원정 개요

BC at left (West) side of Nuptse Glacier
ABC on glacier just below South Face
Biv on South Face
Biv on South Face
xxx at col west of main summit on summit ridge.

Nuptse South Face Expedition led by Patrice Glairon-Rappaz - 2 Nov 2008

The two-man expedition trekked from Lukla airfield, where they landed on 18 September, to Dingboche, Kalapattar, Everest base camp and Ama Dablam base camp, then returned to Dingboche and went north to the Nuptse Glacier, and put their BC on the west side of the glacier at 5200m on 10 October.

They made ABC at 5500m on the glacier just below Nuptse's South Face on 15 October. The same day at 7:00 pm they left ABC in full moonlight on an avalanche-free face and at midday on the 16th reached 6500m, where they made a small plateau in the snow for their first bivouac, and stayed there two nights. It was very cold (-20 degrees Celsius) and windy; Glairon-Rappaz had stomach trouble and both were very tired. They retreated to ABC and then to BC on the 17th.

They resumed their climb up from BC on 26 October to ABC. They left ABC at 2:00 am of the 27th, when the temperature was -17 degrees Celsius, and bivouacked at 4:00 pm at their first bivouac site at 6500m. On the 28th they continued forging a new route on the South Face west of the Bonington route and made their next bivouac at 6800m.

Next day at 5:30 am they moved more or less straight up the face. They encountered the technically most difficult part of the climb in the section from 7000m to 7100m, where there was a little ice on rock 85-90 degrees steep. They continued their ascent and joined the Bonington route at 7500m where it had traversed to the west. They continued 200m up that route to arrive at 7:00 pm at a col on the summit ridge at the western slope of the main summit.

Here they turned back. It was too cold (-25 degrees Celsius) to go up the final slope eastward to the summit. They returned to their last bivouac (6800m) at 3:00 am on the 30th. They slept there, left at 8:00 am on the 30th and arrived at BC at 10:00 pm.

Now Benoist was well aware that he had developed three frostbitten toes in -20 degree's cold during the climb of the 29th/30th. They left BC on the 31st and on 1 November flew by helicopter from Namche Bazar to Kathmandu.

Glairon-Rappaz was luckier about frostbite. His fingers and toes merely became numb during the 29th/30th October climb -- and still were numb a few days later back in Kathmandu.