First Ascent on Chamlang North Face

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Adventure is venturing into the unknown, exploring and discovering new avenues. French climbers, Charles Dubouloz (32) and Benjamin Védrines (29) added another chapter of glory in this adventurous exploration when they lodged the first-ever successful climb on Chamlang (7319m), in the Nepal Himalaya. The duo climbed an incredible new route on the North Face of Chamlang, in Alpine Style. They named the route, “In the Shadow of Lies”. The journey wasn’t an easy one; they encountered difficult bivy experiences in the North Pillar. But the effort and persistence paid off and brought them success in the end.

Expedition Summary

Peak: Chamlang (7319m)
Climbers: Benjamin Védrines (Leader), Charles Dubouloz, Symon Welfringer, Aurélien Vaissières
Summit: 12th Oct, 2021 3pm
Route: New route in the North Face
Approach: Kari Kola, Kare, Mera Peak for acclimatization, Mera La
04.10.2021: Base Camp at 4970m
09.10.2021: ABC at 5450m
10.10.2021: Bivouac 1 at 6400m, foot of the route’s crux section
11.10.2021: Bivouac 2 at 6700m, above the crux section
12.10.2021: Bivouac 3 at 6600m on the West Ridge (at the first quarter/third one starting from the top)
12.10.2021: Summit at 3pm
Other climbs: Mera Peak for acclimatization
Sherpa above BC: No
O2 Used: No

Dream Wanderlust seized an opportunity to interact with Benjamin Védrines and had a detailed discussion on this expedition.

Interview with Benjamin Védrines

DW: Congratulations on your first ascent of the North Face of Chamlang!
What was your objective for this expedition?

Benjamin: The objective of this expedition was to climb the North Face of Chamlang. The route we followed was almost the same as we expected. In case this project wouldn’t be possible, we had planned to try to open a route on the East Face of Peak 41.

DW: How would you describe the North Face route?

Benjamin: The North Face of Chamlang is an impressive, magnificent face, without the presence of seracs, which is rare, especially at these altitudes. It has a very steep lower half. The most difficult part is located above the halfway of the face, with the passage of a very inclined step, located between two sides of overhanging rocks. It feels like a funnel. Which causes a lot of spindrifts. The upper part is easier, only two lengths are technical and the rest is snow, at a slope of average 50°. But it is higher and, therefore, harder for the organism. The whole thing makes it something very nice to climb!

DW: Please, elaborate the reason why you selected sheer North Face to attempt the summit.

Benjamin: In 2019, I came to Chamlang with Nicolas Jean to open the North Pillar. We tried and while climbing, we realized the magnitude and the beauty of the North Face, which is just nearby. I then found that it could be a beautiful project, almost more attractive than the North Pillar, because it can be climbed in one go, there is no stopping as at the North Pillar. It is also more austere, cold, and it looked difficult but without too many objective risks like falling blocks of ice. In general, I like to change the type of project, in order to feed my curiosity. I saw the possibility of satisfying this need in this North Face route. Then Charles arrived and he wanted to go on an expedition, so was I, but no longer in Pakistan. Due to Covid obligations, I had to cancel and the idea of leaving in the fall with Charles came close. At the last moment, we both confirmed our willingness to leave. We took advantage of an expedition of friends, who had the Northern Pillar of Chamlang as a project and joined their organization. It was the opportunity to go back there easily and to try this beautiful challenge.

DW: You have named the route, “In the Shadow of Lies”. Please explain the philosophy behind the naming.

Benjamin: This provocative name has been given to point the finger at a trait of character of many climbers, who climb in the Himalayas, namely exaggerating the technical data of their ascent.

DW: According to a report, your experience with bivy was difficult. Please share the story with us.

Benjamin: The two bivouacs in the face were very uncomfortable, even if there has been much worse in the history of mountaineering! First of all, we could not have a suitable place to pitch the tent entirely. We struggled to find a place big enough to put 3/4 of the tent.

