원정 개요

BC northeast of mountain on grass
ABC on moraine northeast of mountain
C1 on north ridge
C2 on glacier.

Grobel had led another expedition on Ratna Chuli in October, so he met the members when they arrived at Phugaon on 9 November. The members had gone by road to Besisahar, then up the Marshyangdi River to the Phu Khola and via Phu Khola to Phugaon. From there, the team went north to Hagoru village via the Khumjugar Khola, west to Kulung Kharka via the Lunnakya Khola, and finally northwest to BC.

Three days after their arrival at BC on 12 November, they made an ABC from which all five members and five Sherpas attempted to climb Sahasar, a 6188m peak north-northwest of Pokharkan. On the 16th they went up the glacier on the southeast side of Sahasar to 5800m, but then they turned around. There was some wind and light snowfall. They returned to ABC the same day.

They then concentrated on climbing Pokharkan with two camps above ABC. C1 was at 5500m on the North Ridge; now to reach their C2 site, on the 19th they went along the North Ridge to 5900m, then down the slope on its east side to the glacier below at 5800m to pitch C2 there.

From C2, De Varax and Sherpas Chhotemba, Pasang, Rinji, Bishal Rai and Kishor Gurung moved up the glacier onto the NE Ridge at 6215m. This point on the ridge was between two small Pokharkan peaks 6205m and 6265m high. They then followed the rounded snow-covered NE Ridge to the summit.

They descended to C2 for the night and were back in BC on the 21st.

Grobel had planned that after Pokharkan, the team would search for an approach to Mt. Amolsang. However that idea was abandoned because of the cold (minus 15 degrees Celsius) and wind (over 50 km/hr), and they returned about one week early to Kathmandu.

Sherpas:
Bishal Rai, 22 yrs old, Dharan, Sunsari, no 8000ers
Chhotemba Sherpa, 29/9/84 he says; 5/10/84 according to Himalayan Database,
Densi Chhungbu he says, Grobel thinks Walung, Database says Nurbugaon,
all agree Makalu-9, no 8000ers
Kishor Gurung, 26 yrs old, Gorkha, no 8000ers
Pasang Sherpa, about 25 yrs old, Walung, Makalu, no 8000ers
Rinji Sherpa, 10/3/85 (27/11/2041), Yaphu-9, Makalu, Dhaulagiri I X1