulder there is a snowed summit and in the reflection of his goggles you can see mountains all around. The energy that this image irradiates, captivated me and was an inspiration to seek my own adventures, although I don't particularly seek to embark on these adventures alone, this reference of commitment, love for climbing and discipline became important in the creation of my own vision and style. 

A couple years later when I learned that he died climbing in Nepal, the news struck as the end of an era. A man whose climbs inspired many to seek their own, had just died in a mountain called Langtang Lirung. Ever since those days, the name of this mountain stayed in my mind as a place I would like to visit some day and see with my own eyes what this human, whose life was a reference for many, saw in his last days.

At the end of 2020 my friend Joshua Jarrin, with whom I had climbed since my first days in the high places, called me inviting to climb “something big”. It had been a few years since the last time we climbed together and the joy of a possibility of adventure with an old friend was all I needed to start planning this trip.

We discussed a few options of places we would like to go and one thing was clear, we wanted to climb a 7000m peak. Joshua mentioned that he had been to the Langtang area a few years back and that Langtang Lirung could be an interesting option of something to go out and try hard. We didn't need to talk any further... finally the moment to see Langtang Lirung had arrived, and we were going to have a shot at one of the unclimbed faces of this beauty.

Knowing that we would need a bigger team, we started thinking about friends that would be willing to come, and I suggested my longtime friend Roberto Morales. All around crusher, who is always up for a big adventure. Although they had never climbed together before, they knew each other from guiding and climbing in Ecuador and in a very natural way we didn't need to discuss anymore: we had a plan for the autumn.

Landing in Kathmandu was bitter; a few days before our arrival, Hillaree Nelson had died while skiing Manaslu. The loss of Hilaree was soul crushing. We managed to finish all our arrangements to leave for the mountains in the same day that we arrived to Kathmandu, and although we were all jet lagged and tired from traveling all around the world to come climb, we knew that in such a sad moment, the best way to make sense out of that situation was to keep moving and see the mountains as soon as we could. 

Hilaree once said that it’s truly a necessity to have a passion as a compass in life. In those days, as the tragedy of her dead made us all feel the pain of loss and the cold of vulnerability, our heads sunk full of questions about the risks we take; we knew that going out and trying hard as soon as we could was going to recalibrate all our compasses.

The approach to the Langtang area is relatively easy, from Kathmandu you only have to drive 145km to the town of Syabru Besi, where a trail that swings north towards Tibet takes you to Kyanjin Gompa after aproximately 32km, starting at 1467m and finishing at 3900m. We decided to do the hike in three days.

In the mountains, and especially in the Himalaya, nothing is granted. Our easy six hour drive ended up being a whole day adventure. An old truck carrying metal from a mine at the beginning of the valley was brokedown creating a roadblock that could take days. Thanks to our friend Subash who helps us with the logistics of climbing in Nepal we found a truck in Syabru Besi that came down to the roadblock so we could transfer the bags and continue. Tired but happy that we overcame our first obstacle, we arrived at Syabru.

The next three days took us through all of the climate stages that the Himalayas have. Sometimes it is easy to forget all the life that thrives around the great mountain ranges, the macaques at 2000m, the roaring rivers and waterfalls and the magic of the rhododendron forests made us connect with the place we were going. In the trekking we had the luck to see what I believe was a red panda, what a beautiful tail, playing in the distance and giving a testimony of how much more elevation we needed to gain before we could even think about climbing pitches; I couldn't help to think about Master Shifu and one of my favorite quotes of his: “If you only do what you can do, you will never be more than who you are”... with a smile and Claptone playing live in my earbuds I couldn't have thought of a better quote to echo in my mind before going to the big mountains.

Imagining the first climbers coming to see the mysteries that this valley guards and the first tibetans that came down from the north and encountered this lush lands, was an opportunity to start getting tuned with what we were doing: seeking for adventure. This trip wasn't only about getting to the top of a big mountain, it was about climbing and all that this magic word encapsulates. The approach to the unknown and the conversation that one establishes with the mountains and the life around them. I was surprised and very happy to cross many locals in the approach, nepalese people that had come out, and were enjoying the beauty of these places. Occasionally trash and rests of human passage made us all remember the importance of keeping these places as we find them.

Waking up to the sounds of jungle around the tea houses, the charming sound of rain at night, the smoke of burning yak dunk, the salty buttery tea, the refreshing smile of the locals saying Namaste… it was all part of getting to know this magic place before we could find passage to the high mountains.

The Langtang valley is mostly populated by the Tamang caste, this is originally a tibetan-burmese culture, and as in most of Nepal the smiles and kindness of this people along the trek started to make us feel welcome. In our second day of trekking as we passed by the remains of what was the old village of Langtang, we had an impactful reminder of the 2015 earthquake, in the weeks to come after, we learned the stories that some of this families had to endure during such a tragedy and it was inspiring to see the bravery, determination and humbleness that the inhabitants of this valley had to rebuild their lives from ground zero. 

