Talung North Pillar

The rarely climbed Talung (7349m) lies above the Yalung Glacier on the Sikkim border next to Kangchenjunga, and has a very obvious arrow-straight line up its North Pillar. This had been attempted by Czech climbers in 2002 & 2004, but both teams had been forced to retreat due to poor weather and frostbite. After a couple of weeks acclimatising at Ramche, they established ‘Middle Camp’ at c.4800m, in the tortuous moraine of the Yalung glacier. From here they carried out a reconnaissance of both the North face and the West face, their intended descent route. After two nights at 6400m, they descended in strong winds to recover for an attempt on the face. But time was running out, and they realised that the face had a distinct lack of visible protection and was more difficult than anticipated, so after two more nights of very high winds and temperatures of -20 ºC, they realised that an attempt was impossible, so started the return to civilisation.