In July Raul Gonzalez and Mikel Urabain Saez spent 22 days in the Nangma Valley, climbing a route on Zang Brakk. Unclear about the location of existing routes on the left side of the south face, they started just to the left of Ali Baba (6c+/7a A1, but free until the junction with the Korean route high on the face, Skok-Skok, 2004). After a few pitches it appears that their line is very similar to Ali Baba. After eight pitches (up to 7a, with a short section of A1 on pitch three) they followed the rightward traverse line of Ali Baba out to the arête (6c), crossing Ramchikor (600m, 19 pitches, British E3 5c and A2, Peter-Thomas, 1998) to where they joined the bolts of the Korean Route (Left Korean Route, 600m, 5.9 A3+/A4-, Jang Hyung-Won–Lim Sung-Muk–Shin Moon-He, 2000). They climbed two pitches of A1 before retreating, after a total of 13 pitches.

On their second attempt they reclimbed their initial eight pitches, and then moved left on more slabby terrain. After one pitch of 6b they joined the 2004 Italian-Spanish route Hasta la Vista David (750m, 18 pitches, 6b A1, Colnago-Davila-Lazzarini-Stucchi, 2004), and followed this for its last five pitches (6a max) to the summit. They then rappelled the Italian-Spanish line. Gonzalez and Urabain have called their new variant Altenative emo Insugente (7a A1). The total length of the route to the summit is 700m, but it is unclear how much of this is new. See photo in AAJ 2005, p. 360, for routes mentioned above.

Lindsay Griffin, Mountain INFO, from information supplied by Mikel Urabain Saez, Spain