Meru North, 1980. We climbed Meru North from the north. It had been reported to be the highest summit, but we discovered that it is only 6400 meters (20,998 feet). The route from Base Camp (14,100 feet) to Advanced Base (15,100 feet) was on moraine. From there to Camp I (16,075 feet) it was on the glacier. The route to Camp II at 19,350 feet was first on a snow face and then on a rock band. It took us a week to fix ropes. From Camp II we climbed the snow face on the east wall. A series of hanging glaciers made route-finding difficult. On October 4, 1980 Tamotsu Iwashima and I climbed to the summit in eight hours.

Osamu Shimada, Hida Alpine Club, Japan