Tangi Ragi Tau South (Pahamlahaka) ascents and possible new route. Although they were unable to make any serious attempt on their main objective, the North Pillar/Face of Teng Kang Poche, a group of young French climbers were able to achieve several ascents on Tangi Ragi Tau South (aka Pahamlahaka: ca 6,187m), which lies on the opposite side of the main valley.

At the end of October Jean-Marc Clerc, Martial Dumas and Erwan le Lann climbed the south ridge with two bivouacs. This gave ca 1,700m of climbing up a fine rock ridge in its lower section, finishing with 500-600m of easy snow/mixed. The French found difficulties up to 6b+.

This route was first climbed in October 2002 by Radek Lienerth and Alexandr Toloch, who also took three days, named it Like a Dhal Bhat, and found the difficulties to be EDI VII- and 75°. This pair from the Czech Republic then descended the south east ridge in its entirety, taking about six hours and estimating the grade as Alpine D+. It is thought the French also descended this route.

Later, Maxime Belleville, Philippe Coudray, Julien Herry, Nicolas Potard and Xavier Vimal made the probable first ascent of the south west ridge, which they likened in style to Route Major on Mont Blanc. From a bivouac at the foot, they first climbed rock at F4 and 5, made another bivouac at ca 5,800m, crossed steps of 80°-85° with the steepest section just below the summit and then made a third bivouac on the descent of the south east ridge. The route was named Le Sourire de Migma (after a local trekking lodge proprietor).

Lindsay Griffin, Mountain INFO, CLIMB magazine