Flat Top north face climbed in India's Kishtwar by Hugo Béguin, Matthias Gribi, Nathan Monard

A Swiss expedition comprised of Hugo Béguin, Matthias Gribi and Nathan Alexandre Monard has successfully climbed the virgin north face of Flat Top (6100m) in the Kishtwar region of India. Called 'Tomorrow is another day', the 1400m line breaches difficulties up to ED, WI4, M6, A2, 5c.

The three alpinists started their trek at the end of September from the village of Sonder and hiked for 3 days before setting up base camp at 3750m, at the base of the Kishtwar Eiger. They acclimatised by climbing next to the Kishtwar Eiger, spending a night at 5000m and climbed on the glacier to circa 5700m without reaching any summit. After resting at base camp, they made their way to the base of the north face of Flat Top where they established ABC before returning to BC.

After a false start on the 30th of September due to unexpected snowfall, the trio returned to ACBC on 2 October. They woke up at 4.00am to start climbing but since the face was full of spindrift and small avalanches, they waited until 11am for the sun to leave and the the wind to calm down. They started in the central section of the face, next to some icefalls that were in perfect conditions and climbed a small snow ridge for 200m before establishing Camp 1.

On they 2nd day they negotiated some steep icefalls, not without difficulty given the thin ice and the "exposed and sketchy" climbing, but this eventually led to deep snow slopes and some mixed pitches. The first was not too difficult but progress was slow due to abundant deep snow, while the last one, a steep rocky pitch, initially appeared impossible. Here the trio resorted to aid and, leaving no gear in-situ, they eventually established Camp 2 on a snow slope, circa 700m up, halfway up the face and close to the obvious spur on the right.

Day 3 started with more sketchy climbing across slabs covered by 50cm of fresh snow, which led to steep and technical rock and ice pitches up the spur. The original plan had been to reach the final snow slope that day but the climbing proved so demanding that they were forced to bivy 250m below the snow slope. Unfortunately, they failed to fined a place to pitch their tent and they therefore spent the night sitting on a tiny snow ledge with their feet dangling into the void. Located 1100m above the valley floor, this "has not been our best night ever."

The next morning they woke up, or, "more precisely, we stood up", at 4am and continued where they had left off, dealing with steep technical rocky pitches throughout the entire day. They reached the final slope just before sunset; full of ice instead of snow, they rapidly made their way to the summit, which they tagged in the dark at around 7pm.

After the ritual summit photos, they started the descent down by the mountain's west face. As this was covered in ice, they made abalakov anchors for the 15 abseils and managed to descent leaving no fear in-situ. At 2am they set foot on the glacier and made one last bivy, while on the 7th of October they descended to their ABC by negotiating the glacier and down-climbing a snow couloir. In the afternoon they returned to base camp with all of their equipment, "leaving nothing behind us and so satisfied with our climb."

Their timing was impeccable. After their ascent, bad weather set in, pinning them down in basecamp for some days. The horses arrived in the morning of the 14th of October and after a fast hike they reached the village of Nanth that evening, where they spent the night. On the 15th they reached Sonder and drove to Kishtwar.

Tomorrow is another day
ED, 1400m, WI4, M6, A2, 5c
2 October: departure from BC
3 October: start of the climb, bivy 200m above the bottom of the face
4 October: long day climbing steep ice and hard mixed pitches, bivy 700m above the bottom
5 October: rocky day on the spur, sitting bivy 1100m high in the face
6 October: summit day, rocky pitches and final snow slope, descent via the icy west face, bivy on the glacier at the bottom of the west face
7 October: descent to our advanced base camp and to the base camp