In the North Face, we had no wind or almost no wind. But in the North-Western part that was above us, there was 30-40km/h of westerly wind.

So at night we had continuous spindrifts. The first night there were sometimes blocks of snow big enough to knock us out I think. I was afraid to get one in my head. The second night, the falling snow seeped between the tent and the snow we had dug. This compacted snow twisted the tent and reduced the volume inside. We were afraid the hoops would break.

DW: Did you face any difficulties (if at all) during the climb?

Benjamin: First of all, there was the difficulty of knowing whether we were engaging in the face or not. The weather forecast we had, predicted a lot of wind and, in my opinion, it was too much for our ascent to be made with sufficient safety. So at the very beginning, even if the weather was fine, I did not want to engage in this face. The risk of snowfall was too great, but in addition to the risk of snowfall there was also the risk of frostbite as it was announced very cold and if we had to face freezing cold combined with a strong wind we would not have held up easily. Moreover, even with the favourable conditions that we had, Charles froze his big toe.

Then in the first part of the face we went up for about 300 meters, a relatively easy section, that is to say a snow slope at about 55°. In this part the snow was very hard and we had decided to rope ourselves in, since some parts of ice were suitable to put ice screws and to secure us. Unfortunately, we were only able to put on very, very little protection, which was very uncomfortable, because we were progressing with big bags. But this rapid development was necessary, given that the first day we had to reach a bivouac site 900m of altitude from our previous night. There was no place to sleep before this place. Nothing at all. I think if there had been three of us, moving a little more slowly, it would have been very difficult to reach the location of the bivouac.

On the second day, in the most difficult section, we thought we would stay in the main depression. After a few lengths of ice that Charles climbed, I went ahead and entered this depression, in the form of a corridor with steep jumps. I turned around quickly enough because I couldn’t see a way out. I made an encore to get back to Charles’ level, and we both decided to go through a strip of snow that we had spotted from the bottom but the possibility of climbing on didn’t seem to be guaranteed. We thought it was loose snow. I left and it was one of the worst lengths of the climb. There was a section of several meters where the ice was peeling off the rock. It sounded hollow. I had to muster all my energy to be as light as possible. The slightest brutality could leave this section in very bad condition. I was afraid that the tackle would then be in the same conditions. Hopefully not. I was able to do a good stint. I then asked Charles to go ahead so that he did a short length so that I could regain my strength.

I then took the lead for two pitches, the second of which was the last of this toughest section of the wall. We had great doubts whether we could pass or not. Because above us, in this last part, the most obvious veneer was impractical, too fine. So, I had to shift to the right with a pendulum. I found a passage and I was able to pass by pulling on two friends.

After all this we faced some easier sections, however the difficulty then came from the altitude. It was especially difficult for Charles because his state of health was more impacted than mine, but thanks to the good conditions encountered, we were able to reach the top without too much trouble. Finally, the last difficulty turned out to be the descent because we were on sight.

Expedition Report

23/09/2021: Arrival in KTM
24/09/2021: Jeep to Phaplu
25/09/2021: 1st trekking day
26/09/2021: Tangnak (4200m)
27/09/2021: Rest day in Tangnak
28/09/2021: Khare
29/09/2021: Rest day in Khare
30/09/2021: First night of acclimatization at 5600m on Mera Peak
1/10/2021: 5600m to 6000m, night at 6000m
2/10/2021: Second night at 6000m
3/10/2021: 6000m to 6400m, night at 6400m
4/10/2021: 6400m to BC of Chamlang.
5/10/2021: Rest day in BC
6/10/2021: Carrying loads, deposit and reconnaissance of ABC campsite (5450m)

7/10/2021: Second wave of loads’ carrying (deposit of waterproof bags...). Crampons were put to check the bergschrund/rimaye plus beginning of the route. One big pitch in soft snow was made, finding the latter’s conditions to be good enough (“quick snow”, halfway between snow and ice, similar to polystyrene, on which can climb safe and fast) for an attempt. That pitch was fixed to cross the rimaye in prevision of the coming attempt (afterwards happened to be a good precaution, since the rimaye would open in between).

