Shivling. After Hans Lanters and I acclimatized by reaching 6350 meters on Kedarnath Dome, we climbed Shivling by its west ridge in four days from Tapovan. We bivouacked at 5500, 5650 and twice at 5950 meters. We reached the summit at 5:30 P.M. on September 27. It took another day to descend. The difficulties included two 150-meter rock bands or steep slabs on the first two days and a 300-meter rock ridge on the third with 13 hours of climbing on huge snow-covered slabs and blocks (UIAA V to V+). On the fourth day going to the summit we had mainly gentle snow climbing apart from a 100-meter sérac barrier that led to the plateau between the main and west summits and below the final snow face. This barrier was three pitches of superb ice climbing. The weather was bad on the first two days. We had good tent sites, good belay stances and no objective dangers.

Joost Pielage, Koninklijke Nederlandse Alpen Vereniging