Ganchenpo, north face, attempt. Bruno Burr, Oskar Wachter, and I left Kathmandu on May 6 and after a five-day trek through the Langtang Valley established base camp at 4400m in the Nyangtsa Chui Valley. We hoped to climb the north face of Ganchempo (6367m). The monsoon set in early this year, so we changed our strategy and tried to climb the route at night. On May 15 we went up to 5500m, where we placed Camp 1. After seven hours we reached the end of the moraine and were able to have our first view of the hidden glacier below the north face of Ganchenpo. It looked completely different than shown on the map, was full of deep crevasses, and much steeper than we expected. In the time we had available there was no way we would have been able to cross this glacier basin, and as we only carried equipment for one high camp, we retreated. We left base camp on May 20 and started our journey back to Kathmandu. Future parties with designs on the north face should expect to make at least two high camps and allow enough time to cross the glacier basin. (Editor's note: in the past the north face has received at least three ascents via different lines from unauthorized parties.)

Jürgen Schütz, Germany