Jannu, north face, new route summary. The historic
Jannu, north face, new route summary. The historic clim b in the Nepalese Himalaya du rin g the pre-m onsoon season was the successful ascent and descent by a direct route via the n o rth face o f Jannu by aRussian team (w ith one Kyrgyzstani m em ber) led by A lexander O dinstov. This was the first ascent o f the n o rth face direct. A Yugoslavian (now Slovenian), Tom o Cesen, claim ed to have accom plished this solo in one co n tin u o u s push from base cam p in the spring o f 1989, but after his account in the following year o f having sum m ited the south face o f Lhotse solo was discredited, there has been grave doubt about his Jannu success. In any case, by his own account, he did not descend the face bu t cam e dow n the less difficult northeast ridge instead. Since 1975, nine expeditions had been on this extrem ely steep (80°-90° in places) face o f 7,710m Jannu, w hich is officially know n as K h u m b h ak arn a, in ad d itio n to C esen’s o n e-m an effort. T he n in th was led by O dinstov him self last a u tu m n , w hen his eig h t-m em b er team
reached 7,200m and then abandoned the attem pt because o f snowfall, strong w ind, and the low tem peratures found on the n o rth sides o f Nepalese H im alaya peaks in au tu m n . This spring O dinstov retu rn ed w ith 11 m em bers besides himself. Six o f these m en had been w ith him in 2003, and they now had m ore experience o f the route, knew a better site for their base cam p, and understo od which places were especially exposed to falling rocks and ice. W ithout using any bottled oxygen or Sherpa help, they moved slowly upw ards, O dinstov reported, using a total o f about 75 ice screws and 300 rock pitons to fix ab o u t 3,375 m eters o f rope; in som e sections the rock was bad enough to require two and even three pitons at a sin gle place. To m ake a place for cam p 3 at 7,000m, they had to w ork in shifts o f three m em bers for eights hours per shift, working in relays cutting ice and rem oving stone, for four or five days. T heir slow progress was also due to the im possibility o f clim bing this face with m ittens on their hands, b u t going w ith o u t th em m eant th eir fingers becam e very cold, so every two m eters— or som etim es even less— they had to pause and rub th eir fingers to get them w arm again. They had arrived at th eir base cam p on the Jannu G lacier at 4,700m on April 3. They pitched their highest cam p, a second cam p 4, at 7,400m on May 14. Now for a rest and then the su m m it push. But then Jannu was hit by a p rolonged p erio d o f snowfall an d stro n g w inds, so it was not until the 26th o f May that their first m em bers reached the top. Two m em bers, D m itri Pavlenko and A lexander R uchkin, left th e 7,400m cam p at 5:00 a.m . on the 26th, finally gained the su m m it at 3:00 p.m . an d re tu rn ed to cam p at 6:00 p.m . The final 70 m eters was rock covered w ith d angerous pow der snow, an d the top itself was a difficult snow cornice. T hree m ore Russians, Sergei Borisov, G ennady Kirievskiy, and Nikolai Totm yanin, followed them on the 28th, and were able to move m uch faster since the way had been opened by the first two sum m iters. Next day, as they descended all the way to base cam p, they cleared the m o u n tain o f all their tents and contents, plus as m uch fixed rope as they could recover— a lot o f it was stuck in snow th at had m elted and then refrozen. [For a com plete account, see “The N orth Face o f Jannu,” by A lexander Ruchkin, earlier in this Journal.] E l iz a b e t h H
aw ley,
AAC Honorary Member, Nepal
reached 7,200m and then abandoned the attem pt because o f snowfall, strong w ind, and the low tem peratures found on the n o rth sides o f Nepalese H im alaya peaks in au tu m n . This spring O dinstov retu rn ed w ith 11 m em bers besides himself. Six o f these m en had been w ith him in 2003, and they now had m ore experience o f the route, knew a better site for their base cam p, and understo od which places were especially exposed to falling rocks and ice. W ithout using any bottled oxygen or Sherpa help, they moved slowly upw ards, O dinstov reported, using a total o f about 75 ice screws and 300 rock pitons to fix ab o u t 3,375 m eters o f rope; in som e sections the rock was bad enough to require two and even three pitons at a sin gle place. To m ake a place for cam p 3 at 7,000m, they had to w ork in shifts o f three m em bers for eights hours per shift, working in relays cutting ice and rem oving stone, for four or five days. T heir slow progress was also due to the im possibility o f clim bing this face with m ittens on their hands, b u t going w ith o u t th em m eant th eir fingers becam e very cold, so every two m eters— or som etim es even less— they had to pause and rub th eir fingers to get them w arm again. They had arrived at th eir base cam p on the Jannu G lacier at 4,700m on April 3. They pitched their highest cam p, a second cam p 4, at 7,400m on May 14. Now for a rest and then the su m m it push. But then Jannu was hit by a p rolonged p erio d o f snowfall an d stro n g w inds, so it was not until the 26th o f May that their first m em bers reached the top. Two m em bers, D m itri Pavlenko and A lexander R uchkin, left th e 7,400m cam p at 5:00 a.m . on the 26th, finally gained the su m m it at 3:00 p.m . an d re tu rn ed to cam p at 6:00 p.m . The final 70 m eters was rock covered w ith d angerous pow der snow, an d the top itself was a difficult snow cornice. T hree m ore Russians, Sergei Borisov, G ennady Kirievskiy, and Nikolai Totm yanin, followed them on the 28th, and were able to move m uch faster since the way had been opened by the first two sum m iters. Next day, as they descended all the way to base cam p, they cleared the m o u n tain o f all their tents and contents, plus as m uch fixed rope as they could recover— a lot o f it was stuck in snow th at had m elted and then refrozen. [For a com plete account, see “The N orth Face o f Jannu,” by A lexander Ruchkin, earlier in this Journal.] E l iz a b e t h H
aw ley,
AAC Honorary Member, Nepal
