The pilgrimage from the Ganges to the summit
"shark fin" is a fatal temptation. No one denies that, especially for those who are dedicated to reaching the top, it is undoubtedly a very attractive route. For more than 30 years, "shark fin" has attracted some of the world's top climbers to challenge, but no one has completed this route.
In high-altitude big-wall climbing, the unclimbed lines represent the most extreme tests in the world of mountaineering today. The Meru central front (Meru) at an altitude of 6,310 meters in the Himalayas in the Garhwal region of India, where the "shark fin" is located, is steep and full of unknowns. Coupled with the unpredictable weather, it casts a "fatal temptation" in the minds of climbers for a long time - including the classic Alpine mixed ice and snow climbing in the low altitude part, the ice and rock mixed line climbing in the middle part and the last part, It's also the hardest part of climbing a big rock wall with an elevated eaves.
Conrad Anker and Bruce Miller and Doug Chabot first attempted the route in 2003, but only completed two-thirds of the way. In 2008, Anke tried again. After 19 hard days and nights on the mountain with Jimmy and Reinan, he finally had to descend only 100 meters away from the summit. This climbing process can be seen in Reinan's movie "Samsara". See. "This is the most challenging high-altitude technical climbing route on the planet today, and you can run into almost any unimaginable harsh environment," Anke said. Climbing, we all have a lot of energy in our hearts, we must complete it!" The
pilgrimage from the Ganges to the summit
On September 30, 2011, The North Face™ athletes Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk returned to the Himalayas again. They have only one purpose, to challenge "Shark's Fin" again. This is one of the last unclimbed peaks in the Himalayas.
After the team set off from Delhi, India, they crossed the rainy season brought by the monsoon, and the team began the real adventure after reaching the Gangotri Glacier, the source of the Ganges River, the holy river of India. They hiked across the glacier to Tapovan Base Camp, where they spent three weeks acclimatizing, gearing up and researching the route: including the lower steep ice route, the alpine ridge and the intricate elevation cliffs , and make a backup plan.
On the next expedition, thanks to the experience of the last ascent, they reached the bottom of the "shark fin" route in a record 6 days, including two days to complete the ice and snow technical route at the bottom to reach C1 Camp - Mount Sumeru Base Camp. Climbing began, 3 team members reached the forward camp after 6 hours of continuous climbing, and started climbing along this route the next day. The three-man team began to drag their heavy equipment through the mixed terrain of ice, snow and rocks, and finally successfully reached the C1 camp in turn. Camp C2, a temporary shelter with camping bags and slings hanging under the "Great Indian Ocean Wall" at an elevation, was the hardest and most interesting place to stay during the climb. The hanging tent is hung on a steep elevation rock, and below is the dizziness brought by the thrilling height and the scenery that only belongs to the three-person climbing team.
On the pilgrimage from the Ganges to the summit
no one has ever seen such a landscape, except the climbers.
After two days in this temporary shelter hanging on the Qianren rock face, they began to climb the steepest and most dangerous section of the entire route, "with the aid of equipment through an overhanging rock" - which they called "Crystal" Route" - a large wall of A4 difficulty, and finally over the "Crystal Route" elevation assisted climbing route section.
Everything is worth it. In the end, it took them 3 days to climb the final elevation wall of the "shark fin" route and reach the top. And safely returned to the base camp, the entire climbing process lasted 11 days, is a pure alpine climbing.
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