원정 개요

BC at Gorak Shep's Himalayan Lodge.

Before attempting his solo ascent of the seldom-climbed West Face of Nuptse, Zangrilli led two clients to the summits of trekking peaks, Kyazo Ri in the Gokyo valley (on 10 October) and Island Peak (on 15 October).

Then Zangrilli went alone to Gorak Shep on 31 October. He made the Himalayan Lodge there his BC. The next day he climbed Kalapattar to have a good look at the West Face (or wall) of Nuptse, which he proposed to climb in alpine style. He took a lot of pictures of the face. He decided that the "key (to his route) was how to get to the bottom of the wall."

But it turned out to be very easy to reach. On the 5th he left Gorak Shep and it took him only two hours to get there. He bivouacked there at 5210m. Since he planned to climb the mountain in four days, he had very little equipment with him: a sleeping bag, bivvy sack, on 5-mm rope, 12 pieces of hardware, a gas stove and two canisters of gas.

At midnight of the 5th/6th he woke up and he started to climb the face at 1:30 am in full moonlight. Aheads were two large seracs. He scaled the serac and then at 5:00 am arrived at the first glacier, which ascended from 5300m to 5450m. It was broken by three very large crevasses, which he went around: he did not have enough equipment to descend into the crevasses and climb back up the opposite sides.

Strong wind out of the northwest blew tiny icy crystals down on him from the West Ridge: he felt as though he was being snowed on. Now the crux of the route above 5450m was a rock buttress above a bergschrund. The buttress was easy to climb because wind-driven snow had compressed the snow into the cracks in the rock. It was as steep as 70 degrees, but it was smooth.

At 5850m, he crossed over a snow ridge to the top of the second of two menacing hanging glaciers. Zangrilli made his second bivouac in a bergschrund at 5900m at 1:30 pm on the 6th. It had taken him three hours to get to the bergschrund up 35-40 degrees sugar snow.

It was very cold in the bergschrund and he was not equipped for such a low temperature. He got up much earlier than planned at 4:00am, because he was so cold -- he had to move. He resumed climbing at 5:00 am. But above him was 50-65-degree hard blue ice covered by a lot of sugar snow. He now realized that "couldn't get anywhere" here. He managed to ascend 20 meters and then gave up.

At 6:00 am on 7 November he started down, and at 3:00 pm, he was back at his BC at Gorak Shep.

He wants to attempt the West Face next autumn ,but starting in early October rather than a month earlier.