Kham region: Jarjinjabo, Jantno Spire summit block, first ascent. In
Shaluli Shan
Kham region: Jarjinjabo, Jantno Spire su m m it block, first ascent. In August Bernie Laforest, Ben D itto, Jonathan K night, Steve C ater, an d I jo u rn ey ed to th e Jarjinjabo M assif in the Sichuan Province o f C hina. W ith help from the A m erican clim ber Jon O tto, we hired a tran slato r and two 4-w heel-drive vehicles. From C hengdu, o u r drive took us three days over a route that has
the reputation o f being the highest and w orst road in the w orld. The C hinese are on a paving frenzy, however, and the road is quickly being subdued. O u r trip was sim ilar to the A m erican team in 2002 (see Pete A thans’ feature article in the AAJ 2003) in that we traveled first to Litang en route to Z hopu Pasture, the gateway to the Jarjinjabo massif. O u r stopover in Litang enabled us to acclim atize, as well as m ingle w ith the T ibetans at the largest horse racing festival in the Kham region. The dreary rainy w eather began to clear as we arrived at o u r destination, and we quickly started outfitting o u r high cam p and getting acclimatized. Ben and I were psyched for the main wall o f Jabo, whereas Jonathan and Bernie were looking to the unclim bed spire atop Janmo, and Steve and M ark sim ply w anted to clim b b oth form ations and explore the su rro u n d in g walls. Over three clim bing days Jonathan and Bernie com pleted three different routes on Janmo Spire that reached a com m on highpoint. The h ig hpoint positioned them m it block, w hich they began by clim bing a sh o rt off-w idth to a ledge. reached the top by delicate face clim bing, placing four bolts and one pin and hooks. T heir com plete route w ent at IV 5 .1 1R and is rem iniscent o f
at the base o f a su m From the ledge they on lead from stances a desert tow er w ith a
classic sum m it block pitch. After this they clim bed a new variation to a route on the face of Jabo at III 5.11. Also o f note were two excellent single pitches Jonathan p u t up on and near the base o f Jabo, just above o u r camp. Ben and I clim bed one new route on the lower section o f Jabo, w hich was four pitches at 5.10, and two new routes on the beautiful u p p er face. The first one o f these followed cracks up and left tow ards the southeast buttress. It d id n ’t quite m ake the sum m it, bu t was still excellent clim bing on beautiful rock th at w ent at III 5.10. The second w ent straig h t up the face, again w ith beautiful straight-in hand and finger cracks, and was probably III 5.10+ A1 (a few pulls th rough a wet section). We also repeated a route Jonathan and Bernie had done on Janmo. Steve and M ark started o u t by sum m iting Jabo via the east ridge and clim bing Janm o via a route on the right side. T heir first day on Janm o was ham pered by funky weather, but on their second attem p t they m ade it to just below the su m m it block. They then m ade an attem p t on an o th er spire to the west o f cam p, b u t bad clim bing conditions cut this attem p t short. We w ould like to express o u r g ratitude to the AAC for su p p o rtin g this trip th ro u g h the Lyman-Spitzer clim bing grant, as well as o u r friends and families for the sup p o rt they gave. Not only did we m ake som e great friends in C hina, we also cam e back as b etter friends than before. We were truly lucky to be able to experience a place as rem ote and unspoiled as this. Tommy C
handler,
AAC
Kham region: Jarjinjabo, Jantno Spire su m m it block, first ascent. In August Bernie Laforest, Ben D itto, Jonathan K night, Steve C ater, an d I jo u rn ey ed to th e Jarjinjabo M assif in the Sichuan Province o f C hina. W ith help from the A m erican clim ber Jon O tto, we hired a tran slato r and two 4-w heel-drive vehicles. From C hengdu, o u r drive took us three days over a route that has
the reputation o f being the highest and w orst road in the w orld. The C hinese are on a paving frenzy, however, and the road is quickly being subdued. O u r trip was sim ilar to the A m erican team in 2002 (see Pete A thans’ feature article in the AAJ 2003) in that we traveled first to Litang en route to Z hopu Pasture, the gateway to the Jarjinjabo massif. O u r stopover in Litang enabled us to acclim atize, as well as m ingle w ith the T ibetans at the largest horse racing festival in the Kham region. The dreary rainy w eather began to clear as we arrived at o u r destination, and we quickly started outfitting o u r high cam p and getting acclimatized. Ben and I were psyched for the main wall o f Jabo, whereas Jonathan and Bernie were looking to the unclim bed spire atop Janmo, and Steve and M ark sim ply w anted to clim b b oth form ations and explore the su rro u n d in g walls. Over three clim bing days Jonathan and Bernie com pleted three different routes on Janmo Spire that reached a com m on highpoint. The h ig hpoint positioned them m it block, w hich they began by clim bing a sh o rt off-w idth to a ledge. reached the top by delicate face clim bing, placing four bolts and one pin and hooks. T heir com plete route w ent at IV 5 .1 1R and is rem iniscent o f
at the base o f a su m From the ledge they on lead from stances a desert tow er w ith a
classic sum m it block pitch. After this they clim bed a new variation to a route on the face of Jabo at III 5.11. Also o f note were two excellent single pitches Jonathan p u t up on and near the base o f Jabo, just above o u r camp. Ben and I clim bed one new route on the lower section o f Jabo, w hich was four pitches at 5.10, and two new routes on the beautiful u p p er face. The first one o f these followed cracks up and left tow ards the southeast buttress. It d id n ’t quite m ake the sum m it, bu t was still excellent clim bing on beautiful rock th at w ent at III 5.10. The second w ent straig h t up the face, again w ith beautiful straight-in hand and finger cracks, and was probably III 5.10+ A1 (a few pulls th rough a wet section). We also repeated a route Jonathan and Bernie had done on Janmo. Steve and M ark started o u t by sum m iting Jabo via the east ridge and clim bing Janm o via a route on the right side. T heir first day on Janm o was ham pered by funky weather, but on their second attem p t they m ade it to just below the su m m it block. They then m ade an attem p t on an o th er spire to the west o f cam p, b u t bad clim bing conditions cut this attem p t short. We w ould like to express o u r g ratitude to the AAC for su p p o rtin g this trip th ro u g h the Lyman-Spitzer clim bing grant, as well as o u r friends and families for the sup p o rt they gave. Not only did we m ake som e great friends in C hina, we also cam e back as b etter friends than before. We were truly lucky to be able to experience a place as rem ote and unspoiled as this. Tommy C
handler,
AAC
