Vilhauer and Kauffman establish Night Terror on Lobuche East, Nepal

In late November the American alpinists Joel Kauffman and Jarad Vilhauer carried out the first ascent of an amazing ice runnel up the SW Face of Lobuje East (6119m), Nepal. After acclimatising on some trekking routes, the two climbers then spent 37 hours in total starting from their ABC and climbed the obvious corner. This was reached via a tricky M7 pitch and simul-climb approach, while the steep ice in the corner presented difficulties of WI5+. Where this petered out the two traversed right and tunnelled through the cornice onto the NW ridge, and then descended down the the SE Ridge which constitues the normal route on this trekking peak.

Lobuche East is located in the heart of Nepal's Khumbu region and was first climbed in 1984 by Laurence Neilson and Ang Gyalzen Sherpa. Kauffman and Vilhauer have named their climb Night Terror (VI WI5+ AI4 M7 85°) and more information and extensive photos can be found on www.joelandneilsclimbingblog.blogspot.com