On October 17, Benjamin Jones, Jonathan Mancuso, and I left Kathmandu to explore four unclimbed and newly opened peaks in the Upper Mustang region.

From Jomsom it took five days to reach a ca 4,875m base camp, and two days later we set a high camp at ca 5,670m on the glacier below three peaks: Mansail (a.k.a. Manshail, 6,235m), Mansail South (6,248m), and Mustang Himal (6,195m). We were unable to locate the fourth peak, Gyhun Himal (6,110m), due to lack of time. [Elevations from HMG-Finn map.]

First we attempted Mansail by the east ridge to north face but turned around on the granite mass below the summit because of inadequate rock gear. Our high point was ca 6,135m. [Mansail was climbed in September 2014 by a Japanese team.] Mansail South would pose a similar challenge, the entire climb to the summit lying over broken granite. We descended for a few days’ rest and then returned to climb Mustang Himal on November 2. From high camp we crossed a low-angle glacier to reach the 40–60° north face, which we climbed on perfect névé and ice for ca 250m to the west ridge. Snow and broken granite led to the summit pinnacle, which we estimated at around 6,280m.

Melissa Arnot, USA