Goya Peak, first ascent. Our small multinational team of Jeremy Frimer (Canada), Sarah Hart (Canada), Michel van der Spek (The Netherlands) and I made two first ascents of alpine rock climbs in the Miyar Valley. We established base camp at the usual spot near the entrance to the Dali (a.k.a. Thunder) Glacier and first spent time acclimatizing and recon- noitering a peak on the far (west) side of the main valley. We dubbed this “Himashanca” because of its resemblance to the famous Jirishanca in Peru’s Cordillera Huayhuash. However, we found the approach to the attractive north face problematic, due to heavy crevassing, and an inspection of the valleys to the south shed no light on a possible descent, were we to reach the summit. Instead, we returned to base camp, unaware that Catalans Oriol Baro and Oscar Cacho had climbed this 5,930m mountain in 2005, via a 950m route on the north face (Antiparques, TD M6 60°, see AAJ 2006, pp. 382-384).

On September 23 van der Spek and I made the first ascent of a peak near base camp, directly above the north bank of the Dali glacier and between Lammergeier Peak (5,300m) and Pt 4,916m. Lammergeier is a fine pointed spire first climbed in 2004 by a British expedition (AAJ 2005, p. 367). After several roped pitches up the southwest ridge, the third pitch crux being 5.9, we untied and climbed easier terrain to the ca 5,300m summit, which we named Goya Peak. We reached the top, where we built a small cairn, at 3 p.m. We graded our 600m route Alpine D-. We reversed the route, downclimbing and making four rappels, arriving back at base camp after nightfall.

Oliver Metherell, UK