원정 개요

Lodge at Chhukung village
High point at base of SW Ridge.

The expedition had no Sherpa helpers, no bottled oxygen, no fixed camps. They uses a lodge in the village of Chhukung, at 5700m south of Nuptse, as their base camp. The three members climbed together all the time in their bid ot scale Nuptse's South Face via what has become known as the Bonington route from the British expedition of 1961.

They approached the mountain from the south northward on the Lhotse Nup Glacier along the east side of Mt. Chukkung to the col between Chhukung and the start of Nuptse's South Ridge. They made their first bivouac at this col at 5800m on 14 October.

In their final push for the summit, they moved up the ridge to 6400m and bivouacked there on the 15th. Their third bivouac on the 16th was at 7000m in the col at the start of the SW Ridge.

They left their fourth and final bivouac for the summit at 4:30 am and reached the col at 12:00 noon. They had been climbing in a couloir, but now at the more open col, they no longer had any protection from the wind. They could make no progress above the col because here they were hit by fierce (70-80 km/hr), very cold wind. They returned to their 7000m bivouac site at 5:30 pm as night was falling and were back in Chhukung village the next day, the 18th. Their climb was over.