원정 개요

Note: dates for camp sites are approimate and based on data from French Annapurna I expedition.


Christian Trommsdorf - Dec 2007

...It is actually quite a funny story: we (Yannick Graziani, Patrick Wagnon and myself) first climbed the West Ridge of Singu Chuli, stayed three nights on the top to acclimatise, then came back to BC down crossing below the foot of the South Face of Roc Noir, where we left a deposit at 6000m. We then came back in ultra-light style (no sleeping bags, just the inside of a North Face VE25, three ice screws and 1x50m rope and 25 chapatis which we never ate, if I remember well). The first day we went from BC (4300m) to our deposit (6000m) which was safe on a small rocky outcrop just at the foot of the Roc Noir South Face. A complex route, it helped to have come down that way. The second day we rested and started to climb that South Face late afternoon (access very prone to serac fall for maybe 20 min.). We climbed half the night to about 6800m and bivvied on a small serac on the left. The third day we climbed the rest of the face up to 7500m, we did a very very uncomfortable bivvy just below the crest under a rock; on the ridge the north wind was way too strong. Our route basically goes straight up the Roc Noir South Face, and exits maybe 200m on the left of the Roc Noir summit (which is not clearly detached from the rest of the ridge); it is a 45- to 60-degree snow and ice slope. The fourth day the morning was windstill, we crossed horizontally towards the East Summit of Annapurna 1, staying at 7500m. The wind became very strong again at midday, and with our insufficient acclimatisation plus very bad night there was no chance of making it to the top of the A1 East Summit. We crossed horizontally at 7500m until the North Ridge of A1 east, where we hit a steep may be 150m wall (west face of the ridge) and we bivvied again, hoping maybe the next day things would be easier (less windy); it turned out to be one of our worst nights ever, the storm broke our tent poles, and without sleeping bags it was a 'little' chilly. The next morning the storm was the same and we were totally fucked (as you say in literary English), so we climbed down the North Ridge of A1 East. At 6400m, by pure chance and luck (other would say by some superior sense for route finding...) we hit the fixed ropes and last camp of the French A1 anniversary expedition (with Profit and organised by Terray's son). We followed their ropes and flags down to their BC which we reached late the same day (extremely high serac fall danger at around 5800m on a little plateau you cross...).

We were a little astonished not to meet any of them in the high camps, but to find them enjoying life in base camp, although Christophe Profit seemed a little restless...

They were evenly surprised to see us, as they knew we were on the sanctuary side, and their L.O. (we hadn't expected that useless bastard to sit in BC) insisted on making some photos of us. Anyway, even though we were still aspirant guides, and not members (as they all were) of the universally acclaimed "Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix," they were kind with us and gave us some real food, and hosted us for a day's rest. But Patrick had a plane to catch and I had clients to meet in Kathmandu, so we had to rush to get back to Pokhara. So the next day, for me the worst of the whole journey as I had developed an angina, we did a nice little 20 hour trek in our big Everest boots (there were no trekking boots for sale at BC!) to Lete, first village on the Annapurna circuit. There was a surprising amount of uphill hiking, maybe 1500 vertical meters, and we did't know the way so we got lost in the jungle. We ended up with the worst blisters ever...and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the trek back to Beni.