The Solitary Ridge: David Lama's Historic Solo First Ascent of Lunag Ri

In the high, wind-scoured wilderness of the Rolwaling Himal on the border between Nepal and Tibet, the serrated crest of Lunag Ri (6,895m) stood for generations as one of the most coveted unclimbed summits on Earth. Guarded by complex hanging glaciers, rotten shale bands, and an impossibly sharp, knife-edge West Ridge buffeted by hurricane-force jet stream winds, the mountain had rebuffed every attempt by international expeditions.

For Austrian climber David Lama, whose father was a Sherpa from the Solukhumbu region, Lunag Ri was more than a technical mountain problem; it was an ancestral pilgrimage. In 2015 and 2016, Lama attempted the West Ridge with legendary American alpinist Conrad Anker. During their 2016 push, at nearly 6,000 meters, Anker suffered a heart attack on the wall, forcing an emergency descent and helicopter rescue that saved Anker’s life. Following Anker’s recovery, the veteran gave Lama his blessing to return to the mountain alone.

Solitary Commitment on the West Ridge

In late October 2018, Lama arrived beneath the shadow of Lunag Ri completely alone. In keeping with the strictest ethics of modern alpine style, he brought no fixed ropes, no high-altitude support climbers, and no supplemental oxygen. His equipment consisted of a tiny bivy tent, two technical ice axes, a single sixty-meter rope, and minimal freeze-dried provisions.

Departing his advanced base camp in the dark on October 23, Lama moved swiftly onto the lower ice apron. The temperatures were brutal, plunging below minus twenty-five degrees Celsius. Where the route met the vertical granite of the West Ridge, Lama negotiated delicate mixed pitches, hooking his ice axe picks into hairline rock seams and balancing on microscopic front-point holds with thousands of meters of open space beneath his boots.

Two Nights on Knife-Edge Ice

Midway up the knife-edge crest, night forced Lama to stop. Hacking a narrow notch into a fragile snow mushroom clinging to the vertical granite ridge, he pitched his tiny one-man bivy tent, anchoring the fabric directly into rock pitons. Shivering through two long, sub-zero nights as arctic jet stream winds rattled the tent walls, Lama stayed focused, melting snow on his tiny stove and conserving every calorie.

On the morning of October 25, 2018, under a blindingly clear, deep-violet Himalayan sky, Lama launched his final summit push. Navigating the treacherous summit headwall—where fragile rime ice covered loose, crumbling rock—he pulled himself over the final cornice onto the summit ridge of Lunag Ri at 10:00 AM. For the first time in human history, someone stood on the peak’s highest point.

An Eternal Legacy

Setting his camera on a snow mound, Lama recorded a short video of himself on the summit. His face was weathered and ice-encrusted, but his eyes shone with deep peace. He spoke quietly, honoring the mountain, his family, and Conrad Anker, before beginning his solitary descent.

Six months later, in April 2019, David Lama was tragically killed alongside Hansjörg Auer and Jess Roskelley in an avalanche on Howse Peak in Canada. The jury of the 2019 Piolets d’Or posthumously awarded David Lama the Golden Ice Axe for Lunag Ri, immortalizing an ascent that stood as the absolute zenith of human capability, courage, and solitary grace in the high mountains.