Traverse of the Trans-Himalaya and Various Ascents, Previously Unreported. Over seven weeks in the summer of 1996, Irene Oehninger and I traveled by jeep, foot, yak and truck (for a short distance) as we made our traverse of the Trans-Himalaya from the town of Sangsang. The mountain region where we climbed is called the Lungma Ri Massif. We made base camp near Luxikegongba, a small settlement of Tibetan nomads and a small gompa about 30 kilometers from Lake Ombu. We then made an Advanced Base Camp above a small lake at 5100 meters. From there we climbed five unclimbed summits between 6200 and 6600 meters high from August 20-25. (We had expected to find a peak at least 7000 meters high indicated on some of the available maps, but the highest unnamed peak turned out to be 6600 meters.) It was possible to use skis to get to the foot of the walls and ridges. There are nice ice climbs here, as well as a lot of impressive granite walls (we had no rock climbing equipment with us). To reach the main summit of the 6600-meter peak, we climbed the north face via ice (up to 60°). We then climbed two other summits of the same mountain (via ice and broken rock) and two peaks opposite. Our loop continued through the mountains and back to Raka before passing through Jiotelo and back to Sangsang.

Cestmír Lukes, Switzerland