“Alpinism is not an Olympic sport. The best part of alpinism not being an organized sport is that we are free to follow our own principles. In regulated sports, there are rules, and if we break those rules, we get penalized. In alpinism, we are the referees of our own game, and our conscience determines what it means to win. When IFMGA guide Alan Rousseau narrated his recent climb up Jannu, he said: “We completed the line in a style that we feel proud of.” Good for you Alan! That is what Alpinism is about. It is not about points, it’s about style. These ideas generate a basic concept: the Alpine style. Alpine style implies climbing a mountain with nothing else but what you can fit in your backpack. No oxygen and no ropes fixed by others. Depart from a camp at the base, make it to the top (or not), and return by your own means in a single push.

If your motivations are in line with the previous concept, the Langtang Valley of Nepal constitutes an alpinist’s paradise. It’s a corner of the Himalaya where pristine rivers are surrounded by jagged peaks, most of them unknown or forgotten and most of the mountains in this valley are pretty much untouched. Certainly, we were not the first climbers in the area, and many of the summits have been reached a few times, but there are still routes that remain mostly untraveled. Perhaps the lack of 8000m peaks has kept away the crowds that generally pursue summits using other climbing styles.

My friend Ossy Freire and I share the same motivation and style of enjoying the mountains, and I am always thankful for his companionship. We rarely need to discuss what objective we should climb or how. This solid relationship has been the result of sharing the same general risk tolerance, and the fact that we have suffered the same losses. The day I proposed a trip to the Langtang Valley, Ossy accepted without even looking at the photo of the mountain. This is how deeply we understand each other. We chose two peaks for this trip: the Yansa Tenji and the Gangchempo. I studied the peaks on previous visits to the area and had a solid idea of what could be a successful strategy. Once in the valley, each peak took four days round trip from the village of Kyanjin Gompa. Two for setting up a camp as close as possible to the technical faces, one for the actual summit push, and one for the return.

For the summit push of Yansa Tenji, we departed on October 27 at 11:00 p.m. from our tent located at 5100m altitude, next to a small lake at the base of the peak. After two hours of avoiding crevasses, we arrived at the bergschrund, where the real difficulties began. For the first 150m, we climbed simultaneously until the snow turned into ice and the steepness of the route forced us to be more delicate and we progressed one at a time sorting out climbing pitches that included ice and mixed terrain. For the second section, we came

across snow flutes of up to 50 degrees of inclination and finally, for the top part, we followed a sequence of ice ramps with several sections angled up to 90 degrees. In this part, the climb went very slow as a result of natural fatigue, the steepness, and some problems due to a recent cold. I remember that the last two pitches occurred around sunset time and provided memorable moments and picturesque views. We were able to observe the Sisha Pagma on the Tibet side and the Langtang Lirung with its east face, which remains unclimbed, on the Nepal side. Everything burnished with a red alpenglow that pictures just don’t do justice. Once on the summit we melted some snow, ate a couple of snacks, and added some layers for the long, cold, descent ahead. There were going to be 20 rappels, following practically the same line, to return to the base.

Half way down, something mysterious occurred. I felt that there was a third person on our rope team. It was also clear to me that I had to be intentional about not giving instructions to this third team member. I remember doing the technical steps as if there was indeed another person, but at the same time, I stopped myself from vocalizing any of this. My intention was not to question this presence, but out of fear of projecting that I had lost my mind, since I was in charge of descending first and setting the anchors. The next day, when Ossy asked me: “Flaco, ¿sentiste un tercero ayer en la bajada?” (did you feel a third person with us yesterday?) I realized that we both had the same “hallucination.” Ossy had given it a fictional shape in his mind, and thus, we had named it something “between fairies and unicorns.” I want to believe that it was just a product of fatigue, but I can’t help to feel that either way, it was a positive presence that kept us on our toes for the almost 30 hours of action.

For Gangchempo the approach was longer. We first advanced through the main valley of Langtang to the east and then used a secondary valley located between the Gangchempo and Pongen Dokpu peak, setting up camp at 4600 meters on the west side of Gangcehmpo. The following day we gained more altitude on the same side of the mountain up to the entrance of the glacier that falls from the northern slope of the peak, setting up a camp at 5200m. On November 3rd we left the tent at 1:00am to first cross the glacier at the base and then access the face of the northwest side of Gangchempo, which is full of snow and ice flutes. It reminded us a lot of the walls of the Andes of Peru. After crossing the bergschrund at 5600m, we climbed directly up a couloir that took us directly to the top. This couloir had small 90° passages but the average inclination was 50° with terrain up to AI4+. It took 13 hours of climbing to reach the summit. We had a small celebration and headed down the same route. On the way down we skipped camp one and continued descending to the camp at 4600m, arriving there after 20 hours of action. This second ascent was called “Thérapie par le froid” (cold therapy) due to the low temperatures experienced during this shaded north face ascension.

In conclusion, these were a couple of climbs among friends, with no other intention than having a small mountain adventure made with a style that makes us feel calm and where the capstone was friendship. If it generates some attention from the public, good news, in general terms we would like to motivate more climbers to visit the Langtang and we also would like to encourage more people of color to practice in this activity. As a final note, it is worth clarifying that the Langtang Valley has been the scene of countless unrecorded ascents, so it may be that these climbs have already been completed previously (especially Gangchempo), but the institutions in charge of these records, have been able to assign us, nominally, the first official ascent. Here’s to many more!”