Until recently the areas northeast of the Spiti Valley were closed to non-Indians, and even today their proximity to the Tibetan border makes access sensitive. Encouraged by Harish Kapadia, who led the only two teams known to have explored east of the Lingti nala (valley), Dave Broadhead, Mike Cocker, Geoff Cohen, and I received permission to enter this region in September. Unfortunately, the fifth member of the team, Hamish Irvine, failed to receive his permit before leaving the U.K. and was not allowed to go above base camp. We planned to attempt one or more of the unclimbed 6,000m peaks at the head of the Talung nala, and knew from previous parties that the access to these higher peaks might prove a greater challenge than climbing them.

After acquiring Inner Line permits in Shimla, we drove to the road head at Lalung, and from there trekked for five days northeast of the Lingti nala, over arduous and complex terrain, before establishing base camp (5,130m, 32°12.841'N, 78°20.803'E). From this camp we explored and mapped the extensive Langma Plateau, and on the 9th climbed a subsidiary top, Peak 5,782m, via a short steep couloir (WI2) on its northwest face. We named the climb Fossil Gully on account of the numerous fossils around base camp and the fact that the combined age of the three first ascensionists was 189 years.

After establishing a high camp to the south at 5,807m, we first climbed Tangmor (5,920m, 32º11.030'N, 78º21.775'E, attempted in 1983) on the 11th via its north-northwest ridge. On the 13th we reclimbed Tangmor and continued on to summit Taklu (5,927m, 32º10.561'N, 78º21.776'E) by its north ridge. On the 12th, Broadhead left high camp and traversed wide scree slopes northeast to make the second ascent of Langma (5,796m, 32º11.811'N, 78º22.209'E), a peak first ascended by the 1983 Kapadia expedition.

After making two more intermediate camps on the ridge to the east, we made the first ascent of a peak we named Chota Sgurr (5,924m, 32º11.329'N, 78º23.576'E) on September 19. This summit lies at the western extremity of a high cirque at the head of the Talung nala, and was climbed by the sharp north ridge. The very long continuation ridge to the east would eventually lead to unclimbed Peak 6,531m on the Survey of India map. Finally, on the 20th, from the same high camp used to summit Chota Sgurr, Cocker and I made the third ascent of Langma by its broad north ridge.

-Derek Buckle, Alpine Club, U.K.