Drohmo, First Ascent. Doug Scott and Roger Mear went to a 6855-meter mountain called Drohmo in far eastern Nepal north-northwest of Kangchenjunga. Drohmo was first attempted by Swiss in 1949, but they were unsuccessful, and few climbers have given it any notice since then till Scott had a good look last spring. Now he and Mear managed to scale the south pillar of the central summit, which Scott believes is probably the main summit. The climb up the pillar was partly on rock, which Scott said was good granite, but most of the surface was snow and ice, and he “was scared all the time” because of inadequate belay points, a condition that was “a bit unnerving.” They needed three bivouacs while, with Mear leading much of the way, they struggled about 750 meters up to the top of the pillar, where they then climbed the ridge that led west to their summit. “Technically it was the hardest climb I’ve done since Shivling’s east pillar in 1981.…This was a very satisfying trip.” A full account of their climb appears earlier in this journal.

Elizabeth Hawley