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The British Manamcho Expedition LOCATION: The Eastern Nyainquentanglha Range, Tibet
The route climbed the RH side of the triangular face to the snow capped forepeak and thereafter the RH side of the crest to the summit. When climbing Kajaqiao in 2005 neighbouring Manamcho just looked so good that I just had to go back to the Nyainkentanghla East. It's not so much that the climbing is top quality, more that the overall mountaineering experience is. And the combination of soft snow and deep bureaucracy is enough to put most people off and preserve a sense of solitude. Out of the 160 or so 6000m peaks here only about 4 have been climbed. And the peaks are spectacular. It must be a bit like the early AC pioneers found the Alps . A virtually untouched range with the Matterhorns still unclimbed.Here though there is the added touch of cultural interest. Local people commented to us that they had only ever seen white men on their sattelite TVs. It's a strange place. One months caterpillar fungus (Chinese medicine) hunting gives the men enough money to spend the rest of the year as idle rich spending their time revving their motor bikes along dust tracks 250km from the nearest tarmac.Our team of four, Paul Ramsden, Steve Burns, Ian Cartwright and me, had the objectives of climbing Manamcho and exploring the ground to the north west which we knew contained spectacular peaks which had not been clearly photographed before. Previous teams had visited in September - November but we chose pre monsoon and the month of April. Winter snow was still prevalent and our 2005 base camp was choked with ice. However the mountains appeared to hold less snow than post monsoon. Ankle deep snow in Lhasa shortly after we left did not bode well but in fact the weather was primarily fine although there was one week out of the four we were in Tibet when there was heavy snowfall every day. On balance the months of March and September are probably best.Learning from our mistakes in 2005 we took snow shoes which proved invaluable. After acclimatising Paul and I crossed an extensive snow plateau. A reconnaissance led us to focus on the NW ridge which had been attempted by Adam Thomas and Phil Amos in 2005. They had retreated from 5880m in the face of strong winds and heavy snowfall.We were initially blessed with better air conditions and passed their highpoint on our third day out from base camp. Thereafter the climbing was mainly snowed up rock at about grade IV standard. We bivouacked a further two times before reaching the summit area. By now the weather had deteriorated badly and we spent a miserable night on a nose to tail ledge enduring 2 feet of snow in the night. Morning brought frighteningly strong winds and made the final 75m the most challenging on the route.It was a pity not to be able to see any of the magnificent view that must be there for the taking on a fine day. Instead we got the hell out as soon as we could abseiling non stop back down the route of ascent and wading through waist deep new snow to a gear dump we had left on the glacier. A further day of knee deep wading in snow shoes took us back to base camp 7 days after leaving.Steve and Ian started off with less luck. Having acclimatised and decided to have a go at point 5935m to the north of Manamcho they reached about 5700m before Steve began to feel ill. Frustration turned to elation as the ensuing descent and recovery occupied all the bad weather period and by the time they were ready to return glorious blue skies were back. Two days from base camp took them to a good tent platform and from there snow slopes and some mixed pitches of AD or so took them to the summit from where they enjoyed a panoramic view with Manamcho and Kajaqiao dominating the view to the east and the unclimbed peaks surrounding the Manam valley to the west.Paul and I had a few days to explore at the end. The main focus of interest was the Manam valley which is dominated by Manamcho, which means Buddha of Manam. The valley was one of the most beautiful that we have visited and sports several spectacular 6000m peaks. Mick Fowler |
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