Surma Sarovar in Western Nepal Conquered by Piolet d’Or Recipients

Renowned mountaineers Tim Miller and Paul Ramsden who won a Piolet d’Or award made their mark in the exploration history. Their last undertaking is the forging of the path leading through Surma Sarovar (6,605m) in unchartered areas of Nepal’s west.

The Surma Sarovar saga was well underway before the climbers decided to start their dangerous adventure. Ramsden, who liked exploring unknown zones, thoroughly searched on sites that were hardly explored. Only a few expeditions had been seen in the Sarovar Khola valley, and there were hundreds of untouched summits, some of which had remained unclaimed for more than twenty years.

Miller recalls, “almost everything in that valley was unexplored.” This is what makes going where others have not gone even more appealing. The four-member team of Ramsden, Miller, Matthew Glenn, and Hamish Frost managed to navigate through the challenging flights, rough drives, and six days of hard trek until they established the base camp at the foothills of the valley.

The very trip to Surma Sarovar was full of adventures itself – a deep ravine and a rapid, icy current of the stream. The team remained undeterred despite such challenges, proving their commitment to exploration beyond traditional measures.

The climbers first did an extensive reconnaissance before finally settling for their target. This ascend consisted of a massive 2100m face and took more days than one. It was difficult to move but it went fast in the first parts. But, the climb had a peak when it faced a very steep rock band that represented the crux of the ascend.
The pair had a tough time on the first two days as they managed to record 800 vertical meters each. A huge ice field during the succeeding summit created a range of other problems. Pursuit of the summit is demonstrated by doggedness and innovativeness on Ramsden’s part using a snow hammock.

When they were getting close to the peak, the bad weather started and therefore forced them to spend the night there just below it. An additional challenge was posed by the descent which spanned across two days and presented issues with avalanche-prone slopes and tricky route-finding along a ridge. It took eight days to take off from base camp and up to the summit of the mountain while six days were spent on the mountain itself.

It did not come easy on either Miller or Ramsden since they had some frostbite. Their grit won over though, leading them to Briançon in French Alps for the Piolet d’Or ceremony. The fifth Piolet d’Or by Ramsden shows he is still dedicated to the exploits of discovering and peak performance mountaineering.

The unchartered territory represented by Surma Sarovar remains a bejeweled dream for every explorer with courage and daring like Miller and Ramsden. The duo admires the charm of Sarovar Khola Valley but Miller would like to venture into the unchartered territory and leave a precedent for others.