Kwangde Shar, north face, second ascent to the summit, Extra Blue Sky. During the autumn British climbers Jon Bracey and Owen Samuel made the second ascent of Extra Blue Sky to the summit of ca 6100m Kwangde Shar (fourth ascent to its junction with the north east ridge). This route on the north or Hungo Face of Kwangde Shar was climbed in November 1996 by the French, Samuel Beaugey, Christophe Profit, André Rhem, and Jérôme Ruby. Bracey, and Samuel more or less followed the original line to where it begins to slant up left, then followed the route taken in 2000 by British climbers Jules Cartwright and Sam Chinnery through the rock bands and up steep snow to the crest of the northeast ridge. They made three bivouacs on the face and found the climbing to be generally Scottish IV/V ice/mixed except for the crux pitch, a steep thin smear over compact rock (the same as that climbed by Cartwright and Chinnery), which they rated at Scottish VII, 6. On their fourth day they climbed the sustained upper section of the 1978 northeast ridge, surprised to find difficulties up to Scottish VI. After reaching the sharp summit, a further two days were spent making the lengthy descent to the Lumding Valley and back over to the Dudh Kosi.

Mountain INFO, High Mountain Sports