Sarah Allard, Maria Dixon, Richard Goodey, and I spent three days trekking to Nar, with support from the excellent Nepal Nirvana Trails trekking agency. We picked up further supplies and donkeys to help carry the loads, and set off for the Labse Khola.

Our plan was to set base camp somewhere near the Teri La, and hopefully climb one of the many nearby peaks. We had identified three potential target areas, based on past expedition reports and Google Earth: a group of summits surrounding the glacier northeast of the Teri La, another group southeast of Amotsang (6,393m), and various peaks on the ridge running east-southeast from Purbung (6,500m) and Jinjan (a.k.a. Genjang, 6,111m).

The path through the Labse Khola was easy to follow, but often took a different line to that shown on the official HMG-Finn map. For much of the first day, we were walking at around 4,500m, well above the river. After about 13km, the path dropped to the riverside, and we were able to camp. Next day, after a few kilometers along the riverside, the path again climbed a few hundred meters before dropping to where the Jomsom Khola flows into the Labse Khola. At this point the trail crosses to the south side of the valley and stays fairly close to the riverside all the way to where we situated our base camp, at around 4,800m (28°48'09.9"N, 84°05'40.6"E), 6km before the Teri La.

We spent the next two days reconnoitering routes both west and south of base camp. To the west, we found loose ground with potential landslide risk. To the south-southwest, the approach to Peak 5,810m looked more challenging than we’d hoped. Slightly further east, we identified a promising line up a peak of about 5,735m at 28°46’14.7”N, 84°05’25.9”E, on the watershed ridge between the Labse and Chhubche kholas. To its northeast lay a good site for an advanced base camp, at around 5,150m.

Leaving ABC at 4:30 a.m. on November 10, Richard and I climbed up snow and scree to around 5,400m, then followed a glacier southwest, leading up to a plateau between our summit and Peak 5,810m to its northwest. We then ascended two easy pitches up the summit buttress on a mixture of snow and rock, enjoying stunning views. We judged the route to be around PD.

The ridge connecting our peak and Jinjan (a.k.a. Genjang, 6,111m) offers opportunities for new routes, and the group of peaks a few kilometers southeast of Amotsang (6,393m) looks to have interesting mixed and rocky ridges.

— Mike Ferguson, U.K.