Tawoche Northeast Buttress Attempt. Robin Molinatti, Pierre Fermin, Stephan Garczinski and I as leader hoped in the post-monsoon season to climb a new route, the northeast buttress of Tawoche (6501 meters, 21,327 feet). Because of bad snow conditions on the north slope, we chose to reach the buttress by a ramp on the east side, not far from Lowe’s winter route. It took two days to fix ropes on the first steep 150 meters which gave access to the ramp (mixed, 65° and A2). We placed a camp on a snow shoulder at 5750 meters. Further progress on the north slope was stopped quickly by bad snow while the east slope was very steep. The team was stopped at 5800 meters at the foot of a rock tower. This was at the end of 15 pitches of sustained difficult mixed and rock climbing.

Pierre Rizzardo, Club Alpin Français