Skyang Kangri, west face attempt. The first atte m p t on the west face o f Skyang K angri (7,545m ) was m ade in 1980 by M ichael K ennedy a n d Jeff Lowe, w ho reached ca 6,600m . In July 2008 a Russian expedition m ade a second attem pt. T he team included A lexander K uharev (d o c to r), clim bers V ladim ir A rkhipov, Evgeniy Beliaev, Sergey Cherezov, Igor Loginov,

and A lexander M ikhailitsin, and m e as leader. We reached K2 base cam p on June 17 an d placed advanced base cam p at 5,500m on the upper G odwin-Austen Glacier on June 19. After clim bing to Skyang La (ca 6,500m) for acclim a­ tization, the five clim bers started on the route on July 3. O ver five days, they p ushed the line to the beginning o f the headwall at 7,000m. O n the night o f July 7 there was a strong snow storm , and they spent the night struggling against snow piling up on th e tent. In th e m o rn in g , two clim bers felt sick, presenting the first signs o f pneum onia. The team decided to descend, and by tw ilight they reached the foot o f Skyang Kangri. T he p a rt o f th e ro u te we com pleted was m ixed clim bing on m arble slabs covered w ith snow and thin ice. Protection was very bad. The headwall appeared to be 300m -500m o f steep, crum b ling m arble w ith p o o r ice. N ik o l a y Z a k h a r o v , Russia