In the winter of 2014, Tyler Adams, Bryan Hylenski, and I organized a trip to Sikkim with the help of Anindya Mukherjee. When the government refused access to our first-choice mountain, due to winter conditions, we opted for the seldom-visited area around Kishong Lake, knowing there would be a few unclimbed peaks in this region. We arrived at base camp after a five-day trek via Talung Gompa and the Ringi Ghu Valley. We identified Lama Anden (5,868m, a.k.a. Lama Wangden, Lama Ongden, or Lamo Angden) after a reconnaissance hike.

We began the climb from the foot of the southwest glacier that crawls down from the summit. From a camp on the terminal moraine we found a route through the center of the glacier. Tyler and I climbed ca 300m of moderate ice (50°), above which easy walking led to the base of a headwall near a subsidiary pinnacle. A single pitch of moderate climbing (5.6) through a few horizontal bands of rotten rock led to a belay under a large chockstone in a chimney. Fifteen meters above lay the crest of the south-southeast ridge.

Once on the crest we followed it north along broken and, in places, very loose rock. We moved together with intermediate running belays. Several gendarmes had to be negotiated via careful route-finding on the east flank. At the largest, just south of the main summit, we made a short rappel from a piton onto some steep snow on the east side of the ridge. A traverse of two rope lengths across this snow brought us to a ledge, where we unroped and scrambled up loose rock, scree, and snow to a false summit and then finally the true summit, which we reached at around 2:45 p.m. on February 2.

The descent was accomplished by returning along the ridge to the point below the biggest gendarme, where we’d made the short rappel during the ascent. An easy downclimb on the west flank gained a sloping ramp and crack system, where we built an anchor from pitons and nuts. Rappelling on our single rope, we reached a ledge after 30m, then downclimbed 15m (5.5) to another ledge. From here a second 30m rappel put us on the glacier. Moderate slopes led down to our approach route, where we rappelled the steepest section using Abalakovs. At 10 p.m., 20 hours after first setting out, we reached our tent at the bottom of the glacier.

-John Miller, USA

Editor's note: There has been some confusion in the climbing history of the main summit of Lama Anden. Sir Joseph Hooker made several attempts in 1849. He called it Tukcham, but the name Lama Anden, now generally adopted, was given by Douglas Freshfield. At one point Alexander Kellas was thought to have climbed it in 1920, but it appears there was confusion with another mountain, and the first recorded ascent was in the mid-1940s by an RAF expedition. (The exact year also seems to vary in reports, though Trevor Braham states it was 1945.) The team leader was Tony Smyth, at that time based in Bengal. Smyth and another member, Peter Ford, report reaching the summit, but their exact route of ascent is unclear, and there is no written confirmation as to the exact summit reached. Group Captain Smyth went on to found the RAF Mountaineering Association in the U.K.

An expedition from the Sikkim Police, led by the well-known Sonam Wangyal (Everest in 1965, the youngest summiter at the time), reports climbing the peak in 1982, approaching via Lachen and the northeast flanks. However, they did not climb Lama Anden but the snow dome to the south. In 1984 an Indian Artillery expedition, which approached via Lachen, certainly climbed the main (south) summit. They took a circuitous route to the glacier northeast of the north summit, headed up toward the col between north and south peaks, then followed the east flank of the north ridge to the main summit.