Phurbi Chhyachu, Jugal Himal. Our joint expedition made the first ascent of Phurbi Chhyachu (6658 meters, 21,844 feet) by its southwest ridge. We were three Nepalese and sixteen Japanese. We left on March 25 and got to the Jugal Base Camp at 13,625 feet in the Balephi Khola on April 2. On April 7 we set up Camp I at 14,275 feet on the Phurbi Chhaychunbu Glacier after an easy three or four hours from Base Camp. We took six hours to Camp II at 17,050 feet, established on April 12. In this part we had to climb a 135-foot rock step and 30° to 65° snow with three more 65-foot rock steps. We placed Camp III at 19,025 feet on April 22, first climbing a snow ridge to 17,875 feet, a treacherous rock ridge for another 1000 feet and finally a 150-foot ridge of 60° ice to camp. We prepared the route above to reach the edge of the summit icecap at 20,500 feet on April 30. This part of the route was up 40° to 75° ice and was particularly steep for the last 135 feet. The icecap, which rose to the summit, was a wide snowfield. On May 1, Nepalese Ang Phuri and Pemba Lama and Japanese Hajime Takigami, Shintaro Kurokawa, Hiromitu Okamoto, Humihito Ogawa and Takashi Singaki left Camp III at 7:45 A.M. and got to the top at 1:45 P.M. On May 3, Sakurahiko Fujikawa, Isao Hatori, Miss Junko Khono, Hiroyasu Ihara, Kazunoli Takezawa, Takashi Nishioka, Hisanobu Shimizu, Miss Chizuko Ohoi and I left Camp III at 5:20 and reached the summit at 9:45. We fixed 6500 feet of rope and placed 60 ice screws, 60 rock pitons and 120 snow pickets.

Ichiro Yasuda, Osaka Workers’ Alpine Federation