On October 13, Pasang Kidar Sherpa and I teamed up to climb the northwest ridge of Beding Go (6,125m, 27°55’34.50”N, 86°23’25.84”E), which lies on the Nepal-Tibet frontier a little east of Gaurishankar (7,134m). Pasang is one of 14 IFMGA guides from the Rolwaling (the highest concentration of qualified guides from any region in Nepal). We completed an alpine-style ascent of this previously unclimbed ridge from a 5,100m high camp at the head of the Chhimugolche River, just west of Beding village.

It took us one day to ascend steep alpine tundra from Beding to a base camp at 4,875m in an area of talus. The site had been cleared by several previous parties attempting Dolma Kang (6,332m).

Our high camp was on snow near a series of glacial tarns, safe from serac fall from the southeast flanks of the frontier ridge. Above, broken rock led to the glacier at 5,150m. After a 30m section of 70° ice, we weaved through crevassed terrain to a glacial plateau at 5,490m, then climbed up the southern edge of the broad base of Beding Go’s northwest ridge. Deep faceted snow slowed progress. We reached the crest of the ridge at 5,860m, where it is a true knife-edge.

With a 700m drop on the Nepal side and a 1,350m fall down the north face to Tibet’s Rongshar Glacier, we moved with caution, staying close to the crest and trying to find the most supportive snow and avoid triggering avalanches. Snow stakes and other anchors proved to be of no use. After several short, steep steps (up to 90°) and a few false summits, we reached an undulating section of ridge at 6,070m.

Exposed shattered rocks, perched above the precipitous southwest face, formed the south edge of a sidewalk-width ridge. We gingerly made our way in the trough between this rock and the sharp snow ridge—the first time that we had found protection from the wind since sunrise. Crossing a final false summit, we treaded lightly up wind-hardened snow slabs to step onto the true summit a little after mid-day, eight hours after leaving camp. Evident were the old, fixed ropes from the 2015 original ascent via the south face and southeast ridge.

We descended our ascent route, mostly downclimbing, with the occasional rappel from Abalakov anchors on the sections of steeper ice, and reached our high camp at 4:30 p.m. We had a bite to eat, then continued for another hour to base camp. We named the route Friendship Ridge (TD AI3+).  

        —Danika Gilbert, USA