On November 10, after four days of climbing, Marcin Rutkowski, Wojciech Ryczer, and I completed the first ascent of San Lian Southeast (ca 6,250m), one of the three Chu Shan summits to the south of Minya Konka.

We arrived in Chengdu in mid-October and the next day took the bus to Moxi at the entrance to Hailuogou National Park. On the 19th we took the park bus up the valley and then a cable car to ca 3,500m. With porters unable to take our loads to the desired altitude, we spent the next few days establishing base camp (4,150m) and ferrying loads to the rim of the glacier (ca 4,400m) that flows east from the San Lian peaks. We then found a relatively safe route across this glacier to the foot (ca 5,260m) of the east face of San Lian Southeast.

On November 6, Wojciech led the first pitch (M7) and fixed a rope. Next day we jugged this and started up thin, aerated, sun-bleached ice, some sections of which were WI5 R. After dusk we veered left and made one rappel in order to find a place for the night. It took a lot of time and effort to construct a platform big enough for the tent.

On the 8th we regained our line and after a number of ice and mixed pitches, together with a little traversing and one 30m rightward rappel, established ourselves in a steep snow gully. There, we found a ledge big enough for all three of us to sit, so we eagerly chose to stop and settle for the night. Next day we followed the steepening gully to an even steeper rocky arête capped with loose snow. This gave us a hard time: dry-tool bouldering at 6,000m while carrying a pack. The rock was crumbling and the snow offered little more than psychological protection. At one point we decided to abandon the crest for the flanks (M5), but this took so long that we were forced to bivouac again. At around 11 p.m., Wojciech accidentally dropped his sleeping bag, but luckily the temperature was tolerable and there was no wind.

On November 10 we regained the arête via a pitch of M6 and climbed several exposed pitches to the corniced summit ridge. The views were stunning as we quickly traversed north over the top and down to the col between the southeast and central (ca 6,350m) summits. We then rappelled the east-northeast face, mainly from V-threads, and at 1 a.m. reached a large snowfield on the glacier between the southeast and central summits. We began walking down, but in a steeper, crevassed area I took a 15m free fall into a crevasse. Held on the rope, I managed to jug to safety and we decided to make another tent bivouac.

On the 11th we continued the descent, rappelling between seracs and ice pillars bordering the foot of the east face of San Lian Southeast, until we finally reached a safe section of the glacier and regained the base of our climb that evening. Over the next two days we descended to base camp, and by the 18th we were home in Poland. We felt we had managed a beautiful route on a virgin summit and named it Hard Camping (1,000m, 1,450m of climbing, ED2 WI5 R M7).

Until now, confusing nomenclature (see editor’s note below) has meant the three summits of the San Lian group have been assigned the altitudes 6,368m (southeast peak), 6,468m (central peak), and 6,684m (northwest peak). On returning home, and in consultation with Grzegorz Glazek, Tamotsu Nakamura, and Bruce Normand, we reassessed the heights of the three San Lian peaks to, respectively, ca 6,250m, ca 6,350m, and 6,368m. We thank the Kukuczka Foundation and the Polish Mountaineering Association for grant aid. 

Rafal "Waldorf" Zajac, Poland

Editor’s note (see map below for reference): Recent climbing activity on the peaks constituting the watershed ridge running south from Minya Konka has given rise to some confusion over their nomenclature. The earliest names published in the West date from 1929– 1931, when this range was visited by the Swiss geologist Arnold Heim, who at the time was a professor at the Sun Yat-Sen University in China. In 1930 he was accompanied by Eduard Imhof, a Swiss cartographer, who surveyed the area, made a map, measured the height of Minya Konka, and confirmed the existence of its three principal glaciers.

The most prominent feature visible from the gateway Hailuogou Glacier is the last high peak at the southern end of the ridge, Peak 6,410m. Heim and Imhof gave this mountain the name Mt. Tai (Tai Shan), after Tai Chi–Chao, a member of the university team who accompanied the expedition and, from an organizational perspective, made it possible. This peak has appeared on recent sketch maps with the Chinese name Jinyin Shan (Gold-Silver Mountain).

The other prominent feature when viewed from the lower Hailuogou is a three-peaked mountain, Peak 6,368m, which Heim and Imhof designated Mt. Chu, after Chu Chia-Hua, another university member who accompanied the expedition. This mountain has become known on local Chinese maps as San Lian Feng (Three Connecting Peaks). Additional confusion has been caused by the attribution of the name Mt. Chu (Chu Shan) to surveyed points farther north on the watershed ridge, including Peaks 6,468m and even 6,684m, although these are difficult or impossible to see from the Hailuogou valley.

The 1981 Swiss expedition that made the first ascent of Tai Shan followed the convention of Heim and Imhof, and, if one maintains this nomenclature, then the summits on the main ridge, from south to north, should be referred to as Tai Shan (6,410m), Chu Shan (San Lian Southeast, San Lian Central, and San Lian Main, 6,368m), Peak 6,468m, Peak 6,460m (western top of Peak 6,468m), Long Shan (Dragon Mountain, 6,684m), and Minya Konka (7,556m, a.k.a. Gongga Shan). Point 6,858m, close to Minya Konka and sometimes misidentified as Long Shan, has no prominence and cannot be considered a separate top.