In August, Liu Yang, Song Yuancheng, and I made the first ascent of an unnamed peak of 5,800m at 29°48’19.10”N, 101°54’18.88”E. It is a northwestern extension of the Ueba Group, situated northeast across the Tshiburongi Glacier from Xiao Gongga (Little Konka).

We spent two days hiking southeast up the Tshiburongi Glacier to place Camp 1 at 4,860m. The next day we scoped the route and acclimatized.

Setting off on the morning of August 8, we moved mostly unroped or simul-climbing up the first half of the west face. Despite being slowed by a rain and snow storm, we reached 5,700m and bivouacked on a rock ledge. While cooking, Yang accidentally dropped the pot down the wall, and from then on we had to climb without water. For this reason, the team eventually named the route The Pot Carrier (Chinese slang for “scapegoat”).

The first pitch after this bivouac proved to be the crux: Yang took an hour to complete this 30m section. He had to downclimb into a gully on the right and then move around a difficult slab; the nighttime snow had melted and then refrozen to form a thin ice crust over the rock. Two pitches of mixed climbing led to the icefield between Peak 5,800m and Peak 5,804m to its right. We crossed a short snow slope and reached the summit ridge. Traversing the north side of the ridge, we made it to the top at 1 p.m., grading our 900m route TD 5.8 M6. All team members climbed free.

After a short celebration, we descended the route. On the very first rappel, rockfall cut part of the rope; we tied the cut sections together with a butterfly knot, but now we had to pass the knot on each rappel. After three pitches of downclimbing and 12 rappels, we reached our camp on the glacier at midnight. It had been a long day’s climbing without any water, but the first ascent was well worth it.

— He Lang, China