UKC

A team of French guides who go by the name of 'Le Gang des Moustaches' - or 'The Moustache Gang' - recently made an alpine style ascent of Nuptse's south face in the Nepal Himalaya. Hélias Millerioux, Frédéric Degoulet and Benjamin Guigonnet established a new line leading to the summit of Nuptse Northwest, AKA Nuptse Nup II (7742m), which required five days of effort following two previous attempts in past seasons. Aside from their fine facial hair, the team's ascent is highly impressive, it being only the second completed in alpine style on the mountain's south face.

We caught up with the moustached ring-leader of the gang, Fred Guigonnet, who answered some questions about their expedition.

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In reply to UKC News:

Brilliant, awesome looking route and great article. Enjoyed the video too. Chapeau to all concerned.

In reply to UKC News:

Continuing in the vision and style lead by Alex Macintyre and co. Top effort.

In reply to UKC News:

good to get some info about this, great effort all round. mega!

In reply to UKC News:

This looks like a beautiful route...some of the best pictures since a long time....at least the sunset must be.
The teams name could not be better too and more suitable for the N(M)ovember. I do have a ridiculous handle bar moustache my own and it is nice to know that there are freaks like that still around on this world.

It has to be one of the best ascents this year...hats off.

In reply to UKC News:

A very beautiful line, c'est magnifique...Le gang des moustaches seem pretty nonchalant about this... piolet d'or for sure.

In reply to UKC News:

Really good - thank you

In reply to UKC News:

Enjoyed the humour and the read, but my god - what a phenomenal looking route. Even getting hints as to the scale; "For me, this type of climb is not an annual occurrence. I'm aware that we have tempted fate, and that to repeat such ascents often would be suicide." Wow.

In reply to UKC News:

That is a line. No Himalayan snow plodding there. Great effort and good report.

In reply to UKC News:

Having watched the vid, I wonder if they took an axe with an adze this time, given the nature of the overnight stops?!
Not sure I've ever seen such a chilled and joyous team of climbers filming themselves on such a monster, hard alpine-style route. They're clearly utterly nails hard to pull off that nonchalant image.