An Honest Retelling of One of the Year’s Best Climbs

The following feature is shared with permission from the 2025 American Alpine Journal (AAJ). Want to receive a copy of the AAJ each year? Join the American Alpine Club at americanalpineclub.org.

I was not expecting so much delight. Ryan Griffiths, Matt Zia, and I had come to the sparsely populated Mugu District in western Nepal to attempt a tall line on the south side of Kaqur Kangri (a.k.a. Kanti Himal, 6,859m), a majestic butte of a peak on the border with Tibet. We had pictures of half the mountain and an old...