원정 개요

BC at Yalung Glacier (100m below Kangchenjunga BC).

On 30 Sept Pockar and Petric went to acclimatize on Kabru and reached 6000m and back to BC same day. 4 Oct went again to acclimatize on Kabru and sleep one night over 6000m. Left BC at 4:20 am for Kabru. Perdan saw them last through strong telephoto lens 12:30 pm at about 6000m. Later in afternoon cloudy and during night 20 cm snow fall; 5 Oct cloudy all day clear and could see small avalanche paths but seracs had not fallen. Climbers were not roped together. On 6th and thereafter no sighting of their bright clothing and green tent - mountain was white. Searched with binoculars and telephoto lens from different sides of mountain but absolutely nothing to be seen. Hoped they had for some reason gone down Sikkimese side, but this hope now abandoned. Did they fall? Were they smothered by snow collapsing their small tent?

Perdan did no climbing, stayed at BC only.

14 Nov 96 - Viki Groselj, very experienced Slovene climber in Himalaya, said that he thinks Pockar and Petric probably made a mistake in choosing their acclimatization route. Groselj knows Kabru area well and believes that when there is much snowfall (avalanche there was on 4-5 October), there can be serious danger of climber setting off avalanching and being buried. It is likely this is what happened to Pockar and Petric, he said.

Slovenians who died in climbing accidents:
1) Slavko Sveticic, July 95 (?)
2) Stane Belak, July 95 (?)
3) Miss Jasna Bratanic, Dec 95, Slovenian Mountains
4) Janko Plevel, Feb 96, Slovenian Mountains
5) Vanja Furlan (best Slovenian climber), July 96, Slovenian Mountains
6) Bojan Pockar, Jannu, Oct 96
7) Ziga Petric, Jannu, Oct 96