Tackling Unfinished Business on Kusum Kangru - By Sunny Stroeer

In the fall of 2019, LOWA athlete Sunny Stroeer spent seven weeks in the Himalayas - first, to lead a team in the Everest region through her women-focused high altitude expedition business AWExpeditions, and second, to complete a new line on the east side of rarely climbed 20,889 ft Kusum Kangru. 

Kusum Kangru was unfinished business for Sunny: she had attempted the very same line in 2016 but got turned back by unsafe conditions. 

In October 2019, she returned with her husband and climbing partner Paul Gagner in order to complete what she had started three years prior. 

Once again, Kusum Kangru’s eastern slopes presented hard work and variable conditions. After seven days of gradually pushing higher on the mountain, Sunny & Paul established high camp at 18,500ft and got to work trying to unlock the key technical difficulties of their chosen line. 

The duo ultimately had to back down from their attempt without a summit once more, yet the memories and images that they brought home are for the books.