05/11/2009'Great Unclimbed' Success

Nick Bullock and Andy Houseman have succeeded on one of the 'great unclimbed faces' (previous news) with their ascent of Chang Himal's (a.ka. Wedge Peak) 1500 metre north face.

Tom Briggs , Graham Desroy and Mandi Shipton who had treked into base camp (5140 m) with Nick and Andy, returned to the U.K. earlier this week, leaving the two alpinists with the route ahead of them. Mandi got a text from the satellite phone this morning: "Hi, got back to BC 2 days ago. All safe and sound with north face ticked! Start walk out today…see you soon, Andy."

Graham said: "I hope they have an easier time getting out than we did. Maoist road blocks, strikes and curfews really slowed us down." The face had previously only been tried once before, by a Slovenian team in October 2007 (intotherocks.splinder.com).

We''ll get a full report up soon.

Photo: Below Chang Himal at base camp. (top row, l-r) Graham Desroy, Mandi Shipton, Andy Houseman. (bottom, l-r) Nick Bullock, Tom Briggs. The central spur behind Graham's head was the intended line of ascent. © Graham Desroy