Mt. Grosvenor, attempt on northwest face. In the spring of 2003 Grosvenor (6,367m) was still unclimbed. It has a spectacular northwest face, which we attempted as two separate pairs. Andy Cave and myself tried the central couloir directly below the summit, but were stopped on our third day by a very loose, slanting groove choked with powder snow. It was one of those difficult situations where we could have made more progress but there was no gear and the danger levels had risen to a point that we deemed unacceptable. So, despite the ground easing only 30 meters or so above us, we rappelled. A bolt or two would have solved the problem, but we regard such things as cheating.

Neil McAdie and Simon Nadin tried another line toward the right-hand side of the face. They managed five pitches before rappelling due to extremely heavy spindrift avalanches. I might add that it snowed or rained on every day we were in the region.

Mick Fowler, U.K.