Asia, India—Garhwal, Kedarnath Dome, East Face Attempt

Publication Year: 1990.

Kedarnath Dome, East Face Attempt. We originally planned to climb a buttress in the middle of the unclimbed east face of Kedarnath Dome. After our arrival, we discovered so much rockfall on the lower section that we changed our objective to the line attempted by the 1986 Polish expedition. This takes a ramp system leading to the left ridge of the face and up that ridge. Ian Dring and I arrived at Base Camp at Topovan on July 29 and Julian Mathias on August 6. We made an attempt on August 10 but on the second day, having climbed 1000 feet, we were hit by a storm and abseiled off. Until then, the weather was mainly dry with afternoon showers, but the second half of August had a series of storms culminating in a very bad, long storm at the end of the month.

David Fletcher, England