Funding from UK Sport has, to date, allowed the BMC to give annual support to a wide range of expeditions visiting unexplored mountain ranges, attempting new routes or achieving personal development. Lindsay Griffin takes a look at what’s been happening in 2006.

Alaska and Canada

Mount Dickey
Alaska’s coldest winter for 20 years and a huge accumulation of snow stopped Andy Kirkpatrick and Paul Ramsden from completing any ascents in the Ruth Gorge during March. Their original goal, an ice line on the South Face of Dickey, was bare, so they attempted an unclimbed couloir on the South East Face. This resulted in Ramsden leading a pitch of plum vertical névé to an unconsolidated snow overhang, which forced him to reverse the lead without protection: “probably my most frightening experience in the mountains”. This theme continued with attempts at a new route on Bradley and repeat ascents on Dickey and the Moose’s Tooth thwarted by unclimbable snow mushrooms in narrow gullies. On at least one bivouac the pair basked in temperatures of –35°C. Kirkpatrick must have loved it.

South Walsh
In late May, after dealing with the usual stormy St Elias weather, Paul Knott and Graham Rowbotham reached the pointed summit of 4,223m South Walsh in the Canadian Yukon. This was not only the highest unclimbed peak in the St Elias Range but also, it has been claimed, in North America. The pair climbed the South West Ridge and the thin unprotected snow of the upper South Face in two days. From the summit they endured high winds and a night of compression by deposited snow, before completing the first full traverse of Mt Walsh (4,507m). The minor discomforts during the trip were dispelled by including Shackleton's epic book South in the expedition reading.

Central Asia

AC Shakhdara
A seven-man team from the Alpine Club, headed by Phil Wickens, was the first group of mountaineers from outside the former Soviet Union, or the Eastern Block, to explore the rarely visited south side of Peak Karl Marx in Tajikistan. Operating in unsettled weather, the team succeeded on every attempt made, climbing six peaks between 5,600m and 6,340m from the upper Nishgar Valley, plus three different routes on 6,736m Karl Marx. Routes were generally PD/AD in standard, though ascents of two 5,900m peaks were felt to warrant D.

Eagle Ski Club Ak-Shirak
Dave Wynne Jones led the seven-member team that made the first ski traverse of the Ak-Shirak range in Kyrghyzstan’s Tien Shan. Throughout 17 days during May, the group enjoyed great spring snow conditions and was able to bag seven new peaks up to PD in standard. The first few days up the Kara-suy Valley involved strenuous double carries until the snow line was reached. Thereafter the group progressed northwards, pulling heavily loaded pulks in generally clear crisp weather to an exit down the Petrov Glacier. Kyrgyzia (4,954m), the highest peak in the northern sector of the range, gave a classic ski ascent, but Snow Cannon (4,720m) involved some easy yet delightful climbing on Chamonix-like granite.

Qionglai Shan
In spring, Jez Thornley’s team visited the Siguniang National Park in Sichuan’s Qionglai Range, where the originally plan was to try the virgin 5,609m pyramid immediately south of Celestial Peak. Instead, they made the first ascent of 5,050m Dorsal Peak and repeated the wonderfully sounding Ding Ding (5,200m).

Brathay Exploration Group Greenland
Paul Williams’s eight-member team climbed five peaks (from Alpine F to D) in a previously unvisited area of East Greenland well inland from the Knud Rasmussen. Daytime temperatures as high as +19°C and sometimes not dipping below freezing at night meant that the snow pack never properly consolidated. The team had a secondary aim in lichen research and samples collected from suitable rocky outcrops were sent to World authorities at the University of Copenhagen.

Cambridge University East Greenland
Mark Reid’s four-man team of ‘light blues’ spent five days ferrying loads up the Knud Rasmussen Glacier (that’s not to be confused with the previously mentioned Knud Rasmussen Range much further north) to enter a largely unexplored (by climbers) region of Schweizerland. Shifting base camp on several occasions, they managed nine ascents of which eight were firsts. These ranged from Alpine F to AD on peaks between 931m and 1,589m. The trip was plagued by frequent rain, which caused considerable snow melt, and the climbers were hampered on their exit from the mountains by a commendable willingness to remove not only all their own trash but also huge amounts left by a recently departed French expedition.

Oxford University Greenland
Ben Spencer’s three-member team visited the Gronau Nunatakker in East Greenland, where in a three and a half week stay they made 12 first ascents between Alpine F and AD. The most demanding climb proved to be their first, a prominent snow and basalt pyramid later named Mount Currahee. The ascent involved an extremely awkward rimaye, steep ice and a chilly unplanned bivouac just below the summit. The relatively inexperienced team deemed this 28-hour climb a perfect introduction to Arctic mountaineering and a great start to their first ever expedition.

