원정 개요

Seven Summit Treks Annapurna expedition was a combination of several independent teams (1-2 climbers each). Seven Summits provided transportation, base camp facilities and various levels of high altitude support (oxygen, high-altitude porters, tents, etc) as required and contracted for by each team. The individual accounts for each team are given below.

Two summit attempts were made by group members: the first in mid-April which failed for all, and the second at the end of April which succeeded on 30 April and 1 May.


Nadav Ben Yehuda (Israel)

Name: First Israeli to Annapurna Expedition 2016
Camps: BC(16/03,4200m),C1(23/03,5100m),C2(24/03,5600m),C3(13/04,6500m),
C4(30/04,7300m),Smt(01/05)
Left: 03/05/2016
Hired: 1
Term: Success (9:10 am)

Ben Yehuda and Chhepal Sherpa left for summit from the higher C4 on 30 April at 10:30 pm. They reached the summit at 9:10 am, stayed 5 minutes, and then returned to the higher C4 at 5 pm.

It was very windy, but conditions Ok. No fixed rope above 7400m which was very scary for Ben Yehuda. The last slope to the summit was rather steep. They spent about 5 minutes on the summit and on their way down, they met David Klein and Jost Kobusch. Ben Yehuda and Kobusch played a chess match on Kobusch's iPhone about 20m below the summit.

[See note from Chris Burke below.]

Oxygen:
Ben Yehuda used from 7400m to summit to 7900m
Chhepal used from 7400m to summit to 7400m

Sherpa:
Chhepal, Makalu


Guntis Brands (Switzerland)

Name: None
Camps: BC(16/03,4100m),C1(20/03,5200m),C2(25/03,5700m),C3(15/04,6400m),xxx
Left: 04/05/2016
Hired: 0
Term: Abandoned at 7800m due to severe cold (fingers)

Summit bid on evening of 30 April. Turned around at 7800m due to severe cold (fingers were in danger of frostbite).

Fixed rope:
By Seven Summit Treks Sherpas all the way.

Oxygen:
Used from C4 to high point.


Tunc Findik (Turkey)

Name: None
Camps: BC(16/03,4100m),C1(20/03,5200m),C2(25/03,5700m),C3(15/04,6400m),xxx
Left: 18/04/2016
Hired: 0
Term: Abandoned at 6400m due to high winds

On 15 April Findik reached C3 together with Guntis Brands. The night was very windy and Findik decided to descend the following day. He went to BC and decided to abandon the expedition.


Alex Gavan (Romania)

Name: None
Camps: BC(16/03,4100m),C1(20/03,5200m),C2(25/03,5700m),xxx(05/04,6200m)
Left: 08/04/2016
Hired: 0
Term: Abandoned at 6200m due to dangerous seracs (bad gut feeling about the
mountain)

On 5 April Gavan was climbing towards C3 and he had a gut feeling that he should go down and leave the mountain. He had just moved underneath the seracs and it became clear to him that this would be too dangerous in the long run, especially with so many people on the mountain. He descended to BC the same day.


David Klein (Hungary)

Name: Johnnie Walker Annapurna 1 Expedition 2016
Camps: BC(24/03,4200m),C1(26/03,5100m),C2(29/03,5600m),C3(05/04,6500m),
C4A(15/04,7000m),C4B(30/04,7300m),Smt(01/05)
Left: 03/05/2016
Hired: 0
Term: Success at 1:30 pm

Klein started summit bid from high C4 (7300m) on 30 April at 11:15 pm, reached summit at 1:30 pm, stayed for 20 minutes, then descended to high C4 at 7 pm. Klein summited with Kobusch and Vielmo, who were also with Seven Summit Treks.

Klein together with Kobusch stayed the night at the higher C4 at 7300m and they left for their summit attempt at 11:15 pm on 30 April. They were the last to leave of the Seven Summit Treks team as they had problems with their stove. For the first 3 hours the wind was getting stronger; some of the gusts were about 50 km/h. At around 3 am they were contemplating retreating as they got very cold. However, when the sun came out it warmed up and they continued.

