Here is our climb of the West Ridge boiled down to an objective grade:

  VII, TD, 5.10 (A0) (rock), 5+ days on route, Ridge ascent, Couloir Descent

  I am glad I did not know this ahead of time. It all sums up to long, sustained, and f***ing demanding. Should probably also add sustained winds and non existent camps to the above list, but these are not official grades, of course. And this is the grade only up to a point 200 vertical meters from the summit. I do not know what the last 200 meters to the summit would be rated, for we didnt get any higher.

  No matter, it was a great climb. One of the longest, most technically sustained climbs I have done. The technical aspect was of course compounded by the fact of having to wear gloves while climbing rock, amongst others. For three nights in a row we could not find a large enough flat platform to put our tent. The route kept getting more and more chAllenging each day. The ridge became skinnier and steeper, both sides fell off more sharply, and the rock became unstable. All this, and there was a constant layer of loose, unconsolidated snow covering the holds.

  We constantly pushed the route. Our longest day was 10 hours of continuous climbing with an altitude gain of only 147 meters. Thats less than 15 meters an hour! 5.10 climbing, bag hauling, awkward traverses across vertical walls took hours and hours to complete. Each night it took over two hours to dig out an area and secure the tent. Each morning over three hours to start leading up the route again. EVENTually, it became evident that to continue on would be pushing into a danger zone possibly beyond our control. We all know that one cannot control many factors in the mountains, but when something goes wrong, you want to still have adequate reSources to deal with the problem. This is all subjective, of course, but experienced climbers are always evaluating and re-evaluating their situation by weighing the resources they have (both material, physical condition, and mental) against their natural environment (route conditions, weather, exposure, and more).

  Thus, in one 15-hour push on the evening of October 30 during a snowstorm with erratic whipping winds we descended the central couloir on the west face all the back to basecamp.

  Here is a short day-to-day account of our climb.

  October 26 (5014 meters)

  We followed a gully system up the north side of the west ridge and popped onto the ridgeline at an obvious week point just above 5000 meters elevation. The climb took approximately five hours. The climbing was challenging. Most was walking on airy, dry, unconsolidated snow covering boulders, loose rocks, and frozen skree. The average slope angle was 35 degrees (my best calculated guess). We went unroped the entire way.

  We set up our tent on a small snowy platform below a rocky precipice on the north side of the west ridge just below the ridgeline, tucked mostly out of the wind, which is blowing with significant force on the ridges south side. The tent almost fit the platform we leveled out, but not quite. It is 8:50PM and I can hear the wind howling over the ridge 20 meters overhead. 

  October 27 (5248 meters):

  The climbing started in earnest. The ridge at this point was fairly straightforward but we needed to be roped the entire way and pitch it out. We could not do a running belay for either the slope was too steep or the fall off either side was significant. The route generally followed the ridge. There was a lot of cold blowing wind today, coming primarily from the southwest. The route followed mostly the north side of the ridge so we were able to keep out of the wind some of the time. Not far out of camp two, there was a section of steep rock about 20 meters high. I hade to climb this section without my pack. The rock was of good quality and solid. When I got to the top I secured the rope, then rappelled down, and jumared back up with my pack on. Chen Cheng followed and I then belayed Ma Yihua to the top. It was probably 5.6 climbing.

  Our camp was about 1 meter wide at the narrowest part and almost 2 meters at the widest part. This part falling into oblivion below. We were only able to setup two of the four poles normally required. We had to sit up, our backs against the granite rock walls behind us, our legs either tucked up or, if stretched out, nearly going off the edge of the platform. Overall the camp was fairly safe for there was a huge boulder on the outside of the platform, preventing us from falling off the edge. Regardless, we secured the rope through the tent and to the rock behind us. Ma Yihua had a very uncomfortable night.

  October 28 (5395 meters):

  Today the going got slow and tedious. The first section with the rope already fixed from yesterday took about 1.5 hours for the three of us to complete.

  Further on there was a wall of class 5 climbing at least 50 meters high. We decided to bypass this by traversing around it to the right (south side) to a small gully system. However, walls can become vertical when approaching a gully, so dropping into a gully from anywhere along its middle section can be challenging. I was hoping this would be the most difficult section and then we could efficiently follow the gully up to another high point on the ridge, making better time.

