In the spring of 2014, Italians Daniele Bernasconi, Giampaolo Corona, and Mario Panzeri attempted the north face and north-northwest pillar of Talung (7,349m). The three arrived at base camp on April 20 and began a siege-style ascent. They made about a dozen day trips to the face, fixing ropes gradually higher. The weather was unstable through most of the expedition. Starting at ca 5,600m, they followed the 2013 Holocek-Hruby route, Thumba Party (AAJ 2014), to the top of a huge serac, where they installed a camp at ca 6,000m. They then continued up and right on hard ice (up to 90°) to reach a rock band on the north-northwest pillar. On May 16 they fixed a few pitches on the rock band, but, finding no bivouac sites, came back to sleep at their serac camp. The next day they tried to break through the rock band but failed, as they found it very difficult to protect. (On the penultimate pitch the leader climbed 40m without protection.) The difficulty was V A0. They retreated from a height reported to be ca 6,400m, though information from the Ukrainians who succeeded in 2015 on the northnorthwest pillar suggests the Italians reached about 6,600m. In total the Italians climbed and fixed 31 pitches, and they were unable to remove all their rope. [See photo on page 14 for the line of the Italian attempt.]

Lindsay Griffin, with information from Rodolphe Popier, France, and Gianpaolo Corona, Italy