Three Spanish climbers make the first ascent of Jugal II (6,518 m) in Nepal

The Himalayas still have untouched summits, and one has just gone to a Spanish team. Mikel Zabalza, Rubén Pérez and Mikel Sáez de Urabain have made the first ascent of Jugal II (6,518 m), in Nepal’s Jugal Himal.

The climb

According to ExplorersWeb, citing Spain’s Diario de Navarra, the team summited on 26 October by the east-southeast side and returned to base camp the next day. The climbers will share more details once they’re home.

Zabalza and Sáez de Urabain already knew the area: they scouted it in spring 2024, but bad weather kept them off the peak. Zabalza was also among those who opened the south face of Dorje Lhakpa in 2021.

The Italians with the same goal

They weren’t alone. Italians Nives Meroi and Romano Benet had planned to go to Tilicho Peak in the Annapurnas, but storms and floods cut trails and washed away bridges, so they changed objective. Their third member, Slovenian Tine Cuder, fell ill and left the expedition two weeks earlier.

Meroi told ExplorersWeb they retreated the day before the Spanish summit. Now they’re heading back together: “We’re on our way to Kathmandu, and we are with the Spaniards.”

A very recently opened mountain

The Jugal Himal lies northeast of Kathmandu, on the Tibetan border. Jugal I and II only opened to foreign expeditions in 2023. In spring 2024, a South Korean-Nepalese expedition led by Um Hong-gil climbed Jugal I but not Jugal II, which The Himalayan Database still listed as unclimbed.

Bad weather has forced many expeditions to change plans lately: see what Cyclone Arnab left behind in Nepal.

And if you wonder how the body copes at those heights, read what happens to your body above 3,000 metres.