Gasherbrum II and III, 1975
Gasher br um II and III, 1975 A l is o n C h a d w ic k -O n y s z k ie w ic z , P o lski Z w ia ze k A lp in iz m u
(Editor’s note: W ith great regret we can not publish the whole article for reasons o f space. W e apologize to the author fo r having to leave out sections and hope the transitions will not be abrupt or co n fusing. The reader may wish to fill in details from the account which was published in the A .A .J., 1976 on pages 540–1.)
O
U R expedition in fact consisted of two team s : seven m en were added to the ten w om en as an em ergency support team. We had hoped to climb independently, having applied to the Pakistani authorities for perm ission to attem pt both G asherbrum II and I I I . U nfortunately we were first granted a perm it for G asherbrum III only, which led to a m erger of the two teams under W anda Rutkiewicz, creating an em barrassing situation of an undeniably m ixed expedition publicized as a ladies’ expedition! The route above Cam p I at 19,700 feet on the G asherbrum South G lacier followed the southwest ridge, rather to the left of the route taken by M oravec in 1956. H e found the lower p art of the ridge too steep and iced up and steered a diagonal course up the face before joining the ridge higher up: a route w hich looked horrendous in 1975! We planned to place two camps on the ridge and a final, fourth cam p on the col between the twin peaks of G asherbrum II and I II . F o r three weeks we laboured ant-like back and forth, gradually pushing our way up the ridge, fixing about a mile of rope and establishing and equipping Cam ps II and I II . W e were constantly being sent scurrying dow n to Base Camp, at the junction of the A bruzzi and G asherbrum South Glaciers, by storms w hich raged for three or four days before giving way to m ore or less the same period of settled w eather. Two attem pts to reach the col and establish Cam p IV were foiled by bad w eather, and it becam e clear that our sum m it attem pts w ould have to be m ade from Cam p I I I . On A ugust 1, a group of five climbers left Cam p III for the col: W anda Rutkiewicz, H alina K rüger-Syrokomska, Janusz Onyszkiewicz, Leszek Cichy and K rzysztof Zdzitowiecki. They made a late start, deterred by a fierce w ind w hich had risen in the early
hours of the morning. It was ten A.M . by the time they reached the great boulder-strew n em brasure overlooking China. T o the right the shadowed, sawn-off end of the west ridge of G asherbrum II rose sheer to the sky. T o the left, reared the craggy bulk of G asherbrum I II , with an unsuspected peak of 7600 meters (24,935 feet) guarding the way to China. D isappointed by the obvious impossibility of the west ridge, the three men continued to traverse around G asherbrum II in the hope that the northwest face might prove feasible. The women, meanwhile, plodded up towards the foot of the east ridge of G asherbrum I II . A 350foot rock band had to be surm ounted to reach the snow leading to the top. This was too m uch for the girls; H alina belayed as W anda made two attem pts to force a route and then they conceded defeat. The boys had m ore luck. The northw est face looked reasonable and at eleven A.M. they started up, unroped and taking turns to kick steps. A part from an awkward chimney, the route was almost entirely on snow and ice. It was steep and exposed and offered no escape from the bitter wind. At four o’clock, battered and frozen by the wind and exhausted by bands of deep, soft snow, they stopped. Laszek carried on up some 35 feet m ore to see if there was shelter on the other side. His shout mobilized the others. “Lads!” he yelled, “I’m on the sum m it!” The m uch publicized Ladies’ Expedition to G asherbrum III had succeeded in putting three men on the sum m it of G asherbrum I I ! They roped up to descend the easier east ridge, M oravec and the A ustrians’ route. On A ugust 4 Leszek W oźniak, A ndrzej Lapinski and M arek Janas left to m ake another ascent of G asherbrum II, but they were out of step with the w eather. They finally reached the summ it in perfect w eather on the 9th. A nd still G asherbrum III rem ained inviolate! W anda and I were on our way, however, supported by Janusz and Krzysztof, and a second group was a day behind. O ur job, as W anda presented it before leaving Base Camp, was to climb the rockband. If she and I had sufficient tim e and strength, we would go for the summ it. If not, we were to return to the col for the night where we w ould be joined the next m orning by H alina, A nka O kopinska and K rystyna Palmowska. Such was the plan. Little m ention was m ade of the other possible route— the east face via the central couloir, probably a m ore serious route. T he difficulties on the ridge were concentrated at the bottom , whereas on the face they increased as the angle steepened; the central couloir gave way to narrow fingers that thrust upw ards and disappeared between the ribs and buttresses leading to the jagged crest. On the way to Cam p III we discussed the alternatives and agreed the couloir would need a foursom e to carry equipm ent to climb it and to safeguard our retreat as well as to plough through the deep snow. We reached the col on the m orning of August 11, still uncertain as