  The traverse was more difficult than I thought. A short vertical section 3 meters high required me to take off my pack and traverse the remaining 20 meters without the weight of the pack pulling me backwards down a mega drop-off. After reaching the gully I secured the rope and then returned to where my pack was. Chen Cheng came across. I shuttled all three of our packs to the gully and then belayed Ma Yihua across. At this time it was getting dark. I led one more pitch and found a "camp" after dark. This was our more precarious camp. It took hours to dig a "flat" spot and secure the tent. We finally all settled in after 11PM. Today we did 10 hours of continuous climbing but only made 147 vertical meters gain.

  October 29 (5513 meters)

  Regardless of our late start, things looked promising as I stared to lead out from our pitifully small tent platform. Two pitches of low angle slope that I was hoping would lead to the snowy summit ridgeline. However, the slope ran out and dropped off sharply to long, dangerous, steep face. We were then forced to get back on the West ridge. A short distance after getting back on the ridge we were on a small ledge on the north side of the ridge with an overhang above us and a nearly vertical drop below. I had to pull a short series of 5.10 moves off the deck with gloves on and then climb a chimney. These initial moves ate up a lot of time. Once up Chen Cheng followed. Ma Yihua coordinated the pulling of our 3 bags from below and Chen Cheng and I hauled from above. Once the bags were all up, Ma Yihua ascended using jumar.

  Today 7-8 hours of climbing. We found a pretty good tent site and started chopping rock before dark. We got to sleep before midnight today.

  Today the ridge became significantly narrower and both sides dropped of at nearly vertically. I have learned the true definition of knife-edge. Also, more and more large rocks were loose on the ridge.

  October 30 (5552 meters high point)

  Right out of camp there was a short section of knife-edge ridge followed by an almost vertical face of rotten rock, sloping holds and off-width cracks. The lower section required minor aid, essentially hauling on BD cams and nuts. I did not trust any one rock at this point. Many of the big rocks were loose.

  Chen Cheng jumared up followed by Ma Yihua. I then rappelled down, removing the pro as a descended, retrieved my pack, and then jumared up again. I started thinking that this mountain I am going to have to climb twice just to get to the top.

  The last pitch we was the worst. A true knife-edge section of ridge. Long vertical drop-offs on both sides, some sections only a half-meter wide. Strange configurations. Many large loose rocks on top. Then, had to awkwardly climb around the face on the north side of the ridge for a little bit. I placed slings over horns and hung off of them, swinging my body around to the next stand. My pack pulled me back. This day I started feeling more uncomfortable than I wished. The problem is that when you are on a mountain, you dont have control over a lot of these comfort issues. You have to deal with what you are dealt.  When Chen Cheng came across on jumar across a tensioned rope, he said exasperatedly, "how the hell did you get across this."

  I was thinking at this we would have to go down. I had crossed my line.

  Once across, the both of them agreed that they did not want to backtrack the section that we just went up. There was no place to put a tent. Ma Yihua belayed me up another short pitch to see if there was a place to pitch the tent. I put in 7 pieces of protection for a space of about 15 meters. It wasnt that steep and I didnt shoulder my pack. I didnt trust the rock. A lot of loose stuff. The section still further above looked potentially worse than the part I aided today. And, there was another obvious steep section after that.

  I suggested dropping down a steep gully and then trying to hook up with another gully that would by-pass both these steep shitty sections. Everyone agreed. We would only have to drop down about 50 vertical meters, and hopefully find a spot to put the tent.

  Rope over rope, 30-meter rappel. Still in sub-gully. Pound piton, next rappel, sub-gully hooked up with the other sub gullies but no place to put a tent, no potential platform. Pound piton, third rappel. During this rappel it got dark and we were in a full out snowstorm. We continued down. About 10 rappels later we were in the main couloir. Sometime around this time there was an earthquake measuring 4.7 very near by. It shook the mountain but we did not feel it. Eventually the slope was moderate enough not to rappel anymore. We were running out of pitons.

  We belayed each other down 30 meters at a time. We made it to the steep river ravine at maybe 3AM on the morning of the 31st. The ravine required four rappels, one of them fairly long and vertical. Used two more pitons for these. One piton remaining.
 
  We called our support team at around 5:30AM and they were waiting for us at the bottom of the ravine. By the time we emerged from the ravine it was light out, around 8AM.

  Today the weather was bad. Wind had no discernable direction. It seamed back and forth at random from SW to NW. It was also snowing.