Slovenian alpinists climbed a first ascent route...

Slovenian alpinists climbed a first ascent route on the mountain Pomlaca/Ngole East.

Slovenian alpinists Matija Volontar, Bor Levičnik and Žiga Oražem climbed at the end of October in the Himalayas a 1100 meters long first ascent route on the 6180 meters high mountain Pomlaca.

First ascent route

Screaming Barfies, Pomlaca (Ngole East) (6180 m): AI5/70°-90°/IV-V, 1100 m

Matija Volontar, Bor Levičnik and Žiga Oražem, 23-24 October 2022




The first goal of this year's autumn expedition, whose members were Matija Volontar, Bor Levičnik and Žiga Oražem, was the nearly 7000 meters high Tengi Ragi Tau (6938m). It is located in the Nepalese part of the Himalayas on the border between the Rolwaling valley and the Thame valley. Access to the Thame valley is initially shared with the path leading under Everest.


The three experienced climbers, who have already climbed together both at home in the Slovenian mountains and in South America, and all of whom once belonged to the Slovenian Youth Alpinist Team (SMAR), noticed another interesting option during acclimatization: Pomlaca. This is a lesser-known 6180 m high peak also called Ngole East.

"It is quite surprising to find such an unexplored peak in the popular Khumbu valley, but the first reason is that Pomlaca is in the shadow of much larger peaks. The second reason is that it is difficult to find the way to the base of the mountain. We spent five hours searching for the path among the seracs. But the unknown mountain enchanted us and we gave up the main goal we had been preparing for months and redirected our focus to the new mountain," said expedition leader Matija Volontar.


"The beginning of our journey in Nepal started with rain, mud and nervous waiting for the weather to improve. The internal flight was canceled and so we extended the journey to base camp by four days. In base camp, after 12 days, the rain finally stopped and we started acclimatizing. For the first time, we had the opportunity to look at the mountains surrounding the Thame valley and soon the west face of the six-thousander Pomlaca caught our attention. The motivation for the completely untouched and climbing-interesting wall was greater than the planned goal, so we decided to try," added Bor Levičnik.

Exceptionally fast climbing to the summit


The well-acclimatized team climbed to the summit in an exceptionally fast time. "The first third of the wall is quite steep or vertical, mostly we climbed on consolidated snow, ice and some rock. The incline was between 70° and 90° all the time. The middle part of the wall was slightly less steep, but searching for suitable passages kept us busy. To overcome the summit ridge, we mostly climbed on rock, except for the last 50 meters, when the terrain gradually flattened and led us to the summit of Pomlaca at 6180 m. After a good 8 hours of climbing, we stepped onto the summit. An exceptional feeling! We chose a different descent that follows the ridge to the east over more or less exposed snow and rock slopes. The conditions in the wall were, except for a short section in the middle, very good, which allowed us fast progress and completion of the tour in two days. We had prepared for a three-day tour," explained Volontar. The team then returned to their base in the village of Thyangbo.


They named the route "Screaming Barfies", which could roughly be translated into Slovenian as the feeling you get in your fingers when blood starts circulating again after numbness from the cold and it hurts a lot. "A route usually gets its name from an incident that happens during the climbing itself. This time, there was hellish cold during the climbing, which caused screams when blood returned to the limbs."

New route climbed, but the summit already ascended



Although the guys initially thought, due to rumors from local residents, that they had climbed the virgin summit of Pomlaca, which was also confirmed by the chroniclers of Nepalese expeditions (Himalayan Database) in Kathmandu, they later found out that this was not entirely true. "After several hours of browsing the web and contacting various people, I finally got the information that we are not the first to ascend this summit. A French team stood on the summit in 2005. But it is true that we are the first to climb the west face," added expedition leader Matija Volontar and concluded. "At the beginning, we thought the summit was unascended, but after extensive searching it turned out otherwise. Of course, this changes nothing. The main motivation for climbing was the new route over the unclimbed wall. A new summit would have been just icing on the cake. The reason the Himalaya Database representatives initially confirmed the virginity of the summit is that they searched under wrong keywords and did not find the record of the ascended summit in their database."

Impressions of expedition members:


Bor Levičnik: "One month in the Himalayas offers an experience that has imprinted itself in my memory for a very long time. Among the memories, I count both small triumphs and slips that I regularly struggled with. In this land of giants, I suddenly had a lot of time to devote to my thoughts, which is quite a shock for someone who barely has time to look at the clock in everyday life. There, the smallest time unit is a day. In the mountain villages, the entire life revolves around this mindset and the nervousness we are used to is often replaced by a simple smile, a shrug and the thought: 'Ah whitey, there's no rush.'"

Matija Volontar: "I am glad that uncertainty prevailed in the decision to change the goal. This allowed us to get rid of all possible prejudices and just enjoy the challenge. Maybe it succeeds, maybe not. In the end, our leap into the unknown paid off. And greatly. We climbed a first ascent route over the virgin wall in good conditions. Even now, I cannot fully comprehend how many things had to align for us to succeed."



Žiga Oražem: "Not everything went as we imagined, but we adapted, changed the original plans and succeeded. On the way, we had a few disagreements, which we successfully overcame."