Oriol Baro and Oscar Cacho made the first ascent of Rachu Tangmu in 2005, via a route on the north face, Antiparques (TD M6, 950m). Their route is the dashed line on the right. The new Slovak route, Secret of Thin Ice (ED+ M6 A1, 1340m), climbs the Central Tower of Rachu Tangmu up the red line on the left. [Photo] Courtesy of Andrej Kolarik and Juraj Svingal
Two Slovakian mountaineers, Andrej Kolarik and Juraj Svingal, made the first ascent of a new route on the unclimbed central pillar of Point 5930m in India’s Miyar Valley. They named the peak Rachu Tangmu, which means Cold Horns, because the main summit takes the shape of two horns when viewed from the lower valley.
Oriol Baro and Oscar Cacho made the first ascent of Rachu Tangmu in 2005, via a route on the north face, Antiparques (TD: M6, 950m). The Slovak route, Secret of Thin Ice (ED+: M6 A1, 1340m), climbs the north side of Rachu Tangmu’s Central Tower.
Kolarik and Svingal began the lower, easier part of the Central Tower on the morning of September 29. They reached the steeper headwall around noon, discovering dangerous thin ice and unstable snow conditions. The pair climbed through the day, finally bedding down for a cold bivy after dark. Climbing the next morning, the team found very difficult mixed terrain, which they traversed to the right to avoid. The upper stretches of the face were covered in hard, dense, black ice. Finally reaching the summit ridge at the top of the pillar in the dark, the two continued climbing until midnight. After four hours of rest on the ridge, they finished the route, having reached the Central Summit of Rachu Tangmu, on October 1. They did not continue on to the main summit, as two broken and difficult towers separated the peaks–and because they were out of water and food. Kolarik and Svingal returned to camp by 10:30 p.m.
The Slovaks described the climbing as “dangerous thin ice and unstable snow.” [Photo] Courtesy of Andrej Kolarik and Juraj Svingal
This was the third Slovakian expedition to the Miyar Valley. Over eleven days in 2002, Igor Koller, Dodo Kopold, Vlado Linek and Ivan Stefansky climbed a new route, Sharp Knife of Tolerance (French 7a+ A3, 500m), to the ridge of Iris Peak on the Castle Peak massif. In 2003 Kopold and Stefansky returned to make the first ascent, in alpine style, of Last Minute Journey (ED, 900m), on the south face of Three Peaks Mountain massif. They called this peak Mt. Mahindra (5845m).
— Andrej Kolarik and Vlado Linek, Slovakia