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'I'd far rather be haunted by a summit not climbed than the death of a friend'

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As I plan my first painting trip to the Himalaya, this is inspiring reading and has got me even more excited!!  A great adventure.

Fantastic article - the images are inspiring! 

Great work, thanks. Good decisions. Fantastic photos.

For some context, SS had been on the radar of climbers for a while, as it was obvious from imagery and remote photos that it was an impressive peak. But as the photos show, the whole area has many stunning peaks. Even getting up into the Salimor Khola has defeated several groups over the years, until very recently, so on that aspect alone Matt and Hamish did well there. Some of the peaks in the valley had been climbed or attempted from the other side (Bobaye, Raksha Urai etc), but no ascents had ever been made from within the Salimor itself. The head of the Salimor up on the Tibet border has a couple of the highest unclimbed peaks in Nepal.

For anyone interested, this fantastic site, in particular the middle section of this (long) page has lots of relevant photos: https://www.himalaya-info.org/Map%20nepal_gurans_ost.htm

Hi Damo

Thanks for posting that link, never seen those pictures before. Might have been useful I had looked a bit harder last year.

Nice write up from Matt, and amazing photos from Hamish (as usual!).

Great article and amazing photos.

What an excellent article. Wonderfully descriptive and conveys the real excitement of the discovery while showing common sense is still active and well in this world. 

Love it! 

Great article. Who was it that said the rules are 1. Come back alive. 2. Come back friends. 3. Climb the mountain.