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New Route in Nepal for French Team
By Dougald MacDonald
A four-man French team has climbed a difficult new route to a previously unclimbed subpeak of Ganesh V in Nepal. This 6,986-meter peak is well off the radar of most mountaineers and has been climbed only a handful of times, despite rising less than 50 miles from Kathmandu. Aymeric Clouet, Frédérique Dégoulet, Julien Dusserre, and Mathieu Maynadier chose to attempt a virgin rock subpeak that tops out at 6,741 meters (22,116 feet), one of several high points on Ganesh V’s long ridgeline. After acclimatizing, they established advanced base camp, and then, after a rest, climbed the East Ridge of the subsummit in four days. The route has a total gain of about 8,800 feet above base camp, including 4,000 vertical feet of technical ridge climbing, with an 800-foot rock headwall at the top, up to 6a (5.10) in difficulty. They named the summit La Pointe du Gorille (Gorilla Peak).
Date of Ascent: November 15, 2007 Sources: ffcam.fr, Aymeric Clouet, Clouclou.spaces.live.com, American Alpine Journal
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