Southeastern China Gonga Slum Attempt and Tragedy. On August ...

Southeastern C hina G onga Slum A ttem p t and Tragedy. On A ugust 25. Hitoshi W atanabe, Takuya Fukuzaw a, Sachiko Takada (f), Yasuyuki W atanabe, Yosuke Suzuki, Junji Kudo and I as leader established Base Cam p at 3950 m eters near the tongue o f the Yanzeko G lacier north o f the peak. C am ps I and II w ere placed on the glacier at 4200 and 4950 m eters on A ugust 30 and S eptem ber 6. We clim bed the staircase-like glacier on the w est face o f the northeast ridge, fixing 33 ropes. Cam p III was put ju s t below the northeast ridge at 5850 m eters on Septem ber 19 and on the 20th four clim bed the spur that jo in s the northeast ridge to 6050 m eters, fixing seven more ropes. A fter som e bad weather, at eleven A.M . on Septem ber 28, Fukuzaw a, Y. W atanabe, Suzuki and Kudo radioed from Cam p III that they had collected loads from the glacier and w ould clim b to prepare the route higher. At three P.M., nobody answ ered me by w alkie-talkie. They m ust have been lost in an avalanche. On the 30th, H itoshi W atanabe and I clim bed to Cam p II but could find nothing w ith binoculars. On O ctober 1, we tried to dig up fixed ropes to get to C am p III, but we could find only four o f the 33 fixed ropes in the avalanche debris. We gave up the search to avoid a double accident. K in ic hi Y a m a m o r i ,

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