원정 개요

BC at middle of Chago Glacier's southern end
C1 on NW Ridge
C2 at Makalu La
C3 on North Face.

1st summit bid was made by 2 members 29th April & down to C3 [Guarachi and Boukreev stopped 30m below summit due to route difficulties]. Guarachi left expedition while Boukreev stayed on to attempt speed ascent & was in C3 on his way up when Kieser left BC on 14th May.

May 8th McPherson tried alone from C3 & got to 8200m before wind & clouds made him decide to turn back (didn't want to climb alone in clouds) & down to C3 & left for home.

May 9th third summit bid after spell of bad weather & resting from supporting 1st team. 9th May Bain, Beidleman & Kieser left C3 for top at 1:45 am (Bain on oxygen, others two not); Beidleman & Kieser turned back at 8340m, close to summit ridge, because of getting late, cloudy & tired; all three were making stupid mistakes at 100m in route finding. Bain continued to 20m below summit & down to C2 (were only 2 sleeping bags in C3). Beidleman & Boukreev left BC at 5:30 pm on 13th, were in C2 4 am on 14th; going for ascent in 24 hrs (without oxygen). Beidleman had returned to BC only on 10th May, amazing how he could go back up so soon. Making normal route very safe. Bain had gone to top of Makalu II alone from C2 2 May & on 10 May went alone to Chomo Lonzo summit & from C2 via SW Ridge. Back to C2 in same day, arrived BC very tired on 11 May.

Beidleman & Boukreev (without oxygen)
Left BC 13 May 6:30 pm
Arrived C2 14 May 4:00 am
Left C2 5:00
In C3 6:15 - C3 tent flattened so spent several hours putting it back together - brewed tea & slept
Left C3 2:00 pm - too tired to go top so at 2:30-3:00 pm back to C3 for better sleep.
Returned C3 3:30 am
Left C3 15 May 8:30am
On summit 4:15 pm
Returned to C3 at 6:30 pm
Returned to BC 16 May which now had been cleared & on to lower BC at 4600m - a long day (Hillary BC).
Bain got to 20m below summit, to summit ridge & then stopped ascent at technically difficult steep knife-edge since he was alone.


Part of a note from E. Hawley to Adams Carter, editor of the American Alpine Journal, 6 September, 1994:

Makalu Spring 1994

I have been talking in recent days with two men who were on Makalu last spring, and I have now learned that the only people who actually reached the summit were Anatoli Boukreev and Neal Beidleman on 15 May. According to Beidleman, who has returned to Nepal just now to lead a team on Cho Oyu, and Bernardo Guarachi, who has been in town to go to the Tibetan side of Everest, on 29 April, Guarachi reached the area of the summit at the base of twin ice towers; he considered this to be good enough but was perhaps 50 meters vertically below the very highest point. Boukreev, who had been climbing with him, went on farther to about 20 vertical meters below the top. Only on 15 May did anyone from their expedition reach the summit at the second tower, and they were Boukreev and Beidleman.


Beidleman said on 3 Sept 94:

Those who tried to reach the summit actually got to the following vertical distances below Makalu's summit:

29 April - Guarachi 50m
Boukreev 15-20m
09 May - Bain 50m
Kieser 125m
Beidleman 125m
15 May - Boukreev on top
Beidleman on top

The wording of Climbing's story attached here on the right is correct, he said.

On Makalu (8463 meters), a Bolivian, who says he is the first Native American ever to climb in the Himalaya, reached the base of the twin ice towers approximately 30 meters from the summit via the normal route on the northwest side. Bernardo Guarachi, a 41-year-old mountain guide from La Paz, reached his high point on April 29 with Russian climber Anatoli Boukreev, who continued solo to just below the summit. On May 9, American climbers Steve Bain, Thor Kieser, and Neal Beidleman climbed to within 125 meters of the summit; Bain, using oxygen, continued alone to the base of the ice towers.

Boukreev and Beidleman stayed on to repeat the Makalu climb in a speed ascent that they hoped to accomplish in under 24 hours. The two men left basecamp (5300m) at 6:30 pm on May 13, climbed through the night, reached C2 (7400m) at 4 am, and stayed there an hour before pushing to C3 (7700m) on the North Face, where they arrived at 6:15 am to find its tent flattened. The two spent several hours rebuilding the camp, brewing tea, and sleeping, before setting out for the top at 2 pm, but returned to C3 an hour and a half later, too lethargic for a summit attempt.

They set out again at 8:30 am and 46 hours after leaving basecamp, gained the true summit at 4:15 pm on May 15.