Nick Bullock and Nick Carter have climbed a new route on the 1600m North West Face of Tengkang Poche (6500m) in Nepal's Khumbu region, over three days this October. The North West Face has been described as a huge version of the North Face of the Droites.
The pair started at 2am on 23 October and simu-soloed through the first night, following deep runnels furrowed by spindrift and hemmed in by rock walls. The runnels had regular steps of Scottish Grade III and were interspersed with snow slopes of Scottish grade II, much resembling Tower Gully on Ben Nevis but on a grand scale.
Above, the slope opened out and they encountered some steep steps of approximately 65-70°. At 12.30pm, a height of 5900-meters had been reached, 1300 metres of climbing in 10 hours. They could see 300 metres of climbing to the summit ridge above, but with no obvious place for a bivi site higher on the wall, the pair settled down for an early rest and some food, having chopped a ledge from a snow cone.
This was at 3pm, 14 hours later at 7am, the two Nicks set off again, as the angle of the face increased to 70°. Rock belays were sought on the right of the line, although due to the compact nature of the rock these were difficult to find. The climbing also became more tenuous with the increase in angle and the snow took on a very 'Peruvian' feel.
Protection on lead was virtually non-existent. Occasionally a driven-in ice hook or a dug out ice-screw could be placed if the ice, covering steep slabs, was thick enough. Lengthening sections of 80° powder-covered, hard-ice now had to be climbed at Scottish IV.
The grade of the climbing bared no real relevance though, as the intense cold made hands and feet wooden within seconds of climbing one of these steeper sections. It was a race between rest points where frozen digits could be re-warmed.
The final pitches comprised a long, rising 80° traverse, led by Carter and an ungradeable 'burrowing' 85° pitch, led by Bullock. The pair arrived on the crest of the West Ridge in the dark at 7pm and cut a shelf/cave beneath a mushroom on the ridge. The height was 6210 metres and this final 300 metres of climbing had taken 12 hours.
The summit proper was thought to be 1Km away, but Bullock and Carter decided that the West Ridge would require some 'very special techniques' and so decided to leave this joy to a more deserving party.
After a cold night, Nick and Nick descended the line of their ascent just as the weather decided to make a turn for the worse. They reached the base of the face 12 hours later on 25 October, having completed Edge of Darkness. An overall grade for the route was thought to be TD+/ED1 Scottish IV.
