Climbing big walls is awesome: Takeshi Tani after the first ascent of the Northwest Face of Kangchung Nup

Dream Wanderlust | May 3 , 2022

Kangchung Nup (6090m), one of the UIAA peaks in Nepal, located in the Khumbu region and east of the Gokyo glacier, witnessed the first successful ascent of its Northwest Face on 23rd April 2022. Japanese guides, Toshiyuki Yamada and Takeshi Tani became the first climbers to scale the mountain by its North Face.

Takeshi Tani shared his experience with Dream Wanderlust in an exclusive chat, saying, “I expected a pretty challenging climbing. I was excited too. Also, we had a plan B." Toshiyuki Yamada wrote, “We had an amazing experience on a truly beautiful wall,” on his Instagram after their successful ascent.

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On the summit

Kangchung Nup was first climbed by a team, Edmund Hillary, Da Namgyal Sherpa, Gombu Sherpa lead by John Hunt on 4th April, 1953 via east Ridge from the South. They used oxygen for testing O2 equipment prior to their Everest attempt. In the same year, Charles Evans with Dawa Tenzing Sherpa made it to the top via the same route. In 2014, a Czech team attempted North Face and reached the altitude of 5900m but had to abandon the expedition due to hostile conditions. In 2019 Paul Ramsden (UK) also tried North Face, reached up to 5400m, and abandoned the expedition due to the icy condition. The route, Yamada, and Tani followed is very much similar to the Czech team's route and for descending, their proposed route was on South side.

Climbing Route

Chat with Takeshi Tani

DW: What are your initial thoughts on attempting the difficult North Face route to achieve the first summit via this face?

A couple of strong climbers tried the North Face before and bailed out. I expected a pretty challenging climb. I was excited too. Also, we had a plan B ( different mountain) if the condition was bad.

DW: Would you please share your thoughts behind, describing the route as a "beautiful line on a savage face"?

We found a beautiful ice strip in the middle of the wall. I thought that was the ITO to climb this wall. ITO is the line in Japanese.

DW: Please take us through the climb, especially about:

i) How long did it take for your summit push to reach the top?

We took 4 days from Gokyo to Gokyo.

ii) Did you come down by the south face as planned?

Yes. And that’s what we did, walking down.

iii) How long did it take to reach Base from the summit?

2 days.

iv) Approximately, how many pitches were involved?

There were 400m of snow climbing in the beginning. After that, we had 14 pitches for technical climbing.

v) On your way up from the Base Camp to the summit, did you have any bivouacs at 5500m and on the col. and how long did it take?

We did only two bivouacs: one at 5500m and the other on the col which is located between Kungchung Shar and Kingchung Nup on our way down. We took 4 days total from Gokyo. We took probably 48 hours from base to the col. via summit.

DW: Did you use the dry-tooling techniques to negotiate the mixed rock and ice route?

Yes. You had to.

DW: Do you think you could have done the route without dry-tooling?

I don’t think so. There were ice and snow. You can’t avoid it.

DW: What kind of protection were you using for safety?

We carried many climbing protections including cams, nuts, ice screws and pins.

DW: Are you comfortable with dry tooling on established rock routes? Do you agree that it damages the rock and should be avoided?

It is depending on the county and community. I don’t establish any dry tooling route in the mountains, especially drilled hold.

DW: Did your previous experiences of big wall multi-pitch climbs in the US and Canada, play a part in choosing this peak? Do you find such climbs more satisfying than on crowded 8k peaks?

Yes, I have a couple of experiences climbing big mountains' big walls in North America and Japan. I can say that we are not competitors. If you like climbing 8000m peaks, which is amazing; climbing big walls is awesome too. Both are climbing, just different types of climbing. I think the same as humans.