Once in the village of Kyanjin Gompa we met Lhakpa, the owner of the oldest bakery in town; between laughs and attending his other clients, he tolds us why he had opened the bakery. It was his father's dream to own a business in the valley but he died without seeing this become a reality, his first motivation when things got hard after the earthquake was to keep his father's dream alive and through this, to honor and give peace to his father's memory. Without knowing, he explained a rare feeling that we all had as we approached these mountains, the lives of those who aren't with us anymore are always a beacon in our own paths. Maybe honor their memory, maybe bring peace to our own questions, but always to keep the torch alive.

The first day we arrived to Kyanjing Gompa, we decided to hike as close as possible to the base of the face and try to have some idea of a possible camp where we could set off from when the time came to try the face. Although in out first foray, the rain prevented us from going as high as we would have liked, we had a few glimpses of the face: wild, big and extremely beautiful. That day the descent to Kyanjin was an attempt to vocalize our first impressions of the wall.

Joy of seeing  the lines that could be good climbing and a little peace of mind that the terrain looked very promising to offer us different choices.

Some sections of the wall showed what seemed like beautiful and steep ice veins surrounded by rocky pillars. The roars of avalanches coming down the face and the elusive views make the imaginations think that there is a living giant up there, waiting to wake. The local folklore thinks of Langtang Lirung in many different ways, some people told stories of gods living up there, some thought of a raging bull, some told stories of gods themselves that turned into mountains and from time to time give evidence of their existence with the constant avalanches that one hears. In any case, everyone that talked to us made clear that Langtang Lirung might be an impossible mountain. It simply felt like we were in the right place at the right moment.

The following week passed really slow as a front of bad weather hit the himalayas and all we could do was some short hikes in the surroundings, play card games at the lodge and visit the bakeries of all town in the search of the best apple-pie in town. These days, the hospitality of Kaisang Dolma, the woman who owns the lodge we stayed in, and her son Gyalbu were heartwarming. They taught us about the local traditions and their life in these mountains.

As the first week of October was gone, a short two day period of relatively clear weather came and this was our quote to find a line, get to the beginning of the climb and leave a deposit.

We hired Sangay, Kaisang’s brother, to help carrying some equipment to a possible campsite near the base of the wall. As we passed 4500m and started to break knee deep trail sometimes, all of us started to wonder what was the wall going to be like, Sangay’s kindness helping to dig a platform for our tent at 4700m was a precise reminder of what we were doing there: having an adventure in the big mountains. Sometimes when the climb feels overwhelming it could be easy to loose perspective of the big picture. We want to climb hard and high, but you can also do that in many other places. The ambiance and the journey are what make these expeditions special.

Next morning we started early and after a couple hours of breaking trail we made it to 5000m. It was surprising how close the wall is and the possibilities it has. Also, as soon as the sun hit it, it was truly intimidating how active it became. We did a tour traversing along the base of the east face looking for possibilities. Pillars, couloirs, gullys, all the features to make one's imagination fly, and to make the hands sweat. The steepness and avalanche activity made clear to us that speed will be a very important factor in the ascent but also a very difficult thing to achieve in such a difficult and complex wall.

After a few hours at the base, some drone flights and running from a few sluffs we picked a line for a plan A and a couple possibilities of alternate plans. Our advanced base camp called strongly when the clouds came in. That night brought a little different weather and temperatures, so, since next morning was supposed to be clear until noon, we decided to go up again and see what more information we could gather from this beauty. After the second inspection, we confirmed some of the initial ideas, saw some big avalanches that helped to discard some other options and came down to Kyanjin Gompa. Still, with many unknowns but with a clarity in what probably mattered the most: we had found a damn hard line and thought that success was going to depend mostly about our ability to move fast and climb hard, of course you need luck in such a place, but the challenge didn’t appear at the moment as a kamikaze project.

The next days passed rather fast, between the last preparations and getting in the mindset for an attempt, as always some hangboarding and hiking to remind the body of what was coming, in one of those outtings we found something that hit my spirit and also lit the fire in preparation of what was coming. At the base of a boulder we found a carved rock that said:

Tomaz Humar

Langtang Lirung

10-11-2009.

The honor and privilege of doing what I love the most in the place that this incredible human also visited a long time ago made me think in the beauty of life; how hundreds of thousands of years of success and failure lead to the present moment and the gift of coming here and trying our best. Why?

 

And so, a couple rest days passed fast, waking every morning to Roberto’s smile while making coffee, Joshua’s jokes after dinner, Roberto’s face when Kaisang brought Chow Mein, Joshua’s determination to find the best apple pie… those days in Kyanjin Gompa were beautiful.

With an encouraging weather forecast we decided to leave town in the 13th of October. Roberto and I would head up to camp and Joshua was going to stay one more night in town, a little more rest didn’t sound like a bad idea to him and perhaps the apple pie quest motivated him to have another 24 hours down there. 

