원정 개요

Approach: Tseram, Ramche

BC 18/04 4610m in Ramche
IC 26/04 4700m (crampon point)
C1 27/04 5100m
C1 04/05 5300m (high camp)
C2 10/05 5700m
C3 11/05 6200m
Smt 12/05 by Hamor at 4:30 pm, Meroi, Benet and Bojan at about 5:30 pm.

On 19/04 reccie and back to BC. Pitched tent at crampon point to deposit gear. On 27/04 they set up C1 and on 28/04 the moved to about 5300m, left some tents there and descended to Ramche. Bad weather followed for a few days. On 04/05 they moved back to 5300m and stayed the night. On 05/05 they ascended the route a bit and descended back to Ramche.

On 09/05 they started from BC their summit push. On 10/05 they moved their tent to C2, pitched the tent, ascended for about 200m to find the way across the barrier and descended again to C2 to spend the night. On 11/05, they found a safe place on the face and set up their C3.

On 12/05 they set out for their summit push. They left C3 at 4am on 11/05. They climbed up the face which was about 60 degrees. Hamor led without rope and the other three followed with a rope. The weather was clear, not so windy. And the conditions were perfect. From the balcony to the summit it was hard snow. Nice climbing. They spent a few minutes on the summit and they descended (rappel via an Abalakov). When they were on the descent, it was dark and they were not sure where their C3 was. As they did not want to risk getting lost, they went into a huge cave at 1 am at 6400m where they stayed until 5 am.

They descended to C3 which took them about 3 hours and stayed the night. They were exhausted and also did not want to move down the face in the sunshine as it would have been too dangerous. On 14/05 they packed up their C3 and descended to Ramche. On 15/05, they went back to crampon point and cleared all their gear.

On 14/05 during the descent to Ramche, Meroi slipped just before crampon point. She slid for a few metres and fell down a serac for about 5 metres. She lie there for a while but then continued down to Ramche. Back in Kathmandu, she went to Norvic clinic and found out that 3 or 4 ribs were broken.

Left BC on 17/05 by heli to Tapetok to Lukla to Kathmandu

Oxygen: Not taken, not used.


Peter Hamor’s report on his web-site:

We have put up our Base Camp in Ramche (4610m) right next to the last tourist’s lodge in the valley on April 18th, and very next day, on April 19th we have left for Oktang – which is underneath of the Kabru’s West Face on other side of Yalung glacier. The ice culoir was in terrible condition, so we had to chang direction and move to icefall more on the left at height of 4700 meters and put up depot (crampons point). Despite the bad weather we have managed to find the way across the Icefall, but on April 28th we were forced to go back to the Base Camp due the heavy snowing and really bad snow conditions.

After the period of bad weather we had a chance to go up again on May 4th. Next day we found the way across the Icefall to 5600m. But again, due the dangerous snow conditions, we had to go back to Base Camp and had to wait for better day.

The summit attempt we’ve started in Ramche, on May 9th at 5:30 am – Nives and Romano, Bojan and myself. Surprisingly, we have found our two tents after days of strong winds and snowing without any damage. Next day, on May 10th, we succeeded to get out of the Icefall and put up our two tents in the safe place at height of 5700m. The same day, we have found the way through the Ice Barrier in front of us and got back to tents. On May 11th, we have packed the tents and moved higher.

There was still a blizzard on the ridge, but no wind on the wall, so we put the tents up on the safe point at height of 6200m. Vitor’s (Vitor Baia) weather forecast was optimistic and the wind stopped during the night. Summit attempt: we have started at 4:00 am. We made it through dangerous section of crevasses to a "Funnel", where the steepest and most demanding part starts.

Steep and hard blue ice led us to a "Balcony" underneath the summit rocky pyramid. There the terrain was little milder and on hard-packed snow. I made it to the summit of KABRU IV, 7318m, at 4:30 pm. Few minutes after, also Bojan, Nives and Romano.

We started descent immediately, but lots of rappels and making V-threads took us many hours. We have continued the descent and rappels even after dark. Finally at 1:30 am we decided to bivouac in huge ice cave at the height of 6400m. We all have survived this cold night and at 5:00 am we started to descent to our tents, where we could finally rest a bit, drink enough water and get warm. The very next day we reached Base Camp in Ramche late in the afternoon.

Our First Ascent in the West Face of Kabru IV was made in light, fair style, without fix ropes, without artificial oxygen, without building camps and without any other help. It is very nice and logic line; in case of snowing or bad snow conditions, the ascent might be quite dangerous.