Region: China & Tibet

Ed Douglas with Tom Prentice & Duncan Tunstall. (October 2005)

There were rumours that the summit of Xiashe (5833m) in the Qionglai Shan of West Sichuan had been reached a few years ago, but if so it was by an ‘illegal’ expedition about which little seems to be known. However, on this trip Douglas and Tunstall achieved their objective of making the first ascent of the mountain’s 1300m North Face by a route which they called ‘Don’t Cook Yak in Anger’ and graded Scottish IV/V. But they were beaten to the summit by New Zealanders Pat Deavoll and Karen McNeill who had already made the first (definite) ascent a few days earlier. From a shared base camp (but on an expedition that had not applied for MEF support) they climbed the mountain by its W/SW Ridge, leaving tracks which Douglas & Tunstall were able to follow on their descent. In the meantime, Prentice opted for a solo reconnaissance of the area (the mapping of which leaves a lot to be desired), during which he made an unsuccessful attempt on Pt 5690m by its long NE Ridge.