Saipal East, Attempt. Bruno Baumann, a professional adventurer and writer who lives in Munich but is an Austrian citizen, gave up his hope of making the first ascent of a peak that he has decided isn’t actually there. The peak is listed by Nepal’s tourism ministry, which gives climbing permits, as Saipal East (6882m). He said before going to the far west of Nepal to make an historic climb that he had no information about this peak, but said he intended to make an attempt via its north face, if it had one. However when he got to Mt. Saipal, he was unable to find any eastern summit at all and concluded that it does not exist. Baumann writes, “At least we got on the foot of the mighty south face of Saipal, which I think has not been climbed yet. It’s a fantastic amphitheater where the wall rises up with 3000 meters of vertical ice and rock. From my point of view it will be quite a tough task to climb it. I did some reconnaissance there, climbing up to 5500 meters. The wall rises from 4000 meters to the main summit, which is a little more than 7000 meters high. The valley is so isolated that it is one of the last paradises for rare wildlife, like snow leopards, bears (both kind of the big Himalayan bears) and blue sheep.”

Elizabeth Hawley