원정 개요

Humar to Annapurna 1 - 4 Nov 2007

Humar, Dr. Anda Perdan and Jagat Bahadur Limbu reached the Annapurna Base Camp Lodge on 24 September and stayed there because of incessant rain causing rivulets to flow along the trails. On the 29th, despite continuing rainfall, they moved north to their BC at 4150m on the east side of the Annapurna South Glacier. The rain continued; they had to move their tents five times because of water accumulating beneath them.

They had almost constant bad weather -- rain or snow, plus wind later -- for weeks. But Humar stuck to his goal of climbing Annapurna I's South Face. He needed to acclimatize before attempting the mountain, so he climbed some other peaks in the area. On 2 October he went alone to Rakshi Peak (about 5000m south-southwest of Tharpu Chuli) in deep, soft sticky snow. Again a period of bad weather. On the 8th he was able to solo Tharpa Chuli, also known as Tent Peak, 5663m high, by a new route (NW Face-NW Ridge), but the mountains were not very high; his attempt to get acclimatized was not very successful.

Next, from 7 October he and his sirdar, Jagat, sent five days trying to see conditions in the best approach to Annapurna I's South Face towards its eastern end and conditions on the face itself. He selected the far easatern end for his line up the face because there are not so many falling stones here as there are to the west. It was very difficult to make his reconnaissance in fog among very confusing rock formations and big crevasses. Finally they found the key to reaching the face by going around rock towers to a hidden plateau: the plateau was the key.

They put a small tent at 5000m under a huge rock for their ABC on 10 October. It was eight hours from BC and just below the Catalan route climbed by Enric Lucas and Nil Bohigas to the East Summit in the autumn of 1984. On the 11th they went down to BC, "completely exhausted," for a rest.

Now there was more snowfall. On the 23rd they returned to ABC, and on the 24th they had considerable difficulty on the snow-covered crevassed way to the plateau, where they managed to reach and make Humar's first bivouac at 5800m at 6:00 pm. Humar had developed a toothache on the 23rd; he stayed at the bivouac an extra day to acclimatize and nurse his toothache, but he also spent three hours to look for the way to cross the plateau to reach the South Face. A strong wind pushed Humar's tent for 20 meters when he was inside it, but no damage done.

On the 26th he left the bivouac and began his push up the face alone. He took with him food for five days, a stove and two gas cylinders, a bivouac sack, a small sleeping bag, two ice screws, two Prusiks and an ice axe, but no helmet and of course no oxygen. Jagat went with him across the "key" plateau to the foot of the South Face.

From here, Humar started up the face alone. At first it was bare rock, then covered with snow, then rock again to his second bivouac at 7200m. It was a large snow hole which he dug out of the deep snow covering the face here. He stayed in this bivouac for two nights (the 26th and 27th) while rocks fell down the face beside his hole, but he was never hit.

On the 28th, he returned to his climb. He left his second bivouac with the "absolute minimum" of gear. At 6:00 am he started up despite strong wind and his not having slept the previous night while thinking about what to do the next day. It was very cold. It took him two hours to reach the East Ridge. He started moving alone the ridge itself but most of the way to the East Summit he made his way a few meters below the ridge of the North Face, moving carefully, very conscious of the danger of cornices breaking under his weight.

He had expected to reach the East Summit at noon, but it was 3:00 pm when he got there. While moving between the point where he gained the ridge and the East Summit, the wind was so strong that he had to lie down on the snow and crawl forward on his hands and knees between the gusts.

He spent very little time on this summit (8026m high) and soon began his descent down the way he had come up. But this was not easy. The wind had obliterated his tracks, and after it became dark, the light from his headlamp lasted only briefly. He had to wait for the moon to rise at about 7:00 pm to give him sufficient light to move over the mini-peaks on the ridge. He slept there until 2:00-3:00 am of the 29th; he brewed some tea and a hot lemon drink (Tang). By now his toes had become slightly frostbitten.

At 8:00 am on the 29th, he left his snow hole and started down the face. He moved very fast in his decent without any rope and was in his first bivouac at 12:00 noon and met Jagat here. He stayed only half an hour and then went with Jagat to ABC at 5:00 pm and BC at 8:30 pm in deep snow. His climb was finished.

Sherpa"
Jagat Bahadur Limbu, 29/1/76 (15/10/2032), Ankhibhui-4, Sankhuwasabha