Found this interesting article by Alpinist
http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP18/newsw ... ark-butson

Shame that most major stuff has been climbed in Sichuan now, else I'd be back there like a bullet.

Lee,
I couldn't disagree with you more. There is SO MUCH awesome unclimbed stuff in Sichuan, you couldn't climb it all in a lifetime. I want to put up a page on Bipeng Valley where there are dozen of unclimbed and unnamed stunning peaks that will see fantastic alpine lines over the next ten years. We recently backed off a peak in the area I want to finsih next year. The north wall of Banji North and the west face of Yangmantai are two huge big walls that haven't been completed. Put the bullet back in the gun and pull the trigger.

That's encouraging to hear. Impression I've got from reading Alpine journals and magazines is that it's been over-climbed in the last few years (since those Nakamura articles).

I was there Sept 2004 and very little had been attempted, much less climbed. Beautiful granite, but SO WET there that ascents will need to be early winter. Late Oct -early Dec would seem to be right. Most stuff we saw will go at AI5, 5.8, Msomething... the days of bandit climbing sans permits are probably over now too.

I'm interested to see where the line attempted on the Camel is, it may be the same one we attempted. Essentially slabby 5.9 granite with frozen snow stuck all over it. Scare ball.

Camel Peak(s) lines from the Changping Valley side are somewhat interesting, but the real action will be on the north and west faces with approaches via Bipeng Valley. Just scanned slides from my latest trip and will post on a Bipeng page. The west face of Yangmantai, just north and east of the Camel Peaks is an AMAZING pymarid over 500m tall. And this is just one of the many big walls. There are at least three other alpine peaks at the head of the valley that are very worthy objectives: Taizi Peak (Crown Prince), Huang Ho (Queen)Peak, and an unnamed horn. All peaks over 5600m and none, to my knowledge, have been attempted. All very hard and very technical.

Bob, I bet more has been climbed than you think. I know a number of climbers who've been in the Siguniang region. The only thing we'll ever know about what went in is finding rap anchors, unless they just downclimbed something easier. Several people told me 'Oh, I climbed some 10 or 12 pitch 5.9 in there, not sure what peak." But it doesn't really matter does it, it's still just as fun to climb.

Do you think those guys mentioned in the article above made the 'first alpine style' ascents in the Changping valley? Give me a break.

Brandon,

Sure more people go in and climb in the region than write articles about it for the Alpinist.

There is tons of stuff to climb in these valleys. I would like to see more climbers putting in new lines, so I can repeat them. I'm less concerned about first ascents than about finding the 'perfect line'.

There are still no classic lines that everyone talks about and wants to repeat. I'd love to be part of the effort to establish at least one. My biggest problem living here and trying to develop the climbing is finding partners. Very few locals climb, and the expats just don't take the time off from work. Foreigners come with their own teams.

Bob, my impression is that there will be very few classic lines in the Siguniang region. Down sloping granite slabs, lots of wetness. Maybe the 'classics' will all be winter mixed routes. OR, lots of drilling might make some repeatable routes.

there are about 50 peaks in Sichuan those are higher more than 5000m while more than 30 peaks is unclimbed. Andthe peaks you talk upsite is all in Abar,but there is many peaks in Ganzi,such as Gongga,Tianhaizi