The Phantom Line - Jugal Spire
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."