The climber’s attempt to climb the treacherous Nya Kangri peak, located in the Ladakh region of India and belonging to the Karakoram mountain range, was crowned with absolute success. Nikos Krupis and his friend Oresti Mitrou-Kintia climb with a high coefficient of difficulty, which requires a special approach and hides many dangers.

The top Nya Kangri belongs to its wider mountainous mass Sesar Kangriwhere the highest peak has a height of 7,672m. The Sesar Kangri massif is bounded by two major rivers, the Shyok River to the east and the Nubra River to the west. These two rivers join and their confluence is between the villages of Diskit and Sumur. From this point, the river continues as the Shyok River, enters Pakistan and is one of the largest tributaries of the Indus River. This was the fourth attempt to climb the mountain for him, following two attempts made from the northern valley (Sumur valley) in 2016 and 2022, and last year’s attempt from the same route (southern Tirit valley).

During the first two attempts, Mr. Kroupis emphasizes to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency, from the northern valley, we reached a dead end on the NW ridge and at an altitude of 6,118m. In last year’s attempt from the south side, the weather was not favorable and the rapid rate of ascent, without the necessary acclimatization, caused them to abort the attempt at 6,010 m. There have been three other attempts by Indian expeditions in the past, with a pioneer in 2008 by the south side but approaching the NW ridge. The most important attempt of all was from the south side in 2016, where they got very close to the summit (~6,370m) but turned back due to bad weather. This effort was made with heavy equipment and the installation of hundreds of meters of fixed ropes. Unfortunately, this expedition left most of the equipment on the mountain, due to the violent retreat. Another attempt was made again two months later but again to no avail. Thus, the Nya Kangri peak remained unscathed after a total of six attempts. The impressive pyramid at the top had captured his mind and led him to visit it for the fourth time this year (2024). Now he himself, he tells us, had a good knowledge of the mountain since he had come very close to the top the previous year (2023).

This was also the motivation to persevere and endure the difficulties once more, hoping to be at the top. It all started on July 9, 2024, when with three flights from Athens and intermediate stops in Abu Dhabi and Delhi, the two climbers arrived in the city of Leh. Leh is the capital of the Ladakh region, a region that recently became independent from the larger Jammu & Kashmir region of India. As he recounts, the ascent plan was to transport the materials to the base camp with two ferry routes. For this reason, the porters were initially loaded double to carry all the equipment higher. At an altitude of about 3,500m they found a safe spot where they left half their gear and continued with the basic essentials for base camp.

The trail was in good shape from the yaks that the villagers brought up the mountain. Initially, the path goes right up the loose steep slopes and then crosses two smooth plateaus and gradually enters the valley.

After climbing to 4,250m, the path gradually begins to descend towards the main valley, passes the small stream that has clean drinking water and falls from the waterfall. At this point, the crossing of the stream is quite steep. Here, steps had to be dug into the loose steep slope to enable the porters to pass safely. From here on, the trail is very faint and in many places gets lost, but the route is smoother. On July 20, at 3 a.m. the two climbers began their summit attempt. Very quickly they approached the southern slope and followed the broad ridge where at 5,700 meters they spotted for the first time, the fixed ropes from the 2016 expedition. The ascent was made in parallel movement. At 5,800 meters they encountered the first steep sections, which they passed without belaying. On reaching the great serac on their right, and while the fixed rope seemed to go straight ahead, they thought it best to go to the left. Last winter, not much snow had fallen on the mountain slopes and there was little loose snow left up to 5 cm on the old hard ice. At 6,100 meters the slope exceeded 45 degrees and the only safe way was to continue by climbing with ropes. Orestis took the lead and they used 6 ice screws and a 50 meter rope. He had the second rope with the rest of the materials in his backpack. After making several ropes, the slope increased and in parts exceeded 55 degrees. A total of 13 ropes were needed to reach the edge of the summit.

Reaching this peak, it had a huge ledge on the north side. Two meters below the top, the ledge ice was soft and dangerous to stand on because the ledge would break and they would be in the void. They stopped for five minutes 3 meters below the summit and rested suspended from an ice screw. The fatigue was very great after they had completed almost 12 hours of climbing with 1,100 meters of elevation gain. The thought of the return did not let them enjoy the summit and directly they made the first through ice (abalakov).

The rappel was done to the end of the ropes to reduce the changes. After 16 hours of effort, they arrived back at the camp. After two days of trekking they returned back to the village from there to the town of Leh.

By air from Leh via Delhi and Abu Dhabi they returned to Athens in the early hours of August 1, completing a dream. “After 8 years of efforts since the first time I tried climbing Nya Kangri in 2016, this time the goal was achieved by reaching the top with my friend Orestes Mitrou-Kintis”, he concludes, emphasizing himself.