Backed by the American Alpine Club’s McNeill/Nott Award, Chad Kellogg and I were to make our second attempt on Mt.Siguniang (6,250 meters) this spring, the centerpiece of climbing in the Qionglai Shan. A family emergency kept us from attaining our ultimate goal. Chad’s wife Lara died tragically in the during our expedition. Chad immediately departed, hence our trip came to an untimely end. However, we were able to make the first peak ascent of an unclimbed 5,700-meter peak that we called Lara Shan. Jay Janousek joined us for the ascent, which we made alpine style over 5 days, summiting on April 18, 2007.
For a complete account of our climb, please visit my
Climb China blog at
www.climbchina.blogspot.com.
Lara Shan (left) and Mt. Siguniang (right):
Our route on the headwall portion of Lara Shan:
Joe on the summit:
