Tengi Ragi Tau virgin West Face climbed alpine style by Alan Rousseau, Tino Villanueva

News just in from the Rolwaling Himalaya in Nepal: Tino Villanueva and Alan Rousseau have completed a rare ascent of Tengi Ragi Tau. The two American alpinists had attempted the West Face of the 6,938m peak in the past, notably in 2014 when they were forced to retreat just 400m short of the summit, but banking on their previous experience they finally topped out on 16 October at 9:30am after "8 years of planning, effort and 3 expeditions to the Himalayan peak."

At present there are few details but Villanueva, shortly before boarding his plane home, told planetmountain.com the following: "We made the climb in an 8 day push from the village of Thame. We took 3 days to get to the base of the west face of Teni Ragi Tau. We were on the wall for 5 days/4 nights and encountered difficulties up to WI5 M5+ on the 1600 meter face. The climb was consistently difficult, with technical terrain from start to finish, and the upper mountain was a labyrinth of snow flutings to the nearly 7000m summit."

Rousseau and Villanueva have formed a formidable climbing partnership for a number of years. Opting for technical 7000ers rather than the 8000m giants, in 2018 the two claimed the first ascent of Rungofarka (6495m) in the Zanskar massif in the Indian Himalayas. Tengi Ragi Tau had been was off limits in the past, but in early 2002 the Nepalese government issued climbing permits and later that year a Japanese expedition led by Koichi Ezaki managed to make the first ascent of the mountain via the SE Face. The climb carried out by Rousseau and Villanueva is the first up the unclimbed West Face and the first alpine style ascent of Tengi Ragi Tau.

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