Around sunrise they caught up with Mario Vielmo (also Seven Summit Treks) and the three climbed together. They used the fixed rope from the first summit attempt on 15 April; however, the rope stopped at about 7500m (half way of the traverse). They had to manage the rest of the climb without fixed ropes.

The couloir was difficult with a lot of loose rock and snow.

Oxygen: Not used


Jost Kobusch (Germany)

Name: Just Go For It Annapurna I Expedition 2016
Camps: BC(16/03,4200m),C1(18/03,5100m),C2(19/03,5600m),C3(14/04,6500m),
C4A(15/04,7000m),C4B(30/04,7300m),Smt(01/05)
Left: 03/05/2016
Hired: 0
Term: Success at 9:10 am

Kobusch and Klein left higher C4 at 7300m at 11:15 pm on 30 April. They were the last climbers to leave of the Seven Summit Treks team as they had problems with their stove. For the first 3 hours the wind was getting stronger; some gusts were about 50 km/h. At around 3 am they were contemplating retreating as they got very cold. It got warmer when the sun came out and felt much better.

Around sunrise they caught up with Mario Vielmo and the three climbed together. They used the fixed rope from the first summit attempt on 15 April, but it stopped at about 7500m (half way of the traverse). They reached the summit on 1 May at 13:30 pm, stayed about 20 minutes, then returned to C4 at 7 pm. The following day Kobusch descended to BC.

A few thousand meters of fixed rope were set by the Seven Summit Treks Sherpas.

Oxygen: Not used


Luo Jing (China)

Name: None
Camps: BC(16/03,4200m),C1(27/04,5100m),C2(24/03,5600m),C3(26/03,6500m),
C4A(15/04,6500m),C4B(30/04,7000m),Smt(01/05)
Left: 03/05/2016
Hired: 1
Term: Success at 9:10 am

The first time Luo Jing spent a night at C1 was on her summit push rotation, hence the later date for sleeping in C1.

Luo Jing and Chhiji Nurbu Sherpa started their summit from high C4 (7300m) on 30 April at 11:30 pm. They reached the summit at 9:10 am, stayed 30 minutes, then descended to C3 at 4 pm.

Straightforward climb. No fixed rope above 7500m.

On the descent, they wanted to spend the night at the higher C4 (7300m), however their tent was blown away and they were forced to continue to C3.

Oxygen:
Luo Jing from C4 to summit to C3.
Chhiji Nurbu from C4 to summit to C4.

Sherpa:
Chhiji Nurbu Sherpa, Upper Walung, Makalu Barun, 30/07/1080


Boyan Petrov (Bulgaria)

Name: None
Camps: BC(16/03,4200m),C1(18/03,5100m),C2(19/03,5600m),C3(13/04,6500m),
C4(14,29/04,7000m),Smt(30/04)
Left: 03/05/2016
Hired: 0
Term: Success at 2 pm

Petrov started his summit bid from the lower C4 (7000m) on 30 April at 3:34 am, reached the summit at 2:00 pm, stayed 30 minutes, and then returned to lower C4 at 5:30 pm.

He was on his own as he wanted to use the good weather window. He used the ropes that were fixed during the first summit attempt on 15 April. There were no fixed ropes above 7500m. Excellent conditions, only about 60 cm of snow in the couloir.

Seven Summit Treks Sherpas and the Sherpas of the Korean team fixed a few thousand meters of rope.


Dmitri Sinev (Russia)
Alexander Lutokhin (Russia)

Name: None
Camps: BC(08/04,4200m),C1(09/04,5000m),C2(10/04,5650m),C3(16/04,6500m),
C4(29/04,7000m),xxx(30/04,7900m)
Left: 03/05/2016
Hired: 0
Term: Abandoned at 7900m due to tiredness and lateness in the day

Sinev and Lutokhin left C4 at 2 am on 30 April. They reached the high point of 7900m at 3:30 pm. Conditions were good, weather was good for climbing. Physically they were well, but tired. It was too late to carry on, so they descended to C4 reaching it at 8:30 pm. The following day, they reached C2. On 2 May to BC.


