Fri Night Vid Mari Salvesen climbs 8b Trad First Ascent
This week's Friday Night Video documents Mari Salvesen's first ascent of Tazlov, an 8b trad climb that she made the first ascent of in December 2022.
This week's Friday Night Video takes us to the Jugal Himal region of Nepal, where in May 2022, Paul Ramsden and Tim Miller climbed a major new route. The Phantom Line (ED+) takes a striking line up the 1200m high North West granite face of a previously unclimbed and unnamed 6563m peak.
Just after the ascent, Paul said: "The north face forms a huge sweep of granite with one potential line of weakness that we climbed over an eight day period with five days spent on the face. The route was hard with thin ice and mixed climbing, with enough blank sections to keep us guessing all the way up. We have called the route The Phantom Line (ED+) due to its ability to appear and disappear when viewed under different light and weather conditions.
"The climb is a product of too much time spent on Google Earth during the lockdowns. The mountain itself is actually one of the closest to Kathmandu and its north face is one of the biggest and steepest rock walls in Nepal, but this appears to have previously gone unnoticed.
"The route itself shouldn't really be there, as it's no place for an ice route. However after many hours of studying the wall we managed to piece together an almost continuous line of snow and ice. One noticeable problem was a blank piece of rock in the centre of the wall, however when we got there we found a hidden squeeze chimney that climbed inside the rock for about three pitches making the whole thing possible. The chimney was a sack hauling nightmare."
Comments
Nice work, great line.
"too much time on Google Earth"? Pfft! As if such a thing is possible...
For anyone who still has books and has a copy of The Shishapangma Expedition, this peak can be seen in one of the b&w panorama shots toward the back.
Nice work on the film and the extra effort of getting a bit of commentary while on the route, it is always great to see this.
I found a nice write up here too by Tim.......
https://alpinemag.com/phantom-line-jugal-spire-new-route-unclimbed-peak-story-1-2-miller-ramsden/
Once you figure out where they acclimatised, from the write up, it is fairly straightforward to find the face on Google Earth. Though it would be nice with exploratory reports like this to have a long and latitude on them so I can go look more easily, as time spent flying around on my laptop around is always good!
Excellent stuff Tim
Nice one! What a great trip & line. Really enjoy the commentary & even more so for the lack of hearing ‘yaaa buddy’ every 30 seconds. Although to hear Paul Ramsden say those words int northern lilt would have been entertaining.
Great vid. I often wonder about the multiple abseils and how that works. Often in the UK we climb a route and walk off but how do they get down? Do they leave an entire rack behind? Hook the rope over boulders and pull it down? Abalakov threads?