07:56 am CDT Oct 26, 2009
(MountEverest.net) Piolet d’Or winner Marko Prezelj switched usual mates Steve House and Vince Anderson for fellow Slovenians Rok Blagus and Luka Lindic this fall but stuck to his style. The result: three new big wall routes opened on Garhwal Himalaya’s Bhagirati massif last month.
17 days of good weather - none of them wasted
A week-long bad weather spell hit the climbers at arrival in BC, but then great conditions during the remains of the month allowed three alpine style ascents.
"September 15th, we summited Bhagirathi IV (6193 m) up a snow couloir which eventually steepened up and turned into mixed terrain; then traversed along the north ridge to the summit, and rappelled back down to the base that same day,” said Marko in a press release.
The resulting 100m-long route has been proposed as D+ and may be a first ascent on the peak’s west face.
Added difficulty on each new route
The following week, the Slovenians went for Bhagirathi III’s (6.454m) SW face, forging a new route between the 1982’s Scottish Pillar and the 1993’s Czech route. They bivouaqued one night on the wall in order to complete the 1300 meters-long route, including 6b, M5 and WI5 pitches – ED as general degree of difficulty.
The hardest route was climbed on Bhagirati II (6512 m) though, from Sep. 29th to October 1st. The climbers overcame 6b+, M8 y WI 6+ up the peak’s SW granite face over two days, and then followed the SW ridge until the top, in order to traverse the peak down the Austrian route on the peak’s eastern side. The 1300 meters-long route has been marked as ED+/ABO.
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