Asia, China, Siguniang National Park, Changping Valley, Peak 4,764m, First Ascent, Southeast Pillar, Xie Xie Route

Publication Year: 2008.

Peak 4,764m, first ascent, southeast pillar, Xie Xie route. Giovanni Moretti, Riccardo Redaelli, Silvestro Stucchi, and I arrived from Italy and set up base camp at the head of the Changping Valley, between great nameless, unclimbed mountains that present wonderful granite walls of between 400 and 900 meters. After looking around, we chose the virgin Peak 4,764, with its 450m wall. On August 22, after giving up on one attempt due to bad weather, we reached the top in 6.5 hours of climbing up the southeast pillar (400m, 10 pitches, VI A0). We called the route Xie Xie, which means “thank you” in Chinese. We descended the northwest face, with downclimbing and one 60m rappel to reach a gully and walk to camp. We left pitons and one bolt at belays (not all are equipped) and one piton on a pitch.

Elena Davila Merino, Italy