원정 개요

Upon reviewing map provided by Dennis P. Davis, it appears that this expedition and the 1955 Gregory expedition climbed an unnamed peak of 6705m south of Menlung La, not the true Pangbuk Ri which is much further north of Menlung La and Kangkuru (6320m).


Letter from Ray Colledge to Salisbury - Mar 1, 2004

I agree with your assessment absolutely. We certainly did not climb Pangbuk Ri north of Kangkuru.

The fact that "our" peak is now nameless does not bother me. It remains in my memory and photographs as an excellent climb, especially after the failure on Cho Oyu.

Many thanks for the interesting maps.


Letter from Ray Colledge to Salisbury - Feb 8, 2004

Thank you for your letter of Feb 2. First I cannot give you any dates of birth of members. After 5 years of war I learned to judge a man by his attitude, not his age, as did my comrades.

We retreated from Cho Oyu largely because we had lost all our ice pitons. This was May 10.

On May 22 we moved to 20,000 feet, for physiological and oxygen tests by Dr. Griffith Pugh. These continued until May 26. Every day I completed my diary and so knew May 26 was my birthday which was now 30 years of age.

Tom Bourdillon and I decided to have a go at Pangbuk, a name which of course as unknown to us. Left camp at 7 am, each man carrying 35 lbs including a tent. No Sherpas.

Crossed plateau to Tibetan side and descended very steep ice slope to the glacier to start up north side of Pangbuk. At some stage I took a photo of the north face before descent to glacier.

At 19,700 feet we found a small terrace beneath an ice cliff and there in continuous snowfall, spent the night. That was May 28.

Now on May 29, we left tent at 6 am. Route was steeply up and diagonally left to avoid seracs, climbing frozen snow. Evidently it was cold as I recorded spending an hour watching Tom rubbing his feet to restore his circulation, and also I have a photo of this.

Tom recovered and after some interesting climbing we summited at 11 am on May 29. The descent to our tent took only 1-1/4 hours.

At this time I was 30 years + 3 days. My home town was Coventry in Warwickshire.

I cannot help regards to Tom or anyone else. Tom was killed on the Jagihorn in 1956 climbing with Dick Viney.

We failed to record the height of Pangbuk, and I still do not know the true height.

Regards,
Ray Colledge