Chamlang. After a 15-day approach march from Jiri, during which Frank Weiner and Barbara Ottl had high-altitude problems and had to leave, we reached the Hongu valley. Base Camp at 5000 meters was below the northwest face of Chamlang. The other four of us, Kathrin Eberle-Hörmann, Bemd Eberle, Dagmar Stein and I in deep snow climbed Mera (6654 meters, 21,830 feet) for acclimatization. After bad weather with snowfall, time was getting short. Bemd Eberle and I set out to climb Chamlang alpine-style. We began up the right side of the northwest face to gain the west ridge at about 6600 meters. The west ridge had been climbed by Japanese in 1986. We followed their route to the summit (7319 meters, 24,012 feet) which we reached on October 21 for the fourth ascent of the peak. We climbed unroped on 40° to 60° slopes with a few short pitches of 70°. The climb took us three days up and one-and-a-half down. After leaving Base Camp we crossed the difficult Ampu-Labtsa pass to reach Solo Khumbu.

Stefan Köhler, Deutscher Alpenverein