Martin Zabaleta ascends the North Ridge above the difficult ice pitches of the North Face
The weather was severe by the time we reached the summit of Kangchenjunga. We had little visibility and the wind was picking up speed.
The view from my tent is overwhelming and strangely ominous as I peer out at the face we will attempt to climb.
I look down on Peter and Martin as we ascend the ropes we quickly fix on the steep wall of the Castle. These ropes are our key to survival on the descent in the event of bad weather.
As we set off up the North Ridge for the Castle and the huge plateau, our small single tent contains the vital supplies we will inevitably need to survive when we are descending the mountain. Unfortunately, this tent and it's contents were completely swept away after the summit storm. We were left in grave circumstances on our descent and made our bivouac with no food or water near this place.
Dawa Nuru rests his head as we begin climbing up the North Ridge towards our last camp on the Great Plateau at 7900 meters,
We five make our platform at about 7900 meters beneath the final summit pyramid of Kangchenjunga. Ang Nima and Dawa Nuru descend 1300 meters the same day. Within a few hours of this photo, Martin, Peter and I set off for the summit. It is May 03, 1988 and the weather begins changing rapidly.
Our tent is placed at the foot and to the left of the huge rocky Summit Pyramid above the Great Plateau. We follow the diagonal snow field crossing from lower left to upper right until we reach the ridge connecting Kangchenjunga with Yalung Kang, the peak to the right, out of view in this photo.