원정 개요

KE Adventure Travel, a British outdoor adventure company, decided to offer their clients the opportunity to climb Tobsar, a seldom-attempted mountain near the northern reaches of the Buri Gandaki river northwest of the Ganesh Himal group. So many people signed up that it was necessary to divide them into two teams leaving Kathmandu five days apart.

However KE Adventure had not investigated the mountain. The two teams, following the same approach route up the Buri Gandaki and the same climbing route up the South Ridge, each encountered an icefall at about 4800m. They found it was too difficult technically for these clients. Summers said that professional climbers with some strong Sherpas could have climbed the icefall successfully, but not this group.

Group A led by Thomas Richardson turned back at 4600m on 21 November and Group B led by Adrian Summers gave up at 4860m on 30 November.

Group A left Kathmandu on 12 November by bus to Arughat Bazar and then trekked northward for 10 days to Mu Gompa following the Buri Gandaki, turned northeast into Tsum Valley to Lokpa, Rainjam, Lamagaon, Nile, and to BC at Chho Syong at 4200m, where they arrived on 21 November. They never made high camp, which they had planned for 5000m, fixed no rope, and retraced their steps to Kathmandu, where they arrived on 29 November.

Group B left Kathmandu on 17 November, followed the same approach route, arrived at the same BC on 23 November, also fixed no rope and made no higher camps. They returned to Kathmandu on 6 December.

The two groups shared the same three climbing Sherpas. They took no oxygen with them and had no health problems.