As part of a larger Slovakian expedition to the Gangotri, Jan Smolen and I planned to climb a new route in alpine style on the left side of the west face of Bhagirathi III (6,454m). More specifically, we wanted to climb the wall between the Catalan Pillar and Seed of Madness (immediately right of Bhagirathi IV). We took no portaledge, tent, bolts, or ropes for fixing, just two half ropes, a 6mm tag line, standard climbing gear, bivouac bags, and food for five days. Worried about a change in the weather, we started up the face on September 18 after only a week of acclimatization.

Photos of the face in previous times show a snowfield on the first six pitches, but we only found dry, loose rock. Above, we followed a fine crack beneath an overhanging wall that protected us from rockfall. It was warm and we could climb free up to 7a. Our first bivouac was on a large ledge, where we slept comfortably.

Next morning was surprisingly cold. We tried to climb two hard pitches in rock shoes, but without the sun we were forced to use aid. After that we reached the mixed climbing and in the evening found a bivouac site beneath the final headwall. It was far from ideal, and it took two hours to excavate from steep ice and névé. That night it started to snow, and the wind strengthened. It turned into the worst night of my life. The snow buried us and we breathed out of a small hole we kept open.

In the morning, at first we wanted to begin a rappel retreat as soon as possible, as the weather was so bad, but eventually we decided to try to complete the headwall, which was ice and mixed climbing. Our last belay was around 15m below the top of the headwall, above which there was only snow leading to the ridge between Bhagirathi IV and III. We almost started to celebrate, but within five minutes all hell broke loose, and we were nearly drowned by snow. Visibility was limited to one meter, the wind was strong, and avalanches began to fall. In 15 minutes we were covered with snow and frozen to the bone. We realized that if we were not going to stay there forever, we needed to get down.

Rappelling to the first bivouac site seemed endless, and we barely found it in the mist. We shivered the whole night, but next day managed to rappel to the foot of the face. The weather only deteriorated and never allowed us a second attempt. We climbed 900m, reaching an altitude of 6,100m, with climbing difficulties to 7a C2 WI5+ M7.

Three other members of our expedition, Martin Krasnansky, Pavel Kratochvil, and Robert Luby, attempted the second ascent of Stairway to Heaven, the more direct variation to the classic Scottish Route on the southwest pillar. After four days, having also reached an altitude of 6,100m, close to the end of the main rock difficulties, they too were forced to retreat in bad weather.

– Ondrej Huserka, Slovak Republic

Notes on the Southwest Pillar: Over the years, the line of the original Scottish Route (Bob Barton and Alan Fyffe, 1982) up the southwest pillar of Bhagirathi III has been increasingly misrepresented on photographs, giving the impression that it climbed much farther to the right from the crest of the pillar. For instance, in AAJ 2005, in which Bavarian Walter Holzer reports his ascent of Stairway to Heaven (1,300m, 30 pitches plus unroped climbing on summit snow slopes, 7b A2), the two lines are mostly shown a long way apart. In fact there is little difference between the two, and Holzer and Pflugmacher added bolts to terrain that Barton and Fyffe climbed without. As Bob Barton notes, to climb out right as shown would have exposed them to evident and dangerous rockfall, which is why they avoided doing so. The Bavarian team essentially repeated the 1982 route with an impressive and difficult five- to six-pitch direct variation in the central section.