In mid-August, Li Bo, Zhong Wanghong, and I made first ascents of both Ama Drime I (6,669m, 28°5’9.69”N, 87°36’25.89”E) and Ama Drime East (6,580m, 28°4'56.13"N, 87°37'15.22"E). These peaks are situated on the border between Tingri County and Dinggye County in the Tibet Autonomous Region. They are part of the Nyonno Ri–Ama Drime subrange, which, unusually for the Greater Himalaya, runs in a north–south direction. The subrange is around 80km long and 40km across and includes dozens of 6,000m peaks, the highest of which are Nyonno Ri (6,730m, 28°12'21.99"N, 87°36'30.91"E), Ama Drime I, and Ama Drime East. Before this year, none had recorded ascents. [The 1933 and 1935 Everest expeditions, led by Eric Shipton, visited the Nyonno Ri subrange, where they climbed a peak of about 6,000m just northeast of Nyonno Ri, another 6,000m summit (Edwin Kempson and Charles Warren), and a summit of about 6,580m not far from the south peak of Nyonno Ri (Kempson, Tilman, and Warren). However, it appears they never attempted the main summits.]

We left Lhasa on August 12 and drove 500km to Zong Co lake. Here, we could see the north side of Ama Drime, but the approach appeared difficult, so we followed the road farther south toward the village of Riwu, from which we could see a shorter route.

On the 14th, we left the car at 5,000m and, after a walk of 2.5 hours, arrived at Ama Zhibucuo lake (5,500m), east-northeast of the mountain. From here we could see that the glacier flowing east from Ama Drime splits into two tongues, the left of which was barred by a steep rock cliff. We pitched camp at 5,650m, below the right glacier tongue, which began with a gentle slope and then steepened.

The next day, we climbed seven pitches up the glacier and, passing numerous crevasses, eventually placed Camp 2 (6,150m) in the cwm above. We started our summit push at 9:30 a.m. on the 16th. Gaining elevation slowly on the seemingly endless eastern slope of Ama Drime I, we reached the summit at 1:10 p.m., calling our 1,500m ascent Climbing Community (AI2 55° snow). We returned to Camp 2 later that afternoon; it had been a long, exhausting day.

Despite our fatigue, the next day, August 17, Li and I climbed a direct line from Camp 2 up the southwest face of Ama Drime East. The route started with loose mixed terrain, and we only found seven points of protection in four pitches. Moving together up the final 150m snow slope, Li and I reached the summit. Due to a feeling of complete exhaustion, we named the route Burnt Out (550m, 5.7 R 60° snow). We descended safely and reached our vehicle in the early hours of the following morning.

— Hou Zhao (a.k.a. Gu Niaoniao),China, translated by He Lang