The project was born one year earlier after Bastien Levy and I met in guides’ class; with diplomas in hand, we thought about doing a high-altitude expedition together. At first, we considered skiing an 8,000m summit, but the image of a base camp teeming with mountaineers and the normal routes fixed with ropes did not inspire us. A 7,000m peak in Nepal? Enticing!

We invited two other friends from our class, Firmin Fontaine and Damien Coelho-Mandès, and met fellow guides Jean Annequin and Paulo Grobel for ideas. Jean told us about Ratna Chuli (7,035m, 28°51’57.30”N, 84°22’30.03”E), and how this little-visited region on the Tibetan border would lend itself to high-altitude skiing. Coincidentally, Maud Vanpoulle and Victor Colombie had the same objective. We decided to join forces and share costs.

We met up in Kathmandu on October 6, then traveled by bus and jeep to Koto to start the two-day trek to Phu. It was a dream for us to see summits almost twice as big as those in the Alps.

Our base camp was at 4,700m in the Phu Khola valley, northeast of the village. We were the only team in the area. What a privilege!

We headed up the valley that branches to the north, and on the 13th set up Camp 1 at 5,600m. We made several trips to stock it, then made our Camp 2 at 6,000m, on a huge glacial plateau beneath the icefall giving access to Ratna Chuli’s normal route up the west ridge (first climbed in 1996 by a joint Nepalese-Japanese team). The weather was mild, the snow conditions were optimal, and the team worked harmoniously.

During our acclimatization, we climbed two new peaks. From Camp 1, all except Bastien, who was suffering from the altitude, made the first known ascent of Upche Dada (6,150m, 28°50’6.83”N, 84°22’13.09”E) on October 15. We reached the summit on skis via the north-northeast ridge: mostly 30°, with two sections of 40° near the top. The team descended all the way to base camp the same day.

On the 22nd, we all left Camp 2 at 7 a.m., gained the upper Hulang Glacier, then climbed the left side of the southwest face of Hulang Go (6,687m, 28°52’22.24”N, 84°20’37.91”E). At first we were on skis, but we changed to crampons for the last ca 300m (45°–50°), with good ice at the top. We were on the summit at noon. To descend, we found a line further west, which gave better snow and allowed us to ski down.

Returning to Camp 2 on the 27th, we followed our previous tracks through the icefall, using crampons and axes higher up. Reaching the top of the icefall at sunrise, we then climbed over Seto Chuli (Ratna Chuli’s west top, 6,604m) and descended around 200m to the col at the start of the west-southwest ridge of Ratna Chuli, where we left an emergency tent and stove. We continued on skis to the rimaye, then carried them as we cramponed up the last 400m (45°), arriving on the summit at 10:30 a.m. With a few variants, we skied down the same line. We dismantled our Camps 1 and 2 and reached base camp at 7 p.m. on the same day.

We were happy with our expedition, which was more exploratory and adventurous than all about steep skiing. The bonds that have been forged between us are those special to climbers who live through a timeless adventure at the end of the world.

— Aurélia Lanoe, France