Loenpo Gang. Our expedition consisted of Dr. Cho Suk-Phil, Dr. Kwon Hyeon, Hong Woon-Ki, Lee Jeong-Hoon, Kim Soo-Hyeon and me as leader. We climbed Loenpo Gang by a new route, the west face and southwest ridge, and made the third ascent of the peak. After leaving Kathmandu on August 26, we traveled up the Trisuli and Langtang valleys to establish Base Camp at 4750 meters on the Langshisha Glacier on September 3. Bad weather held us up for a week. On September 10, we set up Advance Base at 5000 meters and the next day Deposit Camp at 5250 meters. The constantly clear weather helped speed up establishing Camps I and II at 5750 and 6200 meters on September 18 and 21. Between Deposit Camp and Camp I there was a very steep snow wall where we fixed 500 meters of rope. Lee and Sherpas Da Gombu and Ang Temba fixed 600 meters of rope between Camps I and II on a steep ridge which looked difficult but avoided avalanche dangers. After snowy weather, climbers fixed 300 meters of rope in the knife-edged southwest ridge and set up Camp III at 6680 meters. The summit (6969 meters, 22,897 feet) was reached at 8:15 A.M. on September 27 by Lee Jeong-Hoon, Kim Soo-Hyeon and Sherpas Da Gombu and Ang Temba. On the route to the summit, there were many crevasses, but the slope was not too steep. Due to the very steep ridge between Deposit Camp and Camp II, we gave up a second summit attempt.

Ryong Yoon-Jae, M.D., Chonnam University Medical School, Korea