Jannu, north face attempt. The all-star team of Erhard Loretan, Fredéric Roux, Ueli Steck, and Stefan Siegrist attempted the north face of 7,710m Jannu but were defeated at around 7,100m by the storms and heavy snow fall that plagued the Kangchenjunga region during the season. The team began early, reaching base camp at the end of March. Although the lower pillar leading to the large ramp/snow basin at the foot of the face was quite snowy, conditions higher looked good. In fairly settled weather at the start of April the four had soon established ropes up to Camp 1 and climbed the basin to the foot of the face at around 6,200m. Later, Camp 2 was placed at this point.

After discovering some of Loretan’s ropes from the previous year, the climbers reached the big serac on the face around April 20. However, the weather then became increasingly unsettled with large dumps of snow. Much time was spent at base camp, and it wasn’t until the second week in May that they could resume the climb. By this stage the team had opted to climb the face by the easiest line. On the night of May 16 more bad weather moved in and a retreat became inevitable. With the monsoon rapidly approaching, the team decided to throw in the towel and remove all their equipment and ropes on the descent.

Lindsay Griffin, High Mountain INFO