New ascent on the North Face of Baruntse, Nepal

Simone Moro, Denis Urubko and Bruno “Camòs” Tassi make the first ascent of Ciao Patrick, on the unclimbed north face of Baruntse (7.066 meters).

7 AM (in Italy) of Tuesday, May 4, 2004. Simone Moro, Denis Urubko and Bruno “Camòs” Tassi conquer the unclimbed north face of Baruntse, 7,066 meters, in Nepal.
It is the first ascent on the north face of Baruntse, a long time dream of the three friends, and finally realized after four days and four nights of fight in the wall. “Against high difficulties, with extreme, almost impossible weather conditions,” reports Simone Moro.
The ascent of the three alpinists is the story of an adventure, along a psychedelic line, 2,500 meters long, of which the last 1,350 meters have been climbed in alpine style (without equipping the wall with fixed ropes and intermediate camps, and completely renouncing to high altitude porters and artificial oxygen, ndr).
The route, named Ciao Patrick, has been dedicated to the famous French alpinist, recently deceased.
Simone tells us about the experience.
Oscar Durbiano

Ciao Patrick

“It has been hard, really hard, but at the end, grinding with the teeth for the cold and exhaustion, we have reached the summit of our dream mountain, along the route we wanted to climb. The north face of Khali Himal is really big, impressive, severe and threatening. It was also unclimbed and only the human eyes had ideally ascended it. On it we had put our hopes of concretizing our dream. We knew that the exposure and the nature of the wall would have obliged us to use all our technical and psychological capabilities.
And it has been like this.
A fight, four days and four nights long. On all kinds of terrain, rock, ice, mixed. The three of us have bivouacked for four nights in a small two-person tent, without ever finding a place big enough to set it properly and on an even surface. Often our legs were free hanging and the reduced space obliged us to acrobatic movements. Always and only front-pointing, for four very long days. Hanging from the picks and our cold fingers. Ice screws, picks of axes, friends, nuts and will and capacity to fight, were our only weapons. We did and experienced any kind of crazy things, but the only true constant of the ascent has been the cold and the almost impossible wind, always announced by the weather forecast
On the summit the gusts had a speed of almost 120 kilometers per hour (35 meters per second) and the real fight was to avoid being blown away by the elements. It is hard now to give a rating to the pure technical difficulties, and may be senseless, also if we try to do it.
The only sure thing is that we made the first ascent, we reached the summit, and the name of the route is Ciao Patrick, dedicated to our friend Patrick Berhault, recently deceased. The whole vertical world and all the people who met him will miss this friend and a true myth of modern alpinism.
Simone Moro

 

Ciao Patrick
Khali Himal or Baruntse Nord, 7.066 m
First ascent on May 4, 2004 by Simone Moro, Bruno”Camòs”Tassi and Denis Urubko
2550 meters long, the last 1350 meters have been climbed in alpine style
3 intermediate camps
Maximum mixed difficulties M6+, often on overhanging and rotten rock
Maximum rock difficulties 5°+/6°
Maximum ice difficulties between 70° and 90°, on thin ice that covered granite slabs.
North-west facing wall
4 bivouacs in the wall
12 hours for the descent, with 20 rappels in the middle of the wall.