For more information and climbing notes on Ramdung, see Alan's Mountaineering Report

Despite our best efforts, we are not ready until seven o'clock. It's well known that the time taken to faff about is proportional to the square of the number of people, and two hours for three of us is about right.

To my great relief, Pasang leads us to the north west side of the lake, and not to the horrible route we thought we were following yesterday. The path wanders up a rather loose boulder gully, marked intermittently with little cairns (barely more that one or two pebbles on a larger rock). Presently we reach the side of the gentle Yalung glacier, and rope up. Although it is neither steep nor crevassed, the glacier is hard going due to soft deep snow. Pasang leads, but we still sink a long way into his foot steps.

Approaching the Col near Ramdung Photo (c) Alan Geer 1998

We take a left turn and begin the daunting ascent to the col at point 5650m It is one of those never-ending climbs where the horizon just keeps on and on receding and you never reach the top. When we reach the col (actually more like a shoulder), we get a nasty surprise. Ramdung is still miles away and worse still lies on the other side of a 150 - 200m trough - nothing like the map.

The sherpas remain optimistic, but we soon realise that this is because they think that a smaller, closer peak is Ramdung (point 5733m - 'the Pimple') rather than the true summit. Exhausted and suffering from stomach ache, I decide to wait on the col.

Watching the others making the difficult descent into the trough, I dig a little snow-hole to get out of the punishing sun and sleep intermittently. Just after the rope emerged from the trough, Julian also decided that he had had enough and also sat and waited. Alan gallantly continued towards Ramdung with Pasang and Kami, but it was clear that it was too far to go, and too late in the day.

They turned around and climbed the 'pimple' instead, quite a project in itself, then headed home. We flounder through increasingly soft snow on the glacier and finally get back to the camp shortly before dark, where the other members are waiting. The route is obviously going to take two days.