원정 개요

BC at Kyanjin Gompa.

Baden Powell Peak Expedition led by Sim-Seng Amos Chye - 3, 6 & 10 January

Leadership: Sim Seng Amos Chye of Singapore is the nominal leader only. Each country team had its own team leader, and Sirdar Phurba Pasang actually led the climb.

The expedition was organized by Nepal Scouts to mark the 150th birth anniversary of the founder of the world wide scouting movement, Lord Baden Powell. They selected a Langtang Himal peak known as Urkema (5890m), which the Nepalese authorities opened to climbers in 2006 and in 2007 officially renamed as Baden Powell Scout Peak. The expedition party consisted of foreigners from Boy Scout organizations who planned to trek into Langtang, some of whom expected to climb a modest Langtang mountain.

The climbing team consisted of 24 foreigners climbers, one Nepalese (a Newar) from Nepal Scout headquarters in Kathmandu and six Sherpas. The foreigners were three Chinese from Hong Kong, seven South Koreans, six Singaporeans, six Taiwanese, and one Australian.

The organization of the group was handled by the Nepal Scout's headquarters, and the group's activities began with two nights' stay at the Scouts' camp at Kakani, on the road leading out of the Kathmandu Valley to the west towards Trisuli Bazar. They trekked for 11 days on a circular route that retured them to Syabru Besi on 6 September. Then they trekked for four days to their mountain followed the Langtang Khola eastward to Kyanjin Gompa (3900m), where they made their BC.

They made a quick acclimatization ascent of nearby Tserko Ri (4984m); all climbing members and Sherpas summited it on 9 September. The next day the climbing team trekked for over seven hours to high camp (4996m) by going westward along the Khola to the bridge across the river, crossing over, then eastward again uphill for over four hours to the north side of their timberline and just below the snowline. From the gompa to high camp was a vertical climb of more than 1200 meters over a horizontal distance of 3.2 kms.

On 12 September, the climbing party headed for the summit up the North Face, starting at 2:00 am. From High Camp they crossed a rocky field and climbed up about 50 meters before they reached a rock slab on the right. From here, they moved along a glacier and up its 40-degree slope to a snow bowl. They zigzagged their way up, keeping to the right to avoid obvious crevasses, then climbed an 80-degree ice slope towards a rock face to the west. They continued on the ice and climbed to the top of a ridge at about 5500m, then traversed eastward to the SE Ridge. From here, Mangles, an experienced climber, and three of the six Sherpa summiters set fixed ropes for the inexperienced members. They crossed into deeper snow in the center of a bowl, then up a 50-degree slope and up a 50-degree ridge to about 60 meters to the summit.

The day's push to the summit was definitely not a trek: the climb was probably at the same level of difficulty as ascending Island Peak in Khumbu. Mark Mangles of Australia was first to gain the top at about 12:00 noon and descended in two hours from top to high camp at 3:00 pm, at the same time as the last person, Naresh Maharjan of Nepal Scouts headquarters, reached the summit.

A total of 15 members summited. They were Chang, Cho, Seng Kenny, Kim Hee-Jang, Kim Jong-Seok, Kim Seok-Won, Lai, Lee Cheng-Hsiu, Mark Mangles, Maharjan, Ng, Park, Pyo, Tay and Wu.

Mangles continued down to BC that afternoon, but all the other climbers stopped for the night in high camp; the last one to arrived in camp got there at about 7:30 pm. Everyone was back in BC late in the morning of 13 September and left camp the same day to return to Kathmandu.

Mangles believes that it would be wise to pitch a camp between Kyanjin Gompa and the 4996m so-called high camp. "While it can be done relatively easily in one day [from Kyanjin] (that's how he we did it), from an acclimatization perspective, an intermediate camp would help reduce the likelihood of altitude sickness, especially given that a number of younger climbers will/are attempting this peak. As to placing it, I would probably look at half ay between (altitude wise) Kyanjin Gompa and High Camp. There were a number of water sources on the walk in."

Sherpa etc. summiters:
Bag Bir Tamang, 26/8/76, Solu, no 8000ers
Bal Bahadur Tamang, about 35 years old, Rasuwa, no 8000ers
Karma Gyalzen Sherpa, 31/7/88, Charwa, Sotang-6, Solu, no 8000ers
(son of Phurba Pasang, team's sirdar).
Lama Babu Sherpa, Charwa, Sotang-6, Solu, no 8000ers
Nawang/Nawang Sherpa, 15/1/80, Sotang-6, Solu, no 8000ers
Phurba Pasang Sherpa, 6/10/58, Charwa, Sotang-6, Solu, Cho Oyu X5,
father of Karma Gyalzen
Temba Sherpa, 4/9/77, Sotang-6, Solu, Everest X3

Non-summiting Sherpas:
Sherku Sherpa, no 8000ers