Home/The Twelve Steps/Step 09

A lone climber in an orange down suit far out along the corniced summit ridge of Baruntse, a single line of footprints behind them in flat grey light

Baruntse

Do it again when nobody is impressed

Country
NepalBetween the Hunku and Barun valleys, Nepal
Duration
30–35 daysSeason Five
Grade
Serious 4CGet High scale
Max altitude
7,129 m23,389 ft
Daily activity
Approx 7–10 hours, 15 on summit day
Season
Oct–Nov, Apr–May
Skill required
7,000 m experience, corniced ground
Months on the plan
Two monthsof 24 planned

Step 09Baruntse7,129 m / 23,389 ft

Altitude profile: 12 steps, 1,400 m to 8,849 m at Mount EverestA line chart of every step in order. Step 1, 12 Days of Silence, is the lowest at 1,400 m / 4,593 ft, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Every step is higher than the one before it, up to step 12, Mount Everest, 8,849 m / 29,032 ft. Everything above 8,000 m is the death zone, marked in red: step 11, Cho Oyu; step 12, Mount Everest. Each point is a link to that step. You are on step 9, Baruntse, 7,129 m / 23,389 ft.

You have never in your life done a difficult thing that nobody was watching. That is the actual test, and it is this one.

What you are walking into

A clean, classic 7,000er approached through the Hunku — the same empty country as Mera, with Makalu and Chamlang for company and almost nobody else on the hill. The standard line runs the southeast ridge over corniced ground with several camps.

It is the consolidation peak. Everything you learned on Himlung gets repeated in worse weather with less attention paid to you, which happens to be the only way any of it ever becomes permanent.

What it takes out of you

Nobody claps for year three. The dramatic part of getting clean is over by about month nine, and what is left is maintenance, and maintenance is where almost everybody actually relapses.

Baruntse is an ordinary Tuesday with a mountain attached. The repetition on this list is not filler to make the number reach twelve — the repetition is the mechanism, and this is the step that proves it works on you.

The logistics

Duration
30–35 days
Skill required
7,000 m experience, corniced ground
Season
Oct–Nov, Apr–May

The climb profile

Left, elevation only: no horizontal axis, so its width means nothing. Right, air: bar length is the one thing here that does.

Climb profile: Base Camp at 5,640 m to Summit at 7,129 m, 1,489 metres of verticalA vertical elevation chart with no horizontal axis. The scale runs from 5,000 m at the foot to 7,500 m at the top. Base Camp is marked at 5,640 m and Summit at 7,129 m, a difference of 1,489 metres. Between them, by elevation: Camp 1 at 6,100 m; Camp 2 at 6,400 m. Each is drawn as a rule straight across the chart, because where it sits along the route is not sourced. The elevation part of the chart has no horizontal axis because the horizontal distance from Base Camp to Summit is not published by any source we could find. Its width carries no meaning. Cumulative ascent over the route is not sourced and is not shown. To the right, a bar hangs off each of those elevations and its length is that altitude's share of the air at sea level, which a dashed bar across the full track marks as 100%: Base Camp 51%; Camp 1 48%; Camp 2 46%; Summit 42%. The bars shorten as the elevation rises.
Base camp
Base Camp, 5,640 msource
Summit
Summit, 7,129 msource
Vertical, base camp to summit
1,489 mthe difference of the two elevations above, nothing more
Horizontal distance
Not yet sourcedNo operator route description, alpine club record or mountaineering reference we could find states it for this route. It is not estimated here.
Cumulative ascent
Not yet sourcedThe up-and-down of the whole route, which is more than the vertical above. Nobody publishes it for any of the twelve.

Camps, by elevation: Camp 1 6,100 m source · Camp 2 6,400 m source. Where each one sits along the route is not sourced, so each is drawn as a rule across the chart rather than placed on it.

Baruntse's elevation is genuinely unsettled: 7,129 m is the operator and permit consensus, PeakVisor gives 7,152 m and Wikipedia gives 7,162 m. Base camp is quoted at 5,640 m and at about 5,400 m — a 240 m spread. Of the twelve, this record is the one to distrust first.

The highest camp is Camp 2, 6,400 m, where the air is 46% of what it is at sea level. The tent was carried up there. The air was not.

The part we will not lie about

Baruntse has a reputation for wind and for corniced ridges that have caught experienced parties out. An unglamorous peak is not a safe one, and the absence of an audience lowers nothing at all.

A gloved hand clipped to a fixed line running along a corniced ridge that vanishes into flat grey cloud.
No horizon. The rope is the only thing that says which way is forward.

Who you do it with

Three metres higher than the last one, and it will feel like nothing at all. You will want a reason that this one counts. He is not going to invent one for you.

What the word means, and where it came from

$2,400,000 at the plan's pace — $100,000 a month, charged monthly, for as long as it takes. All twelve steps. One client at a time.

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A white helicopter alone on an empty wind-scoured snow plain ringed by low dark ridges.
A wind-slabbed snow plain, and nothing else in the frame at all.
The wind-scoured corniced ridge of Baruntse under low cloud, empty of people
Crampon front points biting into wind-hardened snow on a ridge crest, an orange gaiter strap just in frame

All twelve steps

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