to our route. The ultim ate decision was W anda’s and she struggled w ith it while Janusz and I stam ped out a tent platform . By eight A.M . the tent was up and stove, food and sleeping bags stowed inside. “Well, W anda, decision!” dem anded Krzysztof. “Oh! The couloir, I suppose,” she said, jabbing the snow in a gesture of im potence as she abandoned her previous vehem ently held position that the first ascent of G asherbrum III would be m ade by women alone. T here was a now-or-never feeling in this fourth consecutive day of good weather. The going was good up the steep, crisp snow of the couloir and we gained height fast. T hen cam e the first obstacle : the couloir closed ahead of us in a vertical rock step. F ortunately the right wall offered an escape. Janusz led. His cram pons screeched on rock; then he floundered up a ram p of loose snow which led steeply to a rock rib. H e banged in a peg, tied off the rope and we jüm ared up to join him. Being above the step, W anda now led back into the couloir while Janusz belayed. I sat in the sun, enjoying the view. I felt like singing. A fter all those weeks flogging up and down the ridge, this was the real thing. C rane your neck and you could almost see the top. The scale was com pre hensible at last. T he traverse was aw kw ard— loose snow on loose rock— and W anda took forever. W e generated so m uch adrenalin th at we surged across, jet-propelled. Leaving fixed ropes on these pitches, we set off together up the ever steeper and deeper snow of the couloir. Soon we had to use elbows and knees to burrow through the sugary, incompressible grains. Then we w orm ed our way on our stom achs under an overhanging rock buttress to reach a snowfield to the right, w here the snow was slightly better. Several gullies led upwards. T he left one, which we tried first, had an aw kw ard chim ney at its base and so we traversed back right and la boured up the next gully until forced left onto a rib of unstable, snow-covered rock. It was steep and exposed but it led directly to the sum m it ridge. The ridge where we reached it was a knife-edge of loose rock. T o our left a rickety pinnacle blocked the way to the summit. W e had to w ait while Janusz cautiously felt his way around the base, fixing a rope handrail as he went. A final snow slope and at six P.M . we were on the sum m it w ith a glorious view. The sea of m ountains stretched out as far as we could see. Purple against the sun were K2, Broad Peak and G asherbrum IV, while to the east stood H idden Peak and G asherbrum II bathed in a rosy glow. G asherbrum V and V I, w hich towered above us at Cam p I, were way below, and we could look across them to the dram atic wedge of Chogolisa and beyond. Briefly we were giants; but to survive as m ere mortals, we had to race the lengthening shadows to the tent in the col. N ight caught us on the fixed ropes but at 9 :3 0 we reached the welcome, flimsy shelter.
The next m orning we w ent down to Cam p I II , vacated a couple of hours earlier by Saeed, our liaison officer, and the three girls on their way tow ards the east ridge of G asherbrum II. U nfortunately, Saeed suffered from the altitude and K rystyna had to return from halfw ay along the traverse with him. H alina and A nka continued on to the summit. Sum m ary o f Statistics: A r e a : Baltoro G lacier region of the K arakoram , Pakistan A s c e n t s : G asherbrum II, 26,360 feet, by a new route, the northw est
face, A ugust 1, 1975 (Leszek Cichy, Janusz Onyszkiewicz, K rzysztof Zdzitowiecki ) ; by the east ridge (the first-ascent ro u te ) , A ugust 9 (M arek Janas, Andrzej Lapinski, Leszek W oźn iak ) ; by the east ridge, the first ascent of an 8000-m eter peak by women alone, A ugust 12 (H alina Krüger-Syrokom ska, A nna O kopinska). G asherbrum I II , 26,090 feet, which had been since 1964 the highest unclim bed peak and highest peak on w hich women have taken p art in the first ascent, August 11, 1975 (W anda Rutkiewicz, Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz, Onyszkiewicz, Zdzitowiecki ) .
M ountaineers m ay now subscribe to IWA TO Y U K I, Japan’s forem ost m ountain magazine. Six issues appear yearly. A rticles in Japanese on clim bing throughout the world are sum m arized in English. It contains num erous beautiful photographs, m any in color, valuable maps, diagrams and topos with English captions. A n nual subscription: $21.00. IWA TO Y U K I, Yam a To K eikoku Sha Co. Ltd., 1-1-33 Shiba Daim on, M inato-ku, T okyo 105, Japan.
