원정 개요

BC at Kaya Khola valley
C1 at bottom of NE Face.

Tongu Peak (about 6200m/20,340ft), north of Dhaulagiri I, was climbed enroute to BC via NW Ridge running from Mu La to top. Summited on 5 Oct by Hummer, Peter Suntinger and Tronigger.

On 7th Oct at "the most unfriendly village in Nepal", Kakot on the Barbung Khola north of Putha Hiunchuli expedition was stopped enroute to BC about 25 "Maoist-friendly" locals, who demanded Rs 100,000 for permission to enter their valley of Kaya Khola, where the team would make BC. Team was kept Kakot for a day and half until they agreed to pay Rs 67,000; then they were freed to go to BC. All other Dolpa villages were friendly.

Expedition members were divided into three teams for further climbs.

When expedition left BC to return to KTM, they had to take a northernly route, which was longer than their approach route, because Mu La was now blocked by snow. They reached Jomsom on 27 Oct.

Expedition was divided into three teams:

Team I Team II Team III
Peter Suntinger Roland Hummer Uwe Lackner
Thomas Suntinger Christian Miklautsch Guenter Mussnig
Hans-Peter Tronigger Werner Mussnig
Thomas Pokorny
Thomas Zoehrer

Team I had only one camp above BC: they occupied their C1 at 5300m on 12 Oct. On 14 Oct they made reconnaissance to 6400m on NE Face to East Ridge and returned same day to C1. On 15 Oct at 4:00 pm the three members (without any Sherpa support) left C1 to go to summit, but Tronigger decided to turn back, and Peter Suntinger went down with him to 6100m, where Team II had a camp. Then Suntinger went back up to meet Thomas Suntinger and they spent that night in a snowhole at 6800m. On 16 Oct the two men reached summit at 9:30 am, then descended to BC. They used skis in ascent and descent.

Team II occupied their ABC at 5000m on 11 Oct. On 12 Oct they made another camp at 5200m because they could make only slow progress in deep snow. On 13 Oct they made their next camp at 5400m on the glacier, and on 14th another camp at 6100m in the middle of the NE Face. On 15 Oct the two men started up again at 1:00 am but at 6300m turned back because it was bitterly cold and became disoriented, so down to their camp at 6100m. On 16 Oct they left at 5:00 am for another attempt to reach summit and got to 7000m at 4:00 pm. They now turned back because they were exhausted and it was getting late in the day; they again slept in camp at 6100m. On 17th Oct fierce winds blew away their camp and they had to retreat to BC. They too had no Sherpas with them, and they used skis in their ascent and descent.

Team III of five members, plus two Sherpas, left BC on 13 Oct without skis and made their ABC at 5100m. On 14 Oct, they went up to pitch their C1, but stopped at 5350m at the beginning of the glacier: they radioed to other expedition members that it was impossible to go higher on the face without skis in 2 centimeter-deep snow, and there was avalanching. On 15 Oct. they went down to BC and up a side valley, where they camped in a new ABC for two days to climb minor peaks around it. On 16 Oct. Pokorny soloed one peak, and on 17 Oct the Mussnig brothers summited another one.