Note on “First Ascent”of Istor-o-Nal, 1955. Sr. Anglada states that, in order to reach the main summit, it was necessary to descend from the southwest ridge and strike southeast, descending some 100 meters to an intervening col en route. I suspect he noted that our account of the climb has no record of such a descent. Indeed, I do not recall following such a route. The sequence of events suggests that Anglada’s interpretation is correct. The southwest ridge emerged on a plateau sloping off to the northwest. We worked our way up the plateau, the crest of which was to our right. When we finally arrived at the “summit” it would have been our first opportunity to look across the ridge in the direction of a detached true summit massif, separated from the southwest ridge by a wide, broad col. I must assume this detached massif was concealed by clouds; otherwise our position relative to the main summit would have been obvious. Of course, at the time we had no inkling of the complicated summit topography referred to by Anglada. The existing maps were not detailed enough to indicate more than a single summit pyramid. A previous expedition, whose route we followed, were under the same impression as we that the summit lay at the far end of the sloping plateau. They had reached an intermediate point along the plateau route. In view of the new information provided by Anglada, I am willing publicly to credit him with the first ascent of the main summit of Istor-o-Nal.

Thomas A. Mutch