Exploring the Xiashe Massif, Sichuan Province, China

We left base camp mid-morning the next day and made camp on the moraine at 4,550 m, collecting equipment and food from the cache at 4,300 m on the way. Late in the afternoon, we made a carry up the glacier to 4,800 m before returning to camp for the night. Once we were on the snowy moraine, our snowshoes proved invaluable.

Making an 8:00 am start the next morning, we climbed quickly up to the cache of the previous night. In view of the deep snow and hard travel, we decided to double pack up to the col at 5,300 m. We carried one load up to the bottom of the steep slope leading to the col, then returned to the 4,800 m cache for the second load. This we carried right up onto the col at 5,300 m, but the going was slow, breaking trail through thigh-deep snow with our snowshoes on. We ran out of time to make the second carry and decided to make it the next morning instead. In all, it was a very tiring day, although the weather was perfect.

Another fine day dawned and we returned to the abandoned cache of the night before and carried it to the col. Then we descended a couloir on the south side of the col for a view of the south face and the southwest ridge. The rest of the day we spent resting in the tent.

The evening before Summit Day, the alarm went off at 11:00 pm. We left the tent 2 hours later in fine but windy conditions. We descended the couloir of the day before about 300 m to a glacier on the south face. From here, we spent several hours ascending the south face in the dark. Travel was slow because of the amount of new snow and again we used our snowshoes. There was moonlight until about 3:00 am. We reached a col on the southwest ridge at 5:00 am and attempted unsuccessfully in the wind to get the cooker going to melt snow for water. Daylight arrived at 7:00 am as we were ascending the southwest ridge to the summit, which we reached at 8:45 am. The fine weather gave spectacular views of the Daxue Shan range to the east and many other mountains in every direction. Although the route was not technical, we felt a great sense of achievement from having battled heavy snow and heavy packs to get to the summit.

We descended along the same route, arriving back at our camp at 2:30 in the afternoon. Patricia was suffering from an altitude-related headache, which continued until we descended the next day. In the morning, we packed up in a strong wind and descended to base camp. On the way down the glacier, we spotted two of the British on the north face.