Mountain diary

13th November (1997)
     Jesús stays in Kathmandu arranging the permit for the Shisha Pangma. Álex and Toni arrive at Kathmandu that afternoon.

14th-16th November
     In Kathmandu the permit to climb the Shisha Pangma in winter is not granted. They decide to try the ascent via Lantang.

17th November
     They go by bus from Kathmandu to Dunche (an 8 hours journey).

18th November
     They begin the approach with the porters. Route Dounche -Bamboo.

19th November
     They climb up from Bamboo to Langtang.

21st November
     They arrive at Drichung Phu (4300m), where basecamp is established. It is a place where there are yaks shepherds' huts, on the glacier's doors.

22nd-24th November
     Bad weather keeps them back in basecamp.

25th November
     They climb up the glacier to reach the basecamp on the South wall of Mt Shisha Pangma.

26th November
     In the early morning it snows heavily, so they must come back to the yaks huts. It snows all the day through.

27th-19th November
     They wait until bad weather leaves.

30th November
     It looks as if weather gets better and they try to follow up the glacier again.

1st December
     It snows again all night. It is impossible to climb up the rocky glacier. So much snow hides the way and, as a result, it continually subsides between the rocks gaps. For the risk of breaking a leg, they decide to postpone their attempt and they come back to basecamp.

2nd December
     They remove the camp

3rd December
     Álex, Jesús and Toni move down to Lantang. Nigma, the cook, waits for the porters to move down.

4th December
     They move down to Dunche.

5th December
     They catch the bus from Dunche to Kathmandu. Jesús thinks that they were wrong having moved down: the weather seems to get better. But, three days later, there would be the greatest snowfall of the year in Langtang (2 meters of snow).

6th-9th December
     Wait in Kathmandu.

9th-10th December
     They return to Galicia to stay with their families for Christmas.