Atanas Skatov (Bulgaria)

Name: None
Camps: BC(16/03,4200m),C1(19/03,5050m),C2(23/03,5600m),C3(14/04,6500m),
C4(15/04,6985m),Smt(01/05)
Left: 03/05/2016
Hired: 1
Term: Success (10:10 am)

Skatov began summit bid from C4 on 30 April at 8:10 pm; reached summit on 1 May at 10:10 am and stayed for 15 minutes; returned to C4 and 7:00 pm.

Nuri Sherpa, Carlos Soria and his team, Ben-Yehuda from Israel and his Sherpa, Du Puy from USA, Chris Burke and Lakpa Sherpa summited together with Skatov.

Fixed rope:
Rope fixed by Nuri Sherpa

Oxygen:
Used by Skatov and Nuri Sherpa from C4 to summit to C4.


Mario Vielmo (Italy)
Sebastiano Valentini (Italy)

Name: None
Camps: BC(24/03,4200m),C1(26/03,5100m),C2(30/03,5600m),C3(07/04,6600m),
C4(30/04,7300m),Smt(01/05)
Left: 03/05/2016
Hired: 1
Term: Success at 1:30 pm

Vielmo and Pasang left the higher C4 at 7300m at 11 pm on 30 April. The it was windy, but otherwise conditions were good. At about sunrise, Kobusch and Klein (also Seven Summit Treks) caught up with them and they climbed to the summit together.

They spent about 20 minutes on the summit and descended to C4, where they arrived at 7 pm. The following day to BC.

Valentini reached 6600m on 7 April during their acclimatization rotation. He got frostbite on eight fingers during their descent to BC. They went to see the doctor of Carlos Soria's team to have a look at de Valentini's fingers. He took a heli out of BC on 11 April.

Sherpa:
Pasang, Dipsung, Khotang


Naoko Watanabe (Japan)

Name: None
Camps: BC(16/03,4200m),C1(23/03,4895m),C2(24/03,5600m),C3(14/04,6310m),
C4(15/04,7100m),xxx(15/04,7170m)
Left: 18/04/2016
Hired: 1
Term: Abandoned at 7170m due to route difficulty

Watanabe and Chhepal Sherpa left C4 at 10:30 pm on 15 April to go for the summit. About 70m out of C44 the route became too difficult for Watanabe and she decided to turn back. They stayed the night at C4 and the following day descended to BC. On 17 April they left C2 at 4 am to descend to BC, where they arrived 9 am. On 18 April Watanabe was picked up by helicopter.

Oxygen:
From C4 to high point to C2 by Watanabe
From C4 to high point to C3 by Chhepal

Sherpa:
Chhepal, Patle-2, Okhaldhunga


Chris Burke - 22 June 2018

Jost and Nadav played chess quite a bit below the summit. Matt DuPuy was their witness - they wanted a witness for Guinness, but then they did not qualify for Guinness for other reasons (I think because they did not play for long enough as per their video) - and I think Matt is the one who did their video. I was close to them as they started to play, but then I think it is at that point when I passed them (because they stopped). Jost and the others without Os stopped and sat for quite a while at one stage too on their way up, as I recall.

Nadav did not summit at 9:10 am because he summited AFTER Matt and me by minutes - we were just starting to descend as he stepped up onto a flat section almost dug out for people to stand on - the Spanish team of Carlos, etc. were in front of me and Lakpa and I recall us having to wait a really long time in the strong winds maybe 30m below the summit whilst they levelled out a flat section for their group to stand on and they took heaps of photos and video. In Nadav's video on Annapurna, I can see Nadav really close to the summit and it pans around and one of the people in front of him in the group is Matt, I'm pretty sure, in a bright red down suit. Which means, I must be on the up side of the group because Matt came up behind me only a few minutes later. (I checked my photos that I took of Matt nearly at summit and Nadav is right behind him). Luo Jing was ahead of the Spanish, I recall.

At a guess, if I summited at 10:30 am (as per approx. time on my photos) I reckon Nadav was there 15 mins after Matt. So, maybe even 10:45 am or thereabouts. I remember on the way down meeting the guys without Os still going up, including Jost. Matt might recall the height at which Jost and Nadav played chess, but it was not 'just before the summit'. Maybe it was 9:10 am (so maybe the summit time and chess time were mixed up by someone?).