Laupers Bjerg. Iain Macdonald, Adam Hyne, Neil Smith and I left the UK on July 17. Making use of plane, helicopter and boat, we arrived at the head of Tasilaq Fjord (66°06') on the east coast of Greenland four days later. A seven-day ski-and-pulka journey led us to our main objective, the northeast face of Laupers Bjerg (2580 meters, 8465 feet). Our attempted new route on this face failed after 1500 meters of climbing, 300 meters from the summit, where a committing abseil to a col would have led to very technical mixed terrain. It had been straightforward to there mostly on ice with some mixed climbing. We looked for alternate routes on the north face, but all looked difficult. We went around to the southeast face, to Andre Roch’s original route. Hyne and I spent 36 hours on the mountain, with 700 meters of mostly straightforward rock with some difficult pitches, a 700-meter snow slope and then 300 meters of hard ice up to 75° to the summit. We reached the top at two A.M. on August 11, making the first British ascent and the fourth ever. On August 12, Macdonald and Smith climbed a 1800-meter point in the northeast corner of the Laupers Bjerg massif by a snow gulley on the south side. Attempts to enter a virgin area in Schweizerland via the Franche Compté Gletscher failed due to receding, chaotic glaciers and time running out. We returned to the UK on September 5.

Douglas Cooper, North Wales, UK