(Editor’s note: W ith great regret we can not publish the whole article for reasons o f space. W e apologize to the author fo r having to leave out sections and hope the transitions will not be abrupt or co n fusing. The reader may wish to fill in details from the account which was published in the A .A .J., 1976 on pages 540–1.)
O
U R expedition in fact consisted of two team s : seven m en were added to the ten w om en as an em ergency support team. We had hoped to climb independently, having applied to the Pakistani authorities for perm ission to attem pt both G asherbrum II and I I I . U nfortunately we were first granted a perm it for G asherbrum III only, which led to a m erger of the two teams under W anda Rutkiewicz, creating an em barrassing situation of an undeniably m ixed expedition publicized as a ladies’ expedition! The route above Cam p I at 19,700 feet on the G asherbrum South G lacier followed the southwest ridge, rather to the left of the route taken by M oravec in 1956. H e found the lower p art of the ridge too steep and iced up and steered a diagonal course up the face before joining the ridge higher up: a route w hich looked horrendous in 1975! We planned to place two camps on the ridge and a final, fourth cam p on the col between the twin peaks of G asherbrum II and I II . F o r three weeks we laboured ant-like back and forth, gradually pushing our way up the ridge, fixing about a mile of rope and establishing and equipping Cam ps II and I II . W e were constantly being sent scurrying dow n to Base Camp, at the junction of the A bruzzi and G asherbrum South Glaciers, by storms w hich raged for three or four days before giving way to m ore or less the same period of settled w eather. Two attem pts to reach the col and establish Cam p IV were foiled by bad w eather, and it becam e clear that our sum m it attem pts w ould have to be m ade from Cam p I I I . On A ugust 1, a group of five climbers left Cam p III for the col: W anda Rutkiewicz, H alina K rüger-Syrokomska, Janusz Onyszkiewicz, Leszek Cichy and K rzysztof Zdzitowiecki. They made a late start, deterred by a fierce w ind w hich had risen in the early
hours of the morning. It was ten A.M . by the time they reached the great boulder-strew n em brasure overlooking China. T o the right the shadowed, sawn-off end of the west ridge of G asherbrum II rose sheer to the sky. T o the left, reared the craggy bulk of G asherbrum I II , with an unsuspected peak of 7600 meters (24,935 feet) guarding the way to China. D isappointed by the obvious impossibility of the west ridge, the three men continued to traverse around G asherbrum II in the hope that the northwest face might prove feasible. The women, meanwhile, plodded up towards the foot of the east ridge of G asherbrum I II . A 350foot rock band had to be surm ounted to reach the snow leading to the top. This was too m uch for the girls; H alina belayed as W anda made two attem pts to force a route and then they conceded defeat. The boys had m ore luck. The northw est face looked reasonable and at eleven A.M. they started up, unroped and taking turns to kick steps. A part from an awkward chimney, the route was almost entirely on snow and ice. It was steep and exposed and offered no escape from the bitter wind. At four o’clock, battered and frozen by the wind and exhausted by bands of deep, soft snow, they stopped. Laszek carried on up some 35 feet m ore to see if there was shelter on the other side. His shout mobilized the others. “Lads!” he yelled, “I’m on the sum m it!” The m uch publicized Ladies’ Expedition to G asherbrum III had succeeded in putting three men on the sum m it of G asherbrum I I ! They roped up to descend the easier east ridge, M oravec and the A ustrians’ route. On A ugust 4 Leszek W oźniak, A ndrzej Lapinski and M arek Janas left to m ake another ascent of G asherbrum II, but they were out of step with the w eather. They finally reached the summ it in perfect w eather on the 9th. A nd still G asherbrum III rem ained inviolate! W anda and I were on our way, however, supported by Janusz and Krzysztof, and a second group was a day behind. O ur job, as W anda presented it before leaving Base Camp, was to climb the rockband. If she and I had sufficient tim e and strength, we would go for the summ it. If not, we were to return to the col for the night where we w ould be joined the next m orning by H alina, A nka O kopinska and K rystyna Palmowska. Such was the plan. Little m ention was m ade of the other possible route— the east face via the central couloir, probably a m ore serious route. T he difficulties on the ridge were concentrated at the bottom , whereas on the face they increased as the angle steepened; the central couloir gave way to narrow fingers that thrust upw ards and disappeared between the ribs and buttresses leading to the jagged crest. On the way to Cam p III we discussed the alternatives and agreed the couloir would need a foursom e to carry equipm ent to climb it and to safeguard our retreat as well as to plough through the deep snow. We reached the col on the m orning of August 11, still uncertain as
