Changla, First Ascent. In the autumn, the west summit of Changla in northwestern Nepal on the border with Tibet was successfully scaled for the first time. Changla had been attempted only once before, 15 years ago, by Japanese, who are believed to have tried to reach the south summit. Now a team of four Japanese and two Nepalese Sherpas (Satoshi Kimoto, Mamoru Taniguchi, Tamotsu Onishi, Ang Phurba Sherpa, and Chuldim Sherpa) climbed the north ridge to the west ridge to the top of Changla West Peak, which the climbing leader, Tamotsu Onishi, estimated was about 6150 meters high. It was an easy climb technically, he reported, but they had to use 550 meters of rope on soft snow that was about 30 centimeters deep. They had first tried to go to the main summit by its west face, but managed to get no higher than 5050 meters before they encountered a badly broken icefall they had no desire to climb.

Elizabeth Hawley