원정 개요

BC above of Lake
C1 just over east side of West Col
High point just before fore-summit.

Baruntse Expedition, Michael Zettergren - 18 May 2009

Zettergren, Da Sange Sherpa and Phai Lama Tamang on 5 May, after Zettergren had recovered from a stomach ailment that had laid him low for three days, went up from BC across the West Col and established C1 just over the Col's east side at 6100m. They returned to BC the next day, rested on the 7th, and on the 8th returned to C1 to move up on the 9th and pitch C2 at 6400m.

On the 10th the three men began their attempt to reach the summit. C2's site was close to a crevasse, which they now had to cross. It was less than one meter wide, and they managed to get across by front-pointing up its far side, which was higher than the near side. From there, they moved up the slope to the SE Ridge, and climbed the ridge to 7000m. They fixed 250m of rope as they ascended from 6750m to 7000m.

They had started from C2 at 2:00 am and were stopped at three hours later at 7000m by a much larger crevasse across the ridge. For them it was impassable. It was two meters wide, too wide to jump across, and they could see no way around it: at the left end was a long drop-off, and to the right it became even wider. They retreated and were in BC at 1:00-1:30 that afternoon. As they descended from C2 to C1, Zettergren and Tamang fell into one crevasse each: wind-blown snow had camouflaged the crevasses. They were not hurt.

Late that afternoon a bad snowstorm arrived, and on the next day there was no snowfall. On the day after that, the 12th, they decided in the morning to abandon the climb as snow continued to fall. They couldn't cross the big crevasse that had confronted them at 7000m, so there was no point in waiting for better weather when they would be unable to go any higher than that. They left BC that day.

The team's only health problem was Zettergren's stomach trouble at the beginning of May.

Sherpas:
Da Sange Sherpa, 26/4/71 (13/1/2028), Bhakanje-1, Solu, Lhotse X1
Phai Lama Tamang, 17/7/76 (2/4/2033), Haku-8, Rasuwa, no 8000ers