Lugula (6,899m) is a beautiful summit located on the Nepal-Tibet border between Phu Valley and Mustang. We had planned to climb it from Mustang and the Damodar Kunda Lakes to the north, and then continue with a crossing of Bhrikuti Shail. However, the Nepalese government decided otherwise.

In mid-August, a friend informed me that the regulations in Restricted Area Zones (such as Upper Mustang or Upper Dolpo) had changed. Earlier, an expedition climbing a peak in a restricted area was exempt from paying for a trekking permit or TIMS (Trekkers' Information Management System, a basic permit for all treks in Nepal). Now teams are required to buy these as well as their expedition permit. The result for us was a large per-person cost increase on top of an already substantial budget. We had to think again.

Keeping our main objective as Lugula, we approached from Phu to the south and established ourselves at Bhrikuti Shail base camp (5,015m). This itself could be a problem, because although Bhrikuti Shail is on the permitted list, the only "caravan route" (the approach route listed by the tourism ministry) is from Mustang. Nevertheless, from there we established Camp 1 on the south ridge of Bhrikuti Shail at 5,650m. On October 1, after a period of bad weather, we made Camp 2 on the Tirhawa La (ca 6,200m), west of Bhrikuti Shail. This was the same route I had climbed in 2005 while making the first ascent of Bhrikuti Shail.

From this high camp, we were able to make a west-east traverse of Bhrikuti Shail (6,361m) and reach the broad, gentle Minerva Snowfield on the west flank of Lugula. [This snowfield, named later by Korean climbers, was first reached in October 2010 by Renaud Guillaume from a French expedition that climbed Bhrikuti Shail. From a bivouac above 6,000m on the south face of Bhrikuti Shail, the Frenchman moved east to reach the snowfield and followed its south side until able to climb onto the upper west ridge of Lugula, where it turns to the northeast and leads to the summit. This was the first ascent of Lugula. The same route was repeated in 2014 by Koreans, who reached the Minerva snowfield directly from the south by climbing a couloir to the col (Korean Gate) between Bhrikuti Shail and Lugula.]

After establishing Camp 3 at 6,350m on the Minerva snowfield, our Dutch-French team slanted north to gain the northwest ridge and followed it to Lugula summit. The overall grade was PD. On October 5th, Luc Gianetti, Isabelle Guillaume, Philippe Henry, Dipeen Bothe, Sajjan Gale, and I reached the top, followed the next day by Folkert Bloembergen, Jean-Pierre Desforges, Menno Frantzen, Marjolein Meere, Sergio di Léo, and Reinier Zuidhoff, with Dhan Magyar, Karma Sherpa, Dipeen Bothe, Sonam Sherpa and Amrit Tamang.

Previously, on the 2nd, five of us had headed west from Camp 2 to the summit of Julie Peak (6,337m, first climbed and named in 2010 by Renaud Guillaume and his girlfriend Julie Vesz, the day before Guillaume's solo of Lugula). On the 4th, this was repeated by Sergio di Léo and Karma Sherpa, who then continued west to make the first ascent of Selka (Shelka) Kangri (6,358m). On the 8th, Isabelle Guillaume and I, with Dipeen Both and Anil Rai, traversed Bhrikuti Shail from the Minerva snowfield by climbing the north ridge and descending the east ridge.

In conclusion, Lugula is a particularly interesting summit belonging to the "almost 7,000m" category. In Nepal this category of peaks has much interest for mountaineers able to distance themselves from the ego associated with attaining 7,000m. In addition, we were completely alone at base camp, while 15 expeditions crowded into nearby Himlung base camp. There is still plenty of space in Nepal to enjoy an intimate adventure.

– Paulo Grobel, France