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Chockstone Forum - Trip Reports

Tells Us About Your Latest Trip!

Author
Se'erdengpu, China, Big/Cold Wall
tripleshot
10-Dec-2015
11:16:30 AM
put here because i know Dan never would and you should see what hes up to.

"in November 2015 Dan Da Silva and I attempted the west face of Se’erdengpu with three objectives, in order;
1) to prove a previously overlooked stable weather window after the monsoon
2) to find a usable alpine route to access the walls corner crack system, the highest point to begin the wall
3) to climb the crack system, as free as possible.

as far as big walls go, the west face of se’erdengpu is maybe China-Tibet’s most well known. which doesn’t say much. china-tibet has lots of walls and doubtless many times more as yet undocumented, but being on the fringes of the climbing world theres not much interest in them.

se’erdengpu is just under 5600m, with 2300m vertical gain from the road, over 1100m horizontal. half that gain occurs in 800 horizontal meters, then its nearly 1000m of clean granite wall and a few hundred meters high alpine mixed to the summit.
the peak has never been summited by a direct line up the wall, tho theres been numerous valiant attempts, no less by Polish virtuosos who went for a direct line up the face, and Pat Goodman who went to free the only obvious feature system up the walls shallow corner.
both groups got hosed off in bad weather at the tail end of the Asian monsoon.

on the shoulders of these frontier ascents Dan DaSilva and I pieced together a plan that combined what we considered the most useful elements of the previous efforts with what we had already learned from other FA trips to the region. we took Marcin’s big wall style, Pat’s free idea for the corner and the Kellog-Johnson alpine ethic to strip it all back, and devised a caper that gave us 10 days unsupported to make it happen. our secret weapon that saved it all from being just a suicide mission was our weather predictions. hopefully this would let us hit the wall at the high point of the snow, saving us the time and gear needed of going straight onto the wall. hopefully too it would give us some protection from the exposure if our weather predictions turned out wrong…"

rest of the story with photos here
http://iceclimbingjapan.com/2015/12/03/seerdengpu-big-wall-attempt-problems-solved-problems-found/

Macciza
10-Dec-2015
12:26:26 PM
Nice write up made even more enjoyable by knowing the area personally from last September, when Pat was there as well...
That may have been a line our team left fixed last year, from a platform near where Dan reached the wall . . .
I soloed up the snowbowl to the start of that corner system but couldn't quite see into it . .
In non iced conditions apparently the gully/corner system Pat and Marcos tried was quite loose with substantial rockfall, had wondered whether it would be better in more consolidated conditions, having had similar thoughts of more Alpine winter attempts . .
Hmm might have to chase up some more info from these guys . .
Tripleshot
10-Dec-2015
12:36:24 PM
Wow cool.

Was that your 10mm 100m line???
If so we owe you one.

From the bottom of the corner it looked good on the rock. Maybe a little ice but probably avoidable.
Just getting round to the bottom of the rock takes time. Maybe a bit earlier and could go straight up the snow but no way when we were there. Just need that weather pattern to show up.

Id say the corner would go free at maybe 5.10 tops. The ice looked steep but for only a pitch or two.
Just need the time to acclimate...maybe on an easy, warmer peak or the high fields across the valley.

Macciza
10-Dec-2015
4:55:03 PM
All good, prob donated from somewhere anyway, glad it helped, if it was . . .
Did you find the low cave, across the river from the fence at the top of the lowest choke, where you took you title shot from?? Its not too bad as a low camp for a longer stay..
Going up the right side is probably best, there is a good but shaded campsite on the bottom of the ridge that sticks out on the right to form the gully to the North Face of Potala. from there skirting the cliff line helps avoid most of the major boulder field and short steps before reaching the wall . . .

When I was there I got to the little bulge at the top of the bottom snow field that guards the little alcove start of the main wall gully proper, but with hard ice and only a single classic tool I went no further . . .
Was there much evidence of rockfall out of the gully?? Pat and Marcos's attempt involved a lot of loose rock and the narrowing gully made it difficult to avoid. Hopefully iced up it would all hold together a lot better, and a fast and light attempt would work. The conditions would also help negotiate further bad rock in the higher sections as well as stop it from falling off . .
I had diamox and went quite well no issues with the altitude or carrying loads despite no real training beforehand . .
Running up the waterfall steps to the snow field on Abi, the opposite peak would prob help and be good fun in its own right . .

How do you think winter conditions would be for the start of next year?? They are having the Kailas Ice Festival pretty much next door over New Year. Keen for another shot . . .
Tripleshot
10-Dec-2015
5:37:05 PM
Yes saw the boulder cave. Dan commented on the boulder.
We excavated the higher cave so its livable for 2 if you go back.
We found the ascent schedule ok, a bit heady for Dan on the last night but passing, but doable. Id just been above 5000m elsewhere and had a degree of acclimation left it seems.

We opted for going up the middle as the collected snow under corner was too dodgy.

Yep its beautiful ice into the bottom of the pillar. Steep but solid.

Over 9 days below it we saw no rockfall at all. Only spindrift flowing down the face. Seemed really consolidated.

Having done a few winters out there i say the factors needing solutions to be:
- further accumulation of snow needing detouring around
- how long you can stay up there in the cold. New year is much colder.
- the loads and bivies to sort the issues

it would be a tight equation but doable i think.

Macciza
12-Dec-2015
4:19:28 PM
Maybe a similar window coming out of winter, ?. March/ April? Consolidated conditions but as the temps warm som it's not -40 windchill on the summit ...
Will PM you
tripleshot
12-Dec-2015
6:49:06 PM
id er towards the march end as there can be a decent amount of snow build up into spring - the gamble is how it accumulated against the wall.
you never know, it could give you an extra 30m of solid snow before you start dealing with the rock, or it could be unconsolidated and dangerous. longer days also could go either way, packing it down or stripping it off.
more sun on the face could start the rockfall again too, tho the extra sun would be nice.

either way i think a cold conditions attempt is what will make the corner doable - just gotta get the time up there.

looking at pics of september attempts and going over forecasts from the last decade theres a big drop in temps early-mid oct, as there is across asia. september pics show guys climbing in softshells - we climbed about 50% of the time in down jackets. the cold is a big part of it. even during january valley level can be down to -20c.

the usual equation of route condition vs the gear needed for it.

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