In July, I made my fourth expedition to unclimbed Nya Kangri (6,496m GPS, 34°37’38.48”N, 77°45’23.08”E), partway up the Arganglas Valley. Nya Kangri had received six previous attempts: in 2008 via the southeast face and south ridge by an Indian team; two attempts in 2016 by Indian teams via the south-southeast spur; in 2016 and 2022 by my two expeditions from the north side to reach the south-southwest ridge; and in 2023 by my expedition to the southeast face.

In 2024, Orestis Mitrou-Kintis and I spent three days in Leh for acclimatization and then traveled to Sumur in the Nubra Valley. On July 14, we started from Tirit village (ca 3,300m) with three porters and trekked up the lower Arganglas Valley. After 12 hours we reached 4,580m, where we camped for the night. The next day, we reached our base camp at Phonglas (4,620m); this required a difficult river crossing a few meters upstream from Phonglas, where the river splits into three branches.

On the 18th, we ascended moraine leading to the glacier below the southeast face of Nya Kangri and camped at 5,430m. The next day, we explored the route ahead as far as the glacier and on July 20 set off from our high camp at 3 a.m. for a summit push.

Above 5,750m on the south-southeast spur, we found fixed ropes belonging to the 2016 expedition. Above 6,000m, the angle of the ice slope varied between 40° and 55°. We belayed 13 pitches to the summit, which we gained at 3 p.m. (We stayed three meters below the highest point, which was a large cornice.) We descended in nine rappels, leaving a single ice screw on the mountain, and returned to camp after a round trip of 16 hours. Two days later we were back in Tirit.

       —Nikolaos Kroupis, Greece