Kangchenjunga history
South West or Yalung face of Kangchenjunga
Recommended books & maps on Kanchenjunga Recommended books & maps about Nepal Kangchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world; second highest in Nepal and highest in India. Kangchenjunga can be translated as the "Five Treasures of the Snow", as it contains five peaks, four of them over 8,450 metres. The huge massif of Kangchenjunga is buttressed by great ridges running east-west and north-south, they contain a host of spectacular 6,000 and 7,000 meter peaks. On the east ridge in Sikkim, is Siniolchu (6,888 m), regarded as one of the most beautiful mountains in the world. The west ridge culminates in the magnificent Jannu (7,710m) with its imposing north face. To the south, clearly visible from Darjeeling, are Kabru North (7,338 m), Kabru South (7,316 m) and Rathong peaks (6,678 m). The north ridge contains The Twins and Tent Peak, and runs up to the Tibetan border by the Jongsong La, a 6,120 m pass.
Summary of Kangchenjunga history
1905: the first attempt to climb the mountain headed by the controversial Aleister Crowley. They got to a high point of 6,500m above the Yalung glacier when an avalanche killed Alexis Pache and three porters, meanwhile Crowley refused to help them and remained in his tent drinking a cup of tea!
1929: A German expedition reaches 7400m on the North-East spur from the Zemu glacier in Sikkim. They turn back after a five-day storm burys most of their equipment.
1930: An Intenational expedition led by George Dyhrenfurth including Briton Frank Smythe. They approached the North West side from Nepal and during an attempt on the North ridge a porter is killed in an avalanche. After a second attempt on the North West face the expedition is called off.
1931: A second German expedition led by Paul Bauer attempted the North East Spur before being turned back by bad weather, illnesses and deaths. The expedition retreated after climbing only a little higher than the 1929 attempt. 1955: The first ascent is made by Britons Joe Brown and George Band on May 25 followed by Norman Hardie and Tony Streather a day later. Out of respect for local beliefs, the actual summit itself remained virgin, a tradition that continued until recent years. The now classic route follows the Yalung Glacier to the base of the South West Face, to the Great Shelf which lies below the Main summit and Yalung Kang. Above the Great Shelf the route goes up The Gangway to near the West Ridge, where the pinnacled ridge crest is avoided by climbing the headwall until the summit ridge can be reached.
1973: A Japanese expedition to Yalung Kang succeeded in climbing the South West Ridge. Yutaka Ageta and Takeo Matsuda reached the summit but had to bivouac on the descent and sadly Matsuda is killed by falling rock the next day.
1977: The second ascent of Kanchenjunga is made in 1977 by an Indian Army team led by Col. Narinder Kumar. They climbed the north-east spur which is the difficult ridge that defeated the German expeditions in 1929 and 1931.
1978: A Polish team made the first successful ascent of the south summit (Kangchenjunga II) and the two highest points of the triple peaked Central summit.
1979: A small team of Peter Boardman, Joe Tasker, Doug Scott, and Georges Bettembourg climbed the North West face without oxygen or porters.
1980: An expedition led by Dr K Herrligkoffer followed the original British South West face route. On May 15 G. Ritter, Nima Dorje Sherpa, and Lhakpa Gyalu Sherpa summitted.
1981: A Japanese expedition attempted the main summit and Yalung Kang at the same time. Five climbers and a Sherpa climbed the main summit and Yalung Kang is also climbed but no traverse is made between the two summits.
1982: Reinhold Messner, Friedl Mutschelecher and Sherpa Ang Dorje climbed a new route on the North West Face.
1983: Pierre Beghin made the first solo ascent without supplementary oxygen.
1984: British-Canadian Roger Marshall repeated Beghin's post-monsoon solo on the same route. A large Japanese expedition traversed the South, Central and Main summits.
1985: Yugoslavian climbers Bornt Bergant and Tomo Cesen made the first ascent of the North Face of Yalung Kang.
1986: Polish climbers, Krzysztof Wielicki and Jerzy Kukuczka, made the first winter ascent.
1987: A large Indian expedition made a repeat of the 1977 ascent of the North East Spur. On the first summit attempt, F. Bhutia, P. Dorjee, and C. Tsering succeed in reaching the summit but die on the descent. The second summit party found a prayer flag left behind by the first party on the top, and while descending C. Singh also died.
1988: Austrian Peter Habeler, American Buhler, and Spaniard Martin Zabeleta succeeded in climbing a variation of the 1979 British North Route alpine-style.
1989: A large Russian expedition successfully traversed all four summits with separate teams traversing the summits in opposite directions. An American expedition succeeded on the North West Face to North Ridge route, Ershler, van Hoy, Vestiurs, Link, Nielson and Wilson made the summit.
1991: Marija Frantor and Joze Rozman attempted the first ascent by a woman but they died on descent. The same year, Andrej Stremfelj and Marko Prezelj completed a technically demanding, elegant alpine style climb up the south ridge of Kangchenjunga to the South Summit at 8494m. This is one of the most spectacular climbs in Himalayan history.
1992: Wanda Rutkiewicz died on a summit attempt after she refused to descend in an approaching storm. She planned on bivouacing and continuing on to the summit the next day, but a storm blew in and Rutkiewicz was never heard from again.
1995: Both the Swiss Erhard Loretan and the Frenchman Benoit Chamoux were competing on Kangchenjunga to be the third person to ascend all fourteen 8000ers. Erhard Loretan and Jean Troillet reached the summit first but sadly Chamoux disappeared on the same route a few days later.
1998: Climbing with no no supplementary oxygen Ginette Harrison became the first and only woman to reach the summit and survive the descent. She climbed on the German variation to the British North West face route and he team was led by Ginette’s husband Gary Pfisterer.
2003: Italians Christian Kutner, Mario Merelli, Silvio Mondinelli and Spaniard Carlos Pauner climb a new route on the South West face. Carlos is lost on descent and after two solo bivouacs manages to descend to base camp with frostbite but alive! 2005: 50th anniversary of the first ascent. Briton Alan Hinkes is the only person to summit and completes his Challenge 14 to climb all the 8,000m mountains. The Mountain Company treks around Kanchenjunga:
Kangchenjunga north and south base camps (Nepal)
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