Enthused by the stories and photos of countryman Domen Kastelic after his first ascent of Chugimago (AAJ 2015), with American Sam Hennessey, a team of four young Slovenians— Ambroz Bajde, Blaz Kramer, Matej Mucic, and Luka Strazar—visited the Rolwaling in October. The climbers made their base camp in the village of Na (4,020m) and acclimatized with an ascent of Chugimago North (5,945m, first known ascent in 2014 by Argentine and Spanish climbers, via the west face, AAJ 2015). The Slovenians climbed the north face (500m, 50–60° with a few sections of 80°) via a rightward-slanting snow and ice ramp, exiting onto a shoulder from which they followed the north ridge easily to the summit. They returned by the same route, making the round trip from their 5,100m advanced base in around nine hours.

On October 15, Mucic and Strazar started from an advanced base at 5 a.m. and climbed a direct line in the center of the west face of Chugimago, arriving on the summit at 8 a.m. the following morning. They took a line to the right of the Hennessey-Kastelic Route, reaching the summit ridge a very short distance north of the highest point. The pair then climbed down the southwest ridge a short distance before descending the west face. The 800–900m route (WI4 with one pitch of M5) was thought to be about the same overall difficulty as the Hennessey-Kastelic.

Meanwhile, Bajde and Kramer had left advanced base at the same time and started up a line to the right of the Mucic-Strazar line. They climbed 60–80° ice and by midday had reached 5,800m. However, there had been much deep snow and plenty of spindrift, so at that point the pair retreated. On the 23rd they attempted the line descended by Mucic and Strazar. They started at 3 a.m. and reached a high point of 6,000m by 1 p.m. This time they had found more ice (up to 80°) and no spindrift but very cold temperatures. They descended from this point, but nonetheless recommended this line over the first one they attempted.

Rodolphe Popier, France