Kharchakund. Our expedition consisted of the following: Yoshiki Yamanaka, Masao Mizuno, Toshiharu Hashimoto, Yoshitaka Tanimura, Kaoru Ueno and me as leader. We climbed the west ridge from the Ghanohim Glacier. There had been three unsuccessful Indian attempts on the mountain. We walked with 30 porters from Uttarkashi to Base Camp at Topoban at 14,100 feet. We began our climb on April 29. The mountain was so far away that we made Advanced Base on the Gangotri Glacier at 14,750 feet on May 13. Camp I was at 16,075 feet at the foot of the west ridge. We climbed a snow face to reach the west ridge and placed Camp II on the crest at 17,550 feet on May 17. A rock step prevented our continuing on the west ridge and we traversed steep snow toward the left and set up Camp III at 19,350 feet on a narrow snow ridge. There were many crevasses between Camp III and a col on the north ridge, where we established Camp IV at 20,500 feet on May 29. The north ridge was snow-covered hard ice. Also on May 29 Hashimoto and Tanimura left Camp III very early and reached the summit and eleven A.M. The following day Ueno and I left Camp IV and Yamanaka and Mizuno left Camp III and all of us got to the top at ten A.M.

Sueo Miyahara, Torei Alpine Club, Japan