to our route. The ultim ate decision was W anda’s and she struggled w ith it while Janusz and I stam ped out a tent platform . By eight A.M . the tent was up and stove, food and sleeping bags stowed inside. “Well, W anda, decision!” dem anded Krzysztof. “Oh! The couloir, I suppose,” she said, jabbing the snow in a gesture of im potence as she abandoned her previous vehem ently held position that the first ascent of G asherbrum III would be m ade by women alone. T here was a now-or-never feeling in this fourth consecutive day of good weather. The going was good up the steep, crisp snow of the couloir and we gained height fast. T hen cam e the first obstacle : the couloir closed ahead of us in a vertical rock step. F ortunately the right wall offered an escape. Janusz led. His cram pons screeched on rock; then he floundered up a ram p of loose snow which led steeply to a rock rib. H e banged in a peg, tied off the rope and we jüm ared up to join him. Being above the step, W anda now led back into the couloir while Janusz belayed. I sat in the sun, enjoying the view. I felt like singing. A fter all those weeks flogging up and down the ridge, this was the real thing. C rane your neck and you could almost see the top. The scale was com pre hensible at last. T he traverse was aw kw ard— loose snow on loose rock— and W anda took forever. W e generated so m uch adrenalin th at we surged across, jet-propelled. Leaving fixed ropes on these pitches, we set off together up the ever steeper and deeper snow of the couloir. Soon we had to use elbows and knees to burrow through the sugary, incompressible grains. Then we w orm ed our way on our stom achs under an overhanging rock buttress to reach a snowfield to the right, w here the snow was slightly better. Several gullies led upwards. T he left one, which we tried first, had an aw kw ard chim ney at its base and so we traversed back right and la boured up the next gully until forced left onto a rib of unstable, snow-covered rock. It was steep and exposed but it led directly to the sum m it ridge. The ridge where we reached it was a knife-edge of loose rock. T o our left a rickety pinnacle blocked the way to the summit. W e had to w ait while Janusz cautiously felt his way around the base, fixing a rope handrail as he went. A final snow slope and at six P.M . we were on the sum m it w ith a glorious view. The sea of m ountains stretched out as far as we could see. Purple against the sun were K2, Broad Peak and G asherbrum IV, while to the east stood H idden Peak and G asherbrum II bathed in a rosy glow. G asherbrum V and V I, w hich towered above us at Cam p I, were way below, and we could look across them to the dram atic wedge of Chogolisa and beyond. Briefly we were giants; but to survive as m ere mortals, we had to race the lengthening shadows to the tent in the col. N ight caught us on the fixed ropes but at 9 :3 0 we reached the welcome, flimsy shelter.
The next m orning we w ent down to Cam p I II , vacated a couple of hours earlier by Saeed, our liaison officer, and the three girls on their way tow ards the east ridge of G asherbrum II. U nfortunately, Saeed suffered from the altitude and K rystyna had to return from halfw ay along the traverse with him. H alina and A nka continued on to the summit. Sum m ary o f Statistics: A r e a : Baltoro G lacier region of the K arakoram , Pakistan A s c e n t s : G asherbrum II, 26,360 feet, by a new route, the northw est
face, A ugust 1, 1975 (Leszek Cichy, Janusz Onyszkiewicz, K rzysztof Zdzitowiecki ) ; by the east ridge (the first-ascent ro u te ) , A ugust 9 (M arek Janas, Andrzej Lapinski, Leszek W oźn iak ) ; by the east ridge, the first ascent of an 8000-m eter peak by women alone, A ugust 12 (H alina Krüger-Syrokom ska, A nna O kopinska). G asherbrum I II , 26,090 feet, which had been since 1964 the highest unclim bed peak and highest peak on w hich women have taken p art in the first ascent, August 11, 1975 (W anda Rutkiewicz, Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz, Onyszkiewicz, Zdzitowiecki ) .
M ountaineers m ay now subscribe to IWA TO Y U K I, Japan’s forem ost m ountain magazine. Six issues appear yearly. A rticles in Japanese on clim bing throughout the world are sum m arized in English. It contains num erous beautiful photographs, m any in color, valuable maps, diagrams and topos with English captions. A n nual subscription: $21.00. IWA TO Y U K I, Yam a To K eikoku Sha Co. Ltd., 1-1-33 Shiba Daim on, M inato-ku, T okyo 105, Japan.