8/10/2021: Rest day in BC, doing preparations for the climb.
9/10/2021: Slept at ABC, doing ultimate preparations.

10/10/2021: First day of the ascent. First 300m (snow at slope of 55°-65°) in simul rope, then they belayed pitch by pitch in a difficult section from 6050m to 6400m and installed a bivy to the left of the crux start.

11/10/2021: After an abseil, to reach its footstep, they climbed the 200m high crux section, consisting mainly in steep ice (WI 5+ in ice, mixed M5+) of ephemeral veneers (safe enough with possibilities for setting good belays and putting ice screws); bivy was installed a little above the end of the crux section.

12/10/2021: As the upper snowy slopes got less sustained (45°-50°), they first put the rope then went free soloing. There was good snow for breaking the trail (maximum to the ankles), just had to negotiate 2 mixed pitches (in M4, M5) where they had to climb with the rope and belay. They reached the top at 3pm. At 4:30pm, they had down climbed the upper SW Face to the W Ridge, bivying at 6600m.

13/10/2021: We continued to solo down climb the West Ridge (“like Lyskamm ridge, but a little steeper”), finding it quite sharp in some sections; at lower old fixed ropes remnants, then a rotten rock section, the grass fields were found and eventually the path brought them back to BC; we reached at Camp-1 h30/2hpm.

14/10/2021: With the help of Symon, we came back to remove its ABC.

15/10/2021: Knowing a snow wave was approaching and motivation was a bit lower amongst the group (Tomasi expedition was sharing BC), I used this window to solo climb in a day, roundtrip the South-West Ridge of Honku Chuli main (HNKU, 6833m, officially unclimbed, as shown in the HD; climbed for 8000ers.com, by a British party led by Eric Shipton in 1952), previously attempted in 2019 by Luis Stitzinger with a client. Tomasi party had intended to climb it previously from the plateau afoot of N Pillar of Chamlang, but on that day, Symon's thumb got hurt with a tent’s bow, so that the group didn’t try it at all but had to come down to BC instead. I could use Tomasi party tracks for the approach via the 300m high WNW face to the col (M3+ in its lower part). A more direct solution was lying 200m to the left of Tomasi’s tracks, but the latter involved a 60°-70° snow slope without any tracks nor equipment, which didn’t feel reasonable on the descent. From the col, I started to ascend the SW Ridge: first I met with mixed ground until a characteristic rock section (rock grade 3); later on I reached a col; then I climbed a beautiful sharp ridge section interspersed with a few mixed steps; then I reached the 300m long flat plateau (this being the high point of 2019 party likely); then came the last slopes with some 40° steeper sections to the top and had a magnificent views on Chamlang, whole North Face and surrounding other peaks. As I had felt a little loss of energy while going up and got anguished a bit to consider free soloing downwards the same way, for a while I wondered if I couldn’t go down by the WNW Ridge. But from the top, as I couldn’t see the whole slope downwards, I decided to come back down via the same known route. As my energy came back, the down climb appeared not to be that difficult.

16/10/2021: Left BC to Tangnak.
17/10/2021: Rest day in Tangnak.

18/10/2021: As Symon Welfringer got a serious knee injury after a short fall from a little wall, him, Aurélien Vaissières, Benjamin and Charles took an helicopter flight from Tangnak (4200m) back to Kathmandu.

19/10/2021: Left Nepal.

Intended as a plan A this new line on the part of the North Face located left to the Czech line (“UFO”, 2019, Marek Holecek and Zdenek Hak). As a plan B, I had thought about the South Pillar, reaching the crest of Chamlang further to the east, or the Hongku Chuli traverse. Conditions eventually allowed the duet to achieve plan A in alpine style. The duet had good snow/ice conditions in general. Their line goes to the left of “UFO”, joining it before the exit from the face.