원정 개요

IAF Cho Oyu Expedition, Ramesh Chandra Tripathi - 17 May 2009

Tripathi's policy for the summit push that once they had left C1 to go for the top, not to descend till the end, and to spend just one nigth in each successively higher camp. The weather forced him to modify it and to stay longer in the camps.

Two climbing members were not fully fit and could not climb high. Nizamuddin and Rawat went with others to establish C1 on 30 April and down with them to ABC on 1 May, but then remained in ABC for the rest of the climb. In their place, two members who had been in reserve, G. P. Kumar and Singh, came up and joined the push for the summit.

The team's six Sherpas were the only people engaged in fixing ropes. They fixed 700m from C1 to the site for their C3, and route to the summit. Four of the Sherpas, Lhakpa Dorje, Norbu, Pem Chhiri and Sonam Chering, on 8 May climbed to the site for C3 at 7700m, fixing the route and leaving the gear for making the camp, but they did not sleep there.

The summit push began on 5 May, when Bharmoria, Choudhary, Jaikishan, Kumar, Singh and Tripathi moved from ABC to C1. But already the bad weather was forcing delays in their progress. Because of snowfall, strong wind and low temperatures they spent five nights, instead of just one, at C1.

They left C1 on the 10th and reached C2. The plan now was to spend two hours in C2 resting, drinking tea and water, and for the members to breathe oxygen, then go for the top during the night. The four Sherpas went ahead of them to C3's site and prepared hot drinks for them. But winds of 40-50 knots and near white-out conditions prevented the members from leaving C2, and the Sherpas gave up waiting for them and rejoined them in C2 at 7:00 pm NST. All these members and Sherpas spent the night in C2 (the members used oxygen for two hours, then switched off,
Sherpas used none.)

On the 11th, the weather was still very bad. They tried to go to the summit, but were forced to abandon the attempt at only 7300m by 60-knot and stronger winds, blizzard and total white-out. They were pinned down in C1 for another night, but still hoping to be able to summit on the 12th.

But the weather was unchanged the next morning, and the team's bid for the summit was abandoned. Instead of going any higher, they descended. Jaikishan and Tripathi stopped in C1; they were tired and they needed to pack up the camp. The others continued on down to ABC for the night. During his descent to C1, the wind was so fierce that it lifted Tripathi, who is not a big man, off his feet.

The climb was over. There was no more time for a second summit push.

The only health problems were the two frostbitten fingers each of G. P. Kumar and sirdar Pasang Gombu in C2. Their frostbite was not serious.

Sherpas:
Lhakpa Dorje, 1/10/65, Chitre, Sotang-6, Solu, Everest X5, Lhotse X1
Norbu Sherpa, 2/5/68, Beding, Everest X9, Lhotse X1, Cho Oyu X7,
Gasherbrum II X1, Broad Peak X1
Pasang Gombu, team's sirdar, 22/4/61 (according to passport), Lokhim-9, Solu,
Cho Oyu X4
Pem Chhiri, 9/11/75, Lokhim, Kurima-9, Solu, no 8000ers
Sonam Chering, 29/5/64, Solukhumbu, no 8000ers

Note: Colonel Ashok Abbey joined this team on 29 April as a guest visitor. He went to C2 site with Rawat on May 6, then retreated to C1 the same day (see HJ 66).