Numri first ascent. Numri is south of Cho Polu and east of Chukung village. The 6,677m mountain was first climbed by a German team led by Olaf Rieck in November. The seven-member expedition established their base camp at 5,140m on the Imja Glacier south of Island Peak. They made two camps above that. From camp 2 in a snow cave at 6,185m, three climbers (Rieck, Carsten Schmidt, and Lydia Schubert) ascended the west face to the summit on November 7. Their team had no Sherpas climbing with them, but they did fix a total of 800m of rope in sections above 6,000m. There was considerable danger from avalanches on the face, and one member’s backpack was struck by a chunk of falling ice when he was at about 5,900m, but he was unharmed. Slightly higher up, a large part of a glacier broke away with a loud crash, but again no one was hurt. The climbers had problems with deep snow in several places along their route and a lack of good anchors; the average steepness was 30°.

Elizabeth Hawley, Nepal