Of all the highly technical climbing techniques it took this Dutch team to reach the summit of Nuptse Mountain in the Nepalese Himalayas, “horseback riding” was the most memorable.
Mount Nuptse is located 1.2 miles south-southwest of Everest and is the 26th highest mountain in the world (elevation 25,791 feet). Nuptse was first climbed in  Dennis Davis and Sherpa Tashi who took the North Ridge back in 1961. Alternative routes up the West Ridge and South Face have been taken in the subsequent 63 years but summiting Nuptse has been attempted very few times thereafter.
Alpinist Christian De Jong’s high elevation horseback ride turned out not to be the best approach, so they quickly switched back to climbing in the steep face and continued to the summit. De Jong will remember the moment he straddled the ridge as a “great experiment with the best views!”
Although relatively unknown to those outside the alpinist community, summiting Mount Nuptse is a major accomplishment and is rare compared compared to standing on the peak of its notable neighbor Mt. Everest.
“Nuptse summit success. I can still hardly believe we did it. What an epic climb!” –Christian De Jong