During November, a British expedition comprising Connor Holdsworth, Ken Hopper, Rich Lade, Simon Tietjen, and me established base camp on the Ripimo Shar (a.k.a. Rolwaling) Glacier at 27.892169°N, 86.467145°E, with the primary intention of climbing a new route—the north ridge—on Drangnag Ri (6,757m).

Following a heavy monsoon, we found difficult snow conditions on the mountain and were forced to abandon our original plans after climbing to a col at 6,100m below the north ridge. Over the last 15 years, climate change has had a huge impact on this region: Our ascent to the col would have been out of bounds to any sensible climber in the previous decade due to objective hazard.

With time on our side, we turned to a smaller peak north of our base camp: Peak 5,976m (HMG-Finn map), which lies between the Ripimo Shar and Ripimo Nup glaciers. [While it seems likely this peak has been climbed in the past, and it was attempted in 2017 by the same Italian team that built the via ferrata on difficult Tashi Laptsa pass, there are no known confirmed ascents.] We ruled out the east and northeast sides due to the current snow conditions, and so opted for the south ridge.

Connor and I made the attempt, leaving base camp at 3 a.m. on November 21. We climbed unroped at first, then moved together. There was a lot of broken ground and some finer easy rock climbing as the ridge grew steeper and narrower. Then a pinnacle barred access to a rock ridge and the snow-capped summit. Connor attempted to traverse the pinnacle, but the rock collapsed under his feet. The resulting fall onto a ledge broke his leg.

He was able to make a belay and bring me up, and I splinted his legs together, immobilizing what turned out to be a triple fracture of his tibia and fibula. We messaged the base camp satellite phone from an InReach device, and a rescue was summoned. With difficulty, we then rappelled 300m of loose ground on the east flank to reach scree slopes, where we were met by other team members bringing overnight bivouac gear. A helicopter came first thing the following morning and evacuated Connor to a hospital in Kathmandu.

– Will Rowland, U.K.