Satling Sui (5,060m), first ascent, Jatra; Point Walker (5,260m), new route. After a three-day approach following the Bhilangna Valley on the south side of Thalay Sagar, Chris Semmel, Matthias Huber, and I reached our base camp (3,720m) beside the lateral moraine of the Phatling glacier. Our aim was to explore the mountains around the Satling Glacier (“Satling” meaning “Seven Phalli”), which had only been visited once before, in 2002 by an English expedition. After two days of checking out possibilities we decided to focus on an unclimbed granite needle on the northern side of the Satling Glacier. Our ABC was established at 4,550m, some 250 vertical meters below the bottom of the face. It took us three days (having to wait out a period of heavy snowfall in basecamp) to open our line up the southwest face. We named the 12-pitch route Jatra (“pilgrimage”). We climbed it on 1st, 6th, and 7th of October, and graded it UIAA VIII/1 p.a. The summit not having been baptized before, we suggest the name “Satling Sui” (“Sui”meaning “needle”). After a rest day we opened the “Central Couloir” (6 pitches, UIAA V M5) on the west face of Point Walker, which had been ascended once in 2002 via the east ridge. Our expedition was sponsored by Marmot.

Tom Dauer, Weyarn, Germany