Gyaltsen (see below). The region will shortly be opened to the general public through eco-tourism by the Myanmar authorities. The government is collecting information for development in that regard, and many scientific expeditions have been already accepted in the region. Only a few Westerners ever made it to Mt. Hkakabo Razi, the National Park or anywhere close to it. Captain B.E.A. Pritchard was the first Westerner to visit the Alun Dung valley, in 1913. Climbing history Takashi Ozaki (Japan, 1951 – May 14, 2011) and Nyima Gyaltsen (aka "Aung Tse"; Myanmar) made the first ascent in 1996. Ozaki had attempted the mountain in 1995 but turned back due to bad weather. The route to basecamp is long (four weeks) and arduous through a dense rain forest with many unbridged stream crossings. The recentness of the first ascent can also be attributed to the policy that foreigners were not allowed into the area until 1993. In 2013, the nearby peak of Gamlang Razi was climbed and measured at using an advanced version of GPS, making it possibly the highest in Myanmar. Ozaki had confirmed Hkakabo's height as 5881 m, but he did not yet have the GPS equipment to measure the exact height of Hkakabo Razi. In August 2014 an all-Burmese expedition took a new route up the north face. Two team-members, Ko Aung Myint Myat and Ko Wai Yan Min Thu, reached the summit on August 31 for the second ascent of the mountain, placing a flag, plaque and Buddha image at the summit. The climbers ran out of battery power right after reaching the summit, and radio contact was lost. After they failed to return to the lower camps, a rescue operation was launched. The search for the missing climbers continued into October. It involved a helicopter crash landing, leading to the death of one pilot and an 11-day survival trek by the other pilot and the passenger mountaineer. In November 2014, a National Geographic Society / The North Face sponsored expedition set out to measure the height of Hkakabo Razi using the same equipment as the Gamlang Razi team. The 2014 group was led by Hilaree Nelson, and also included Mark Jenkins, Cory Richards, Renan Ozturk, Emily Harrington and Taylor Rees. On November 7, 2014, Jenkins, Richards, and Ozturk made the final attempt at the summit but turned back at . They estimated that the summit was an