Pat Perry Johnson and I arrived in Namche Bazaar on April 6. A week later, we attempted Kyajo Ri’s southwest ridge but retreated 200m below the summit due to lack of time and deteriorating weather. Disappointed but still full of motivation, we set our eyes on the northeast face of Tengkangpoche (6,487m).

We moved to the Sunshine Lodge in Thame, and after a few days’ rest with our gracious hosts, along with some local ice and rock climbing, we concluded the northeast face was quite dry, so we opted for a moderate line on the far left that linked ice and mixed terrain with long sections of snow, leading to the east ridge. We hoped this would give us the best chance to summit Tengkangpoche. [The chosen line lies between Love and Hate, a route soloed by Nick Bullock (U.K.) in 2003, and Bullock’s descent route a little farther left on the face. At that time, the face held more snow and ice.]

After a bivouac at around 4,600m at the base of the route, we began climbing at 4:30 a.m. on April 22, navigating easy ice to the base of a smear on a clean rock face. Having been almost certain the ice on this smear would be too thin to climb safely, we were pleasantly surprised to climb it in two fantastic pitches at WI3+.

We continued directly up the northeast face, linking excellent sections of easy ice and mixed terrain with long stretches of steep snow. A final pitch of WI3 brought us to the east ridge. We bivouacked at 6,000m and endured a windy, sleepless night.

Clear weather allowed us to continue up the ridge the following day, encountering long sections of WI2/3 while traversing the south flank. There were a couple of tricky crevasses. We reached the summit in light cloud at 3:30 p.m. After a brief celebration and photos, we simul-climbed back along the ridge and continued our descent of the northeast face through the night, making 12 rappels via V-threads and rock anchors, and downclimbing long sections of snow. We reached the base of the route at 1:55 a.m. and were drinking hot coffee at Sunshine Lodge two hours later, excited at having spent two days on such a beautiful mountain.

We named our route Sunshine Spring Roll (1,500m, WI3+ M3) in celebration of the delicious spring rolls we enjoyed at the lodge, a place that will continue to live in our hearts. After a week and a half of rest, we returned to Kyajo Ri and, in a single push from our teahouse in Machermo, climbed up and down its southwest ridge in 23 hours and 23 minutes.  

           —Patrick Gephart, USA