Imperial College Chogolisa Expedition
A last minute change in policy by the Pakistan Government resulted in no permits being granted for this expedition’s original objective, the high border peak of Noshaq in the Hindu Kush. Instead, Ben Gready’s Imperial College team set their sights on Chogolisa (7,668m). Approaching via the Baltoro, they established Camp 1 (c5,500m) near the head of the Vigne Glacier, following a route first used by the successful 1983 German expedition. Plagued by bad weather they first tried to reach the col on the South West Ridge but were thwarted due to avalanche danger, then later moved left and climbed a steeper line towards the West Col, making a cache at c6,000m. Unfortunately, subsequent daily snowfall prevented them regaining this high point.

K7
Unstable weather plagued many expeditions to Pakistan this year. Bob Brewer and Dai Lampard failed to climb the monstrous South West Ridge of K7 (6,934m) above Pakistan’s Charakusa Glacier, an objective that Lampard has now visited three times (and Brewer twice). Nearly six and a half kilometres long and around 2,400m high, it will eventually become arguably one of the finest, predominately rock, routes in the World.

Lobsang Spire
Anne and John Arran hoped to make a free ascent of the unclimbed South West Face of Lobsang Spire (5,707m), a spectacular granite aiguille just north of the Baltoro Glacier and first climbed in 1983 by Doug Scott’s team. However, their intended route appeared loose and unpleasant, while an alternative line required too much unsuitable traversing for their big wall tactics. After retreating from a high point of 5,200m they attempted the unnamed 5,607m peak immediately south, climbing twice to a bivouac ledge 150m below the summit before being forced down by bad weather. To that point they had climbed 12 roped pitches to E4 6a up the North West Face and West Pillar.

Miyar Nala
Oliver Metherall has just returned from the increasingly popular Miyar Valley in India’s Himalchal Pradesh. As the only British member of the expedition he was successful in climbing two new Alpine rock routes.

Unclimbed Hispar
Peter Thompson’s four-man team first climbed in the Shimshal region, making three attempts at a new route on Shimshal Whitehorn. However, after Ben Cheek was injured by rock fall and evacuated for medical treatment, only Thompson and Lee Harrison continued to climb in the Pakistan Karakoram. After making the first ascent of 5,750m Mudhil Sar on the long North West Ridge of the Whitehorn, the two travelled to the Hispar, where they made the first ascent of Haigutum East (5,783m) via the North Face and North East Ridge at D, and attempted the South Ridge of unclimbed Khani Basa Sar (6,441m), before moving to the Chapursan for the first ascent of Gharhil Sar (5,800m) via the North Face/Ridge, again at D.

Cordillera Huaguruncho
Tony Barton returned to the rarely visited Cordillera Huaguruncho of Peru but unlike his 2005 trip, met with unusually poor weather. Much fresh snow in the mountains made climbing conditions hazardous and with partner Andrew Houseman he was only able to complete one climb; the first ascent of Huarancayo South (5,150m). The two climbed the South East Slopes and Ridge at PD, after which they made an unsuccessful attempt on the unclimbed South West Ridge of Huaguruncho Chico. Retreating to the valley, they discovered their base camp had been robbed. The resulting loss of crucial gear, combined with continuing bad weather, sent them home.

Cordillera Vilcanota
With exciting events that included armed robbery, altitude sickness, frostbite and a 50-foot free fall into a crevasse, Rufus Duits and Alistair Gurney certainly had an eventful time during their first trip to the Greater Ranges. Their consolation was a coveted first ascent of the steep and icy South West Face of Colque Cruz I (6102m) in the remote eastern sector of the Peru’s Cordillera Vilcanota. The 650m route, which was named "I am Dynamite" after a quote from one of Nietzsche’s works that the pair were getting to grips with at base camp, was graded TD+ (M4 AI 4 60°).

Eastern Blanca Reconnaissance
When his partner dropped out of this two-man exploratory expedition to a little know region west of Pompey in the Hualcan Massif of the Cordillera Blanca, Paul Hudson was forced to go it alone. He was able to complete a partial reconnaissance and make a photographic record of potential (unclimbed) objectives, but various peaks that he’d originally hoped to climb were not attempted.

Huantsan
Unsettled weather in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca prevented Nick Bullock and Mat Helliker from making an attempt on their main goal, a new route on 6,395m Huantsan, the least climbed 6,000m peak in the range. However, this didn’t stop the pair from making the first ascent of a hard mixed route on the North East Buttress of neighbouring Huantsan Sur (5,919m). Climbed over two days, the 1,000m Death or Glory (TD/ED) features most of the typically gnarly Peruvian challenges, with climbing beneath creaking serac formations and huge umbrellas with free hanging icicles as thick as telegraph poles.

Other supported expeditions
No reports yet from the teams that visited the Cordillera Huayhuash in Peru or the Quimsa Cruz in Bolivia. Still out in the field are trips to: Kedar Dome in India; remote Nenang in Tibet’s Eastern Nyachen Tanghla; Lobuje East, Kwangde and Machermo in the Khumbu region of Nepal; peaks in politically sensitive North East Sikkim, and the Northern Apolobamba of Bolivia. Last to depart in 2006 will be Stu McAleese and Twid Turner for the harsh Patagonian climate and an attempt on the unclimbed South Face of Paine’s Torre Sur – good luck!

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