원정 개요

The expedition's plan was for Zerain to make a solo ascent of the North Face of Everest via the Hornbein Couloir with Arrieta accompanying him on his accimatization climb to 8000m on the normal North Col route. (The other two members would remain in BC.). Then Zerain would go up the face to the top alone: on the first day he would climb to 8000m at the bottom of the couloir, rest there for a few hours, and very early the next morning go to the summit. At the summit, he would decide whether to descend the line he had just ascended or go down the North Col route. The whole climb would take two to four days.

It didn't work out like that. The expedition (with no Sherpas) made their first base at 5200m at the so called Chinese BC (CBC) site for the North Col route on 16 August, and four days later from the East Rongbuk Glacier they made an intermediate camp at 5800m, 18 km from CBC horizontally.

Before attempting any route on Everest, Zerain and Arrieta acclimatized by climbing Changtse (7560m), which is sometimes called Everest North and is indeed north of the great mountain. They approached it from their intermediate camp and made two bivouacs at 5600m on 27 August on the Rongbuk Glacier and 6000m at the foot of the East Ridge. They climbed the ridge up to 7300m on 1 September.

Next they moved to the bottom of Everest's North Face. AFter ferrying loads from Changtse for eight days during daily snowfall, on 14 September they pitched their BC for the North Face at 6200m, one hour's walk from the face. But there was a lot of snow on the mountain, and they decided to go elsewhere to do a bit more climbing.

They went next to Changzheng, which is about 7000m high southwest of Changtse on a ridge between them. Zerain and Arrieta reached 6500m on the West Ridge on 17 September but strong wind and avalanching preventing their summiting.

They now went back and forth between intermediate camp and some small unnamed peaks in the area which they climbed. Finally they returned to their North Face BC for an attempt to scale the face. But Zerain never got into the Japanese Couloir, which is below the Hornbein and leads into it. Large avalanches swept the face from west of the Japanese Couloir, and when Zerain and Arrieta were at the bottom of this couloir (at approximately 6300m) on 26 September, two avalanches swept them 100 meters lower and covered them. They were uninjured, but convinced they should abandon the face.

They returned to their intermediate camp so that on the 28th Zerain could attempt Everest by the standard North Col. But crevasses made it too dangerous for him to move alone. He decide that his bid to climb Everest was finished. The team's high point via the North Col route was 7300m.

The team left CBC on 1 November to return to Kathmandu.