Samaya x Mathieu Maynadier
CLIMBING THE MERU BY ITS SOUTH FACE
Following a first attempt to climb Meru via its south face in 2019, Mathieu Maynadier returned to India and achieved this feat 4 years later, in May 2023, accompanied by Simon Gietl and Roger Schaeli. For Samaya, the mountaineer looks back on the course of his ascent, from the base camp to the summit of the route, at more than 6000 meters above sea level.
How did you approach this second attempt?
Mathieu Maynadier : For our first test, we arrived at the beginning of September and it started to snow for 2 weeks. We couldn't do anything. This year, we left in mid-April. I was with Simon Gietl and Roger Schaeli, with whom I get on really well. Normally, it's a very touristic area until the base camp, the track is already made. There, we had to go back and forth several times to trace because it had snowed just before we arrived. It was a bit painful because we had a lot of instability. The weather was not very bad, but never really beautiful. It was snowing every afternoon and it was hard to find the right slot. We still managed to acclimatize without being too scared, except when we got hit by the storm. There are more and more in the Himalayas, with lightning at 7000, which is a bit new and stressful.
How was the ascent?
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MM : I was in really good shape during the whole acclimatization, but the night we finally got the slot, I got sick. We took a rest day, which was a little stressful because we were at the end of the weather window. I had some responsibility for others and I didn't want to ruin everything. We had a great atmosphere in the team and we really wanted to do it together. Our cameraman gave me medicine and I was able to leave the next day. The summit is at 6600, with snow slopes of 300-400 meters, then a first rocky bastion, 200 meters of mixed slope and a last rocky bastion that we didn't really know how to approach. We finally passed the snow slopes, and we climbed to the first mixed bastion where we thought we were sleeping. As the weather was nice and we weren't badly off, we went through the whole mixed race. Roger motivated himself despite our fatigue, he did a last length which brought us to a mushroom on which we slept. Above, there was a bastion, very short in length but we knew it was very steep, and from below, we had spotted flagstones, a large roof with snow stuck under it. I went on the first length and finally, on the right there was a tunnel under the roof, through which we went. We then had two collector lengths left and we went out.
Why the name “Goldfish”?
MM : We called this route like that in relation to Shark's Fin, the route on the central Meru. We tried to be super honest about all the quotes. We rated M6+, but a real M6+. It's not M4 rated M6 because it's at 6000. It's a debate, but I try to be very rigorous on the ratings. Anyway, it was pure lengths, super climbing.
