On Thursday May 7th I went for a mountain called Serkhe Khollu (the name has other variations too) because I had seen on Google Earth that it's possible to get pretty close to the mountain by car. I left home at 4.37am. After 15 minutes of driving higher to the mountains it got really foggy for a moment and I had to slow down and was really disappointed thinking I'd be climbing inside a cloud again. But, as I got higher the sky was clear and there was no fog. The moon was still very bright since it was full moon just 3 days earlier, and the light helped a lot when I turned onto some very narrow mountainside "roads". The drive was the worst of my life. Terrible, terrible roads and near darkness. It was a road that lead to and ended at a dam at a lake in a deep and remote valley. This mountain is not climbed often. I'm almost sure it's only a few times a year. There is light at about 6.30am and I started the walk at 6.38. The altitude at the lake is about 4810 meters. I followed some llama paths toward the end of the valley where the mountain was waiting, but I was impressed by the peaks on both sides of the valley too. I thought I should come again and stay 2-3 days because there is plenty to climb and explore. It was a very nice walk. Just trekking there would be fun too and it's possible to reach some really high altitudes without any equipment.
It took about 1 hour 30 minutes to reach the snowline, where I had decided to see where to climb. I had seen online that the easiest route would be the left side of the mountain, but hadn't paid attention to other alternatives. I wanted to see and feel how the snow was, and then make a decision. Early in the morning on the lower slopes the snow was perfect; hard with great rough surface for a good grip, and I was able to get pretty far wearing my running shoes before putting on climbing boots and crampons. Because the snow was great, and because the easiest route looked too easy from below, I decided to head straight on to the steep main face of the mountain that was rock, snow, and ice. There were thin lines of snow and ice going up after the lowest snow slopes, and some sections had like steep rock ladders, so I thought it was not going to be too extreme.
Soon, however, the snow got softer. I didn't like it anymore and I spent a lot of time thinking about my next move. As a solo climber my every move has to be secure and perfect. Of course when you are on the wall, it feels a lot steeper and higher than from below. I mostly avoided the ice falls where possible, but the mixed rock and snow climbing was still hard.
About halfway up, there is a section with more space, and from where it is a very steep snow slope. And there the snow was perfectly hard again for about 150- 200 vertical meters, so I didn't mind the steepness much. Higher up, there were more and more spots where the snow was soft. I didn't worry yet, but then it was all soft snow, and I was in trouble: steep slope with soft snow is not a good place to be. That's when I really regretted not having taken the easy route up. I didn't think going down was an option and I was maybe 150 vertical meters from the top so I kept going up. It was really slow and I had to kick good steps and make holes in the snow for both hands for each step. My ice axe just plowed through the deep snow. From afar I had seen that there was a pretty big cornice on the top, but somehow I also believed that just below the cornice there was a narrow ledge where I could rest a little bit, but once I was on top of the steep snow slope I saw that there was nothing else but the overhanging cornice. I was standing on a steep slope, in the deep soft snow, not sure if it would hold, with an icy cornice over my head. It was not fun and again I had great regrets taking this way up. Now I wish I had taken pictures of the situation, but I didn't take any. It took well over an hour of standing there and digging to make it through the cornice. My worst hour on a mountain. I don't climb mountains because I like the dangers of it, nor do I really want to climb the hardest routes I can. What I always picture in my mind is sun, snow, great views, and moderate difficulty but still something enjoyable.
It was a great relief to make it through, and once through, there was a gentle slope of perfect snow again. An easy walk to the top. Unfortunately it was now foggy and there were no views from the mountain. The highest point is 5545 meters or 18,200ft. On the way down I found out that the easiest route to the top is not as easy as it looked like from the valley. In fact, I thought it was almost perfect: quite steep, good snow, and no crevasses or other dangers in sight.
Afterwards I saw online that my route up was a variation of 2 named routes, both rated TD+, which surprised me a little bit. It's fun to see your gps track on google earth. The satellite images have a lot less snow than there actually is on the mountains, even though the imagery date was almost exactly the same, one year earlier (one year, one day earlier).
Llama path:
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