Chandra Parbat I. Our Australian team of eight made the first ascent of Chandra Parbat I (6739 meters, 22,110 feet), which lies on the eastern bank of the Suralaya Glacier. There seems to be confusion over our peak’s name (P 6739 or Chandra Parbat I) and P 6728 or Chandra Parbat II; the latter lies northwest from it. We have suggested the name of Indradhanush Parbat (Rainbow Mountain) to the Indian Mountaineering Foundation for our peak. We established Base Camp below Vasuki Parbat and Advance Base below P 5801 at the junction of the Chaturangi and Suralaya Glaciers on September 12 and 16. Camp I was placed on the Suralaya Glacier at 18,000 feet. On September 22, Glen Tempest and James Serie climbed directly up the 70° northwest face to the summit. Gavin Dunmall and I worked out a route up the ridge and then up the face to the left of the Tempest-Serle route. We climbed scree, crumbling rock and finally a 40-meter gully to our second camp on the ridge. The next day, we skirted around the side of the ridge, hoping to find a weak spot up to the ridge proper. At six P.M. we made camp below a rock band that looked climbable. The next day, September 25, we climbed steep rock until we came to the snow line at 6200 meters. A 70° snow ramp and then 500 meters of 65° snow got us to the summit ridge proper at 4:30 P.M. At 5:45 we were on the top. Running out of daylight on the descent, we made an open bivouac at 6200 meters. At Base Camp, we discovered that Grant Else had climbed the entire northwest ridge to the summit solo, shortly before us also on the 25th. Other team members were Peter Williams, Andrew McNeill and Sarah Boyle.

Darren Miller, Australia