Swiss mountaineers make India’s first Kirti-Nose (4,950m) ascent.
In late summer, a team of Swiss mountaineers arrives at the foothills of the Himalayas in India. Conditions were poor, with a late rainy season covering most of the peaks with large amounts of snow. October 2022, after several weeks of reconnaissance, the weather window appears. Stephan Siegrist, Jonas Schild and Andy Schnarf then targeted the almost 5,000 meter peak on the edge of the Kirti glacier. Their resemblance to The Nose, a famous wall in Yosemite, gave them their proper name. Kirti’s nose.
The wall is about 350 meters (7b/A3) high. At the bottom of the wall, some traces of material from the 1990s indicate a first attempt. But the remnants of these past expeditions quickly disappeared on the hike. It required four days of strenuous climbing to overcome this wall. But the joy was short-lived. Back in civilization, the mountaineers learn about a terrible disaster that has occurred at a nearby peak where tens of mountain climbers were swept away by an avalanche.
Illustration © Mammut, Christoph Detschmann
