Cholatse | 2021 SW Ridge

A France expedition to Cholatse in 2021 via SW Ridge, led by Stephane Benoist. Summit reached on 15th October 2021. 8 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 10686
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID CHOL21301
Peak ID CHOL
Year 2021
Season 3
Host Country 1
Route 1 SW Ridge
Route 2 N Face-NE Face (up),SW Ridge (down)
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality France
Leaders Stephane Benoist
Sponsor GEAN (Groupe Excellence d'Alpinisme National) Kantega Expedition 2021
Success 1 True
Success 2 True
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 -
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach Lukla->Namche->Pangboche
Basecamp Date 2021-10-08
Summit Date 2021-10-15
Summit Time 1330
Summit Days 7
Total Days 33
Termination Date 2021-11-10
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 6423
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 5
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 8
Summit Members 8
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 0
Summit Hired 0
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired True
O2 Used False
O2 None True
O2 Climb False
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep False
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits Summited Nare Ri Shar (6005m), attempted Omoga Ri Chang (6070m)
Campsites BC(08/10,3985m),Biv1(13/10,5600m),Biv2(14/10,5800m),Smt(15/10); Biv1(25/10,5380m),Biv2(26/10,5730m),Biv3(27/10,5980m),Biv4(28/10,6200m),Smt(29/10),Biv5(29/10,6370m)
Route Notes Plan to break up into 2 to 3 teams aiming for various goals: "Mingbo Eiger" North Face, Peak 6430m N Face (N summit of Kangtega), Cholatse North Face. GEAN (Groupe Excellence d'Alpinisme National) of French Alpine Club, leader Stephane Benoist. BC on 08/10 at 3985m (Pangboche). Acclimatization Climbs: 11/10: First known ascent of Nare Ri Shar (name's ref by Jan Kielkowski, 6005m, not an opened peak) by its NE Ridge (christened “Sugar ridge” (700m, D), by Stephane Benoist, Pauline Champon, Pierrick Fine and Pierrick Giffard. 12/10: ABC at 4900m (afoot Nare Ri Shar); 13/10: C1 at 5300m, walking day. 14/10: first climbing day. Both Pierrick's broke the trail. The crux was located at 5980m (M4+). Summit reached at circa noon. Could have been down the mountain on same day (“daily route”), but for perfecting its acclimatization, the team choose to bivouack at 5900m instead, just below the summit's rocky tower. After an early dinner, they were laying down at 4:30 pm in their sleeping bags. Felt a bit the altitude, little slower, but fine (no need of medicines). 15/10: back to ABC at 4900m. 16/10: back to Pangboche's BC. Meanwhile, the rest of the team with Thomas Arfi, Louis Pachoud, Gabriel Miloche and Anouk Felix-Faure climbed the normal route (SW Ridge) of Cholatse. 13/10: first climbing day. From 4000m, intended to make first bivouac on the glacier afoot of the col. Since they couldn't find a suitable place there (not being exposed to objective risks), the team climbed up instead directly to the col. Made a bivouac at 5600m, which happened difficult for acclimatization. 14/10: had a "small day" further up on the ridge until a 5800m bivouac. 15/10: made the round trip to the top, summiting between 1 and 2 pm. At first had been concerned by the weather, since last days' clouds were arriving at about noon. However on that day, they got clear sky conditions on the top. 16/10: from the 5800m bivouac down to Thare village (4350m). 17/10: back to BC. Primary Climbs: 21/10: Anouk, Pauline, both Pierrick's and Stephane went for a new line up the North and NE Faces of Cholatse. The new established line mostly climbs new ground: it first starts left to the French route, then traverses in the NE Face before traversing back to the N Face, where it joins the very exits of American/Steck routes (upper left side of the N Face). Most of the route sections would happen to be generally 20° steeper than anticipated from the ground. Bivouac places would happen to be rather complicated to build, necessitating 2:30 of daily earth-moving work. 21/10: quartet with porters went to Dzongla (4800m), while Stephane was staying with the Omoga Ri Chang team. 22/10: Stephane joined the quartet at Dzongla. 23/10: the group went to Cho La Pass with the lodge keeper. 24/10: the group made a deposit afoot of the route. Following the previous day's snowfall, the starting ramp now looked like the obvious option to start with. Ice veneers on the left side of the face looked also well-shaped. 