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BC near lake
High point at bottom of West Col's west side.

The team approached Baruntse from Khumbu in the west, as most team do, but found it very difficult: there is no glacier left, so getting up onto the West Col is a problem because it now is steep bare rock, so one must go half a kilometer to the right to the right to reach some ice. But this approach is very steep and requires the installation of fixed rope.

The Germans had no climbing Sherpas with them, but they did have two Sherpa guides to show them the way to and from BC. The team established their BC in the normal place near a lake on the 6th of October. After the team had rested on the 7th, the Sherpa guides helped them on the 8th to transport their gear to a deposit at the bottom of the Col on its west side. Everyone slept that night at BC.

On the 9th heavy snowfall started in the morning and lasted for a day and a half, dumping 30-40 cm of new snow. Discouraging the Germans further were some large seracs between C1 and C2 which they could see from BC. They decided to abandon the climb.

On the 10th they went back to their deposit and brought all their gear down to BC. They packed up on the 11th and left BC on the 12th to go to Mera Peak's BC. Here, too, they could make no climbing progress because there was too much powder snow covering everything. They went to Lukla and flew to Kathmandu.