원정 개요

The team went to Baruntse first, as a warm up for tackling the West Pillar of Makalu, their ultimate goal. They made their BC on 14 April to serve their climbs on both mountains at 5300m, just northwest of the junction of the Chago and Barun Glaciers, not far from low base camps for Makalu expeditions.

From their BC, Inuarteggi, Vallejo and Zabalza went southwest to Sherpani Col and bivouacked there at 6100m on 22 April. On the 23rd they moved northwest of their first bivvy site and bivouacked at 6500m west-southwest of point 6730m, called Peak 4, at the top end of the Lower Barun Glacier.

They left the bivouac at 8:00 am on 24 April and all three were on the summit of Baruntse at 11 :00 am via the SE Ridge, then back in BC at 5:00 pm.

Next they went to Makalu to acclimatize further via its standard route, which goes up the West Face to the Makalu La before turning right onto the NW Ridge. The three men bivouacked at 6700m on hte 28th and on the Makalu La at 7400m on the 29th. On the 30th they returned to BC.

Now for their summit bid via the difficult West Pillar. On 6 May they went to 6500m and bivouacked there at the base of the pillar. But fierce winds sent them back to BC on the 7th to wait for the wind to drop. They tried again on the 15th, when they bivouacked at 6500m. The next day they climbed only 200m higher before the wind drove them back again to BC two wait some more for the strength of the wind to lessen.

But it did not lessen, so they gave up on 22 May. They left BC the same day to return to Kathmandu.