Anglo-New Zealand Raksha Urai 2001

Raksha Urai is an unclimbed multi-summited mountain above the Seti Valley in a recently opened area of Far North West Nepal: this team attempted to climb Raksha Urai III. So remote is the area, that when a local man was asked if a team member could take his photograph, it turned out that he had never previously seen a camera! In a period of excellent sunny weather, from a high camp at 5,900m on the S Face they climbed on perfect 60 degree ice to within 150m of the summit. Here they met unstable rotten snow which was felt to be too dangerous to risk continuing. Descent was by twelve 60m abseils from Abalakov threads and ice screws, completed long after dark in extremely cold conditions. Although the 'official' highest point of Raksha Urai is 6,593m, from their own GPS readings, the team thought that both Raksha III and Raksha II were more likely to be c.6,650m.