Chareze Ri North in India's Rangtik valley climbed by Italians

From mid-August and for about a month, our group of climbers from the regions Lombardy, Friuli and Veneto explored the Rangtik valley, a side valley of Zanskar valley in the Indian region of Ladakh.

Our expedition was based on an extremely useful report published by Matija Jošt in the American Alpine Journal, and our main objective was to climb a virgin, unnamed 6080m peak located at the valley head.

After the first acclimatisation phase and after having evaluated the possible lines of ascent, we used the first weather window to climb the obvious ridge on the lefthand side of the the NE Face.

The ascent was carried out over two days, first up ice (max 70°), then past top quality rock (max V+) that led to the north summit at circa 5959m.

We attempted to reach the main summit and find a better descent route and therefore followed a very sharp ridge to the top of a tower, circa 200 meters as the crow flies from the 6080m main summit. At this point though darkness set in and we had to retreat down the NW Face, via an adventurous series of rappels in the dark.

Bad weather during the second half of our stay in Zanskar prevented us from making further attempts to reach the main summit, which therefore remains unclimbed.

A bit of toponymy: our climb is called Jullay Temù, or "hello bear" in Ladakhi, in order to greet the discrete family of Himalayan bears that visited the valley during our stay, leaving footprints and making suspicious noises at night...

Our cook Sonam and his aide Lobsang would like to call the mountain Chareze Ri as, they explained, Chareze is a type of stupa that resembles our summit.

by Luca Vallata

Expedition members: Davide Limongi, Federico Martinelli, Enrico Mosetti, Federico Secchi, Luca Vallata e Daniele Castellani (photographer)
The team thanks Level and Ferrino

Luca Vallata thanks SCARPA
Enrico Mosetti thanks Patagonia, Revo, SCARPA, Black Crows
Federico Martinelli thanks SCARPA e CAMP
Federico Secchi thanks SCARPA e CAMP