원정 개요

The whole team left for their summit push on 21st September. When they reached C2 on 22 Sept, Waelchli was suffering from severe kidney pain. He managed to stay the night but decided to descend to BC on 23 Sept due to his pain.

Boesch and Steck carried on to C3 and on 24 Sept the two left C3 at 3 am. The snow conditions were very challenging and they were covered in snow up to their hips. When they reached 7900m, Boesch decided to turn around as he was too exhausted to carry on and it was quite late in the day. He thought that if he carried on he would probably not make it back down. He descended to BC the same day; however, on the way down he felt very sick and thought he was not going to survive the descent. He took some oral Dexamethasone and made it all the way down to BC, where he arrived at 5 pm.

Steck carried on even though he felt very exhausted himself. He said that he had never been so tired in his life. He arrived at the summit at 3:30 pm and just spent a few minutes there. He descended to C3, where he collapsed in his tent at about 5:30 pm. Boesch had left a note for him in the tent, telling him that he was fighting for survival, so Steck was worried about him; however, his radio did not work in the camp and he was simply too exhausted to go out to the Makalu La, where the radio would have worked. He was happy to see Boesch at BC when he arrived there on 25 September. When he took off his boots he noticed that he had slightly frostbitten toes; however, he does not think they will be permanently damaged. They are not purple, just swollen.

Steck's Attempt on the West Pillar:

Steck had planned to climb the West Pillar of Makalu in alpine style, which would have been the first such accomplishment.

After having arrived at BC, Steck climbed to 6000m on 3 Sept and stayed the night there. On the way up to C1 he had to cross the twin towers over snow and rock, however, Steck said it was not technically difficult. It took him 3 hours to reach 6000m. On 4 Sept, he climbed up to 6700m (he took 5 hours) where he deposited all his gear and descended back to BC. After that, he stayed in BC until 12 Sept, due to heavy snowfall.

On 12 Sept, he ascended to 6700m. He left at 1 am and took about 8 hours to reach C2. It was a struggle to get up due to the amount of snow that had fallen between 05 Sept and 11 Sept. He was covered in snow up to his hips. He reached his C2 at about 9 am. On 13 Sept, he left C2 at 3 am, weather was good but too much snow. When he reached 7200m at 8 am he decided to turn back, as the conditions just did not allow him to carry on.

He descended back to BC but left his gear at C2. He arrived back at BC on 13 Sept at around 1 am on.

On 16 Sept, Steck went back to C2 to collect his down gear in case the conditions would improve. He left BC at about 1 am, reached 6700m at 6 am then back to BC at 9 am.

On 21 Sept he decided to abandon his attempt of the West Pillar and joined Robert Boesch and Andreas Welchli on the normal route.

He summited on 24 Sept at 3:30 pm.

On the West Pillar route, Ueli Steck followed the route of Marc Batard in 1988.

Dates for Steck's West Pillar Attempt:

01 Sept BC 5250m
03 Sept C1 6000m
12 Sept C2 6700m
13 Sept high point 7200m