The Unclimbed China Expedition

While having to acclimatize on the route meant we were unable to do a pure "alpine style" ascent, climbing from bottom to top in one push, we were trying to get as close to this ideal as possible. This meant that our acclimatization was marginal — the oxygen at this height is less than half that at sea level — and the summit day on Longemain was a tiring and slow affair.

Blessed with a rare beautiful day, we were keen not to waste it by turning around and having another, later attempt. It was two very, very tired lads who plugged through more deep snow and finally crawled onto the summit at 4:20 pm. The world was spread out below us, from the endless Tibetan Plateau in the west to the cloud-filled basins of China to the east. We were ecstatic and spent 20 minutes flying Tibetan Prayer Flags as requested, photographing, and filming before turning and heading down through the glowing evening light.

A few days in base camp were spent writing newspaper articles and sending website updates before out thoughts started turning to Daddomain. A recce around to the north side convinced us that the best approach to this mysterious peak was from the same Longemain glacier. Autumn had arrived with a bang in the Daxue Shan, and the temperatures seemed to have suddenly plummeted.

We spent several bad weather days trying not to eat all our food in ABC and then set about solving the riddle of how to best access Daddomain’s west ridge. With huge packs on, we ended up in "knock knee gully," a steep couloir of hideously loose rock coated in a lovely layer of unconsolidated snow. As the rockfall rattled down around us, we groveled up through the cloud with our hearts in our mouths before finally stumbling onto the ridge into a very cold wind and driving snow. We were very happy to find an icicle-festooned crevasse to call home.