On October 14 we woke up early, and Joshua arrived at camp from town. We all headed together to leave a cache at the base and have a final view of the line. Again, speed was going to be crucial. A couple hours at the base showed us that the bad weather in the past days did not change things much and that we could stick to the plan, the rest of the morning was a leisurely rest and stretch at camp looking at the face. This night, thanks to the last minute forecast we had from our friends in Tahoe we confirmed that the 16th of October was going to be a great day for being high, maybe the 17th could hold up but winds were coming strong afterwards. So we decided to leave on the 14th before midnight, get around sunrise to a place we think can be safe to spend the day while the monster wakes up and play, then wait for the monster to go to bed again and start a push to the top before midnight. In this case we could have the 17th to come down. The idea of climbing nearly 2500 meters of wild terrain in less than 48 hours made my hands sweat but also made me think about that red panda we saw on the way in. 

The alarms sound at 21h00, Roberto gets up first as usual, we have breakfast, last fist bumps and off we go at 22h05.

The next nine hours passed relatively quickly, just as one could expect when all you need is time to pass rather slowly... it's hard to put to words the amazing terrain we covered in those initial 1000m. Steep and delicate. Pure joy and concentration. We decided to divide in blocks, when I crossed the bergschrund and water was running underneath 5cm of vertical ice, we all had a moment of reflection about conditions but momentum and hope for colder conditions up higher kept us moving. Roberto had one of the wildest pitches any of us had done in a while: vertical snow that required more levitation than strength, full commitment with spare and dubious protection was all we needed for a midnight snack at that time. Some more simul climbing on steep mixed terrain put us at the beginning of the crux. Conditions were still climbable. A couple pitches to the center of what we envisioned was going to be delicate but cruiser ice did put us in a vertical maze of snow that defies gravity, very compact rock and the real crux of the route.

As the sun hit the wall, it didn't take much for the beast to wake. We were still at least a couple hundred meters away from our planned cave. Little blocks of ice led to sluffs, and eventually to the daily avalanches. I was in the lead and within minutes, a few centimeters of ice became slush waiting to go down with my weight. Spare protections and a “delicate” anchor in this situation made the possibility of the three of us flying down into space a real thing. In this moment, as the wall started to get more active, the push to climb became the push to survive, our dreams of reaching the summit became dreams of making it out of this wall in one piece.

After a few impacts that thankfully only caused screams of pain, lots of luck and a display of all our skills and imaginations to rappel down we made it safely to the bergschrund. We were not fast enough and the face wasn't cold enough. 

The smells during the hike to Kyanjin Gompa were stronger than ever and our friendship was stronger than ever. Licking the wounds after such an adventure brings a lot of reflection, but this time it wasnt the time for a long cogitation about the last few days, although the wind was hammering at 7000m with speeds of nearly 80 km/h, and we knew that Langtang Lirung was going to have to wait for another season, but we were still hungry.

Those two days resting went fast discussing options, we wanted a different aspect that could potentially bring colder temps and a mountain we saw in the descent of Langtang Lirung appealed as a good objective. A day approaching thru the Kimshung glacier put us to the bivy at 5600m, we had learned that a party tried the west face of a peak that goes up nearly 6200m. This peak forms the end of the west ridge of another unclimbed mountain called Dragpoche. They had not reached the summit, but climbed the majority of the face claiming that the climbing was superb. The motivation was clear, finish the line to the top of the 6200m point and see if we could continue traversing the ridge to the unclimbed Dragpoche. With this goal, a snowy few hours in the bivouac, laughs and some protein powder we went to sleep.

The next day delivered a lot of the exact opposite that Langtang Lirung had for us this year: solid, safe and cruiser ice conditions. We finished the face in good form in the early morning. A couple pitches of unstable and exposed ridge climbing gave us a good idea of why the prior team decided to not continue to the top and leave that for another team. For about 600m, and with difficulties up to WI4 we had a wonderful day in the wild, the west facing aspect of this peak was just what we needed to leave the valley with the stoke set to start planning a visit in the future.

Reaching the summit was beautiful, the views of Langtang Lirung gave us the right farewell. We decided to rappel the face since conditions to Dragpoche weren't encouraging and we were happy with the day. The hunger was replaced for absolute joy. In the descent we decided to drop in the east face of Dragpache towards the Yala Glacier; partly motivated by the idea to see more unknown terrain and mostly motivated by trying to avoid the crevasses and unconsolidated snow in the Kimshung Glacier, a few hundred meters of downclimbing, a couple rappels and some hours in the trail from Yala Peak put us back to Kyanjin Gompa, just in time for dinner at Kaisang's.

Now back at home, gratitude with the mountains and its people, love to my brothers Roberto and Joshua, and satisfaction from the days I lived up there make me see everything with a new color. When one has experienced this connection with the world, it is hard to let negative energy take over in life, it is like a battery has been replaced at the deepest level. I’m sure the lessons will take months and years to be truly understood, but one feeling is clear: we left a part of us in Langtang Lirung and we have to come back to pick it up.

Some photos:

The east face of LL with our camp near the base:

The 6200m peak we climbed as farewell, the line goes up the big dihedral in the center right of the photo, the team that climbed this before us decided to name it "Burning Kharkas" (you can find this report in the AAJ or Barrabes, by Ibai Rico and Evan Miles), and although they didn't report reaching the summit, the name they used for their attempt is quite cool (I highly reccomend this climb to anyone looking for an objective of this character in the area):