Spantik. Frans Visser, Maarten Frissel, Pieter Slooten, Antoinette Briët, Sabine Deneer, Dr. Margreet Hogeweg and I as leader made the fourth ascent of Spantik, following a variation of the original southeast-ridge route, first climbed by a German expedition in 1955. In 1978 two Japanese expeditions also climbed this peak, one by the original route and the other by the south ridge. We placed Base Camp at 4300 meters on July 8 on the middle moraine of the Chogolungma Glacier. Choosing a route left of the original line, we climbed 200 meters of grassy slope and set up Camp I on July 12 at 4900 meters, below a conspicuous promontory on the southeast ridge. Camp II at 5700 meters was established at the foot of the Chogo face on July 15. After reaching the col between Mounts “Chogo” and “Lungma,” we pitched Camp III at 6400 meters near the top of the latter on July 20. During all that time the weather remained brilliant with very intense solar radiation that temporarily affected some of the members. On July 22 Visser, Frissel, Slooten and two of the ladies, Briët and Deneer, left Camp III. After crossing on snowshoes the intermediate plateau, they climbed the upper southwest ridge to the summit (7027 meters, 23,055 feet). On July 25 Margreet Hogeweg, who had cured me from previous ailments, and I also went to the top, accompanied by Visser, who thus repeated the summit. During the descent the weather deteriorated for the first time with snowfall that created avalanche danger. We were all back in Base Camp on July 29. This is the highest summit ever climbed by Dutch women, although higher altitudes have been reached on other mountains, in particular the recent record of 8600 meters set on Everest by Mariska Mourik only a few months later.

Jan Bongenaar, Koninklijke Nederlandse Alpen Vereniging