Kwangde Nup, North Buttress. In the pre-monsoon period, Alex Lowe and I climbed a new grade-VI route on Kwangde Nup to the right of the one done by Jeff Lowe and David Breashears in 1982. Our route followed the north buttress, which is simply an extension of the ridge which divides the Hungo and Thame valleys. We took three days up and one day down. The first two days were mostly easy to moderate rock climbing with no pitch exceeding 5.9. The third day involved the steep upper headwall which had several difficult mixed pitches, although they were mostly rock. Lowe led one very hard pitch that he rated 5.10. We rappelled the route on the descent.

Steven Swenson