25/10: first climbing day. First climbed unroped the obvious right-to-left snowy – with little mixed ground – ramp (45° to 55°). At 5100m, team faced the first difficulties, with a rightwards traversing pitch in delicate mixed ground. Then they took left until the bivouac, meeting a ground harder than expected – involving several pitches with some delicate mixed ground sections (yet less sustained than the first aforementioned pitch). Bivouac 1 established at circa 5380m (altitude given by the altimeter's swatch – precision at roughly 50m). The weather forecast had announced some bad weather for this day followed by good weather for the next days, thus the team choose to start precisely on this day in order to optimize the good weather window. Eventually this afternoon saw a few clouds, sleet and snowflakes, but nothing really bad. 26/10: first joined the NE Face by traversing up a long ramp of hard snow in 3 pitches. Then the team broke the trail in deep snow, succesively passing 3 sort of snow mushrooms. When arriving in front of the third one, took a left-to-right ramp, facing a new delicate pitch. Bivouac 2 established at 5730m. 27/10: on this day, could enjoy the morning sun with the rather eastern orientation of the face. Straight above the bivouac was standing a high attractive steep ice section: first hesitated to try for it, but following the wise advices of its coach, the team avoided it by the left trough some ice section (in very solid ice). Next had a very beautiful ice veneer pitch to the right, well protectable on the rock lying to the left. Next was an other ice veneer pitch to the left. From there went simul-climing into a hard snow section, some sections for which they needed to break the trail. Next had 2 other ice veneer pitches. Bivouac 3 at 5980m (likely figured too low on the topo). 28/10: started first with a long pitch of horizontal traverse, at first easy, then ending by a slightly delicate descending section (spur made of steep slabs covered with snow). Then made a pitch upwards in the axis of the couloir. Then went up left towards the right bank of the couloir. Next was a 15m descending traverse to bypass some rocks from below. From there, they were back again in the main couloir axis, now going straight upwards. They were worried at first regarding the conditions of this couloir, but luckily it was in hard snow, with ice to be found 15cms behind it for putting protections. They could haul their bags to better enjoy the climbing (maximum steepness estimated at about 80-85°). Bivouac 4 established at 6200m for both Pierrick's at 6200m. Three others stayed 50m below (as high as a long pitch) in a poorly confortable place; following a difficult terracing, they could obtain the space for one person lying horizontally, so that the other two had to sleep half in the tent and assured. 29/10: exited on the summit ridge in 2 steep pitches then 1 pitch of deep snow. Considering the steep mushrooms of the summit ridge, the team choose to avoid the latter via the S Face, digging a tunnel to traverse from the N to S Face. Then they traversed the S Face in rather warm temperatures across fine 45° snow slopes, sometimes breaking the trail; this in order to join the very end of the SW Ridge, a little less than 50m below the top. The latter was reached at sunset in magnificent lights. The evening before, Pauline had wondered if they were not enjoying their last sunset on Everest, but this luckily didn't happen! Bivouac 5 was established 50m below the top, on some plateform (no terracing on this evening!) close to the SW Ridge lying on the latter's south side to stay sheltered from the west wind. 30/10: started at about 8:30 am from the bivouac. In a 11 to 12-hour effort, went down via the SW Ridge until Thare, the latter reached nighttime at circa 19 hours. “Brothers in arms” (1600m/ED/VI/M5+/WI5) is dedicated to the memory of the 3 GEAN members who lost their lives on Omoga Ri Chang NW Face: Thomas Arfi, Gabriel Miloche and Louis Pachoud.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Pralhad Chapagain (Freelancer at Expes.com)
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference True
Primary ID KTEG21301
Checksum 2464584
Year 2021
Summit Success True
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) sw ridge

Members

8 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Stephane Francois Christian Benoist M 1971 France Leader Castagniers, Alpes-Maritimes, France Alpine guide, GEAN coach Details Other expeditions
Thomas Georges Arfi M 1987 France Climber - Alpine guide, GEAN coach Details Other expeditions
Pauline Champon F 1990 France Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Anouk Felix-Faure F 1996 France Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Pierrick Paul Fine M 1994 France Climber - Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Pierrick Jacques Florain Giffard M 1994 France Climber - Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Gabriel Paul Jean Miloche M 1994 France Climber Haute Savoie, France Engineer Details Other expeditions
Louis Hugo Pachoud M 1994 France Climber Savoie, France Alpine guide Details Other expeditions

References

0 recorded references.