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| Kanchenjunga massif from Darjeeling, India. |
Since announcement of Simone Moro and Tamara Lunger’s Kanchenjunga traverse on social media and the overwhelming response it received, the reactions to Mother of All Traverses have oscillated from absolute 'wow' to they may 'not make it back alive', quite a long swing that perhaps reflects the seriousness and difficulty of the challenge undertaken.
The Mountain
Kanchenjunga (Five treasures of Snow) world’s third highest
mountain on the border of India and Nepal is a massif with five high peaks,
four of which are above 8000m with Kanchenjunga Main (8586m) as highest,
followed by Kanchenjunga West or Yalung Kang (8505m), Kanchenjunga Central
(8482m) and, Kanchenjunga South (8494m). Kangbachen (7903m) the fifth peak,
misses the 8K mark and its way to glory by 97 meters only!
The Traverse
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| The North Face Website |
Named ‘Kangchenjunga Skyline Expedition’ by The North Face on
their website, the intended traverse crosses over four 8000m peaks of Kanchenjunga
in the Death Zone where the route never descends below 8300m in Alpine style without the help of pre-set high camps,
Sherpa support and bottled oxygen.
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| Suggested skyline traverse route which goes over four 8000m peaks (Courtesy Google Earth) |
A rough GE plot of the ridge shows 4.6 km (without the approach)
although their site suggests a distance of 5.5 km.
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| (Courtesy Google Earth) |
The Team
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| Simone Moro & Tamara Lunger |
The North Face website introduces the 2-member team as:
Simone Moro – The mountains are his playground and his success as an expedition
climber has sculpted his legendary reputation.
Tamara Lunger – When she was a 14-year old girl, she announced
that one day she would climb an 8,000m mountain. She remained true to her word.
They could have done better is all I’d say.
They could have done better is all I’d say.
Simone needs no introduction and is the only mountaineer with four
winter ascents of 8000ers under his belt. Only reference to speed climbing
in his resume comes from the first ascent of Beka Brakai Chhok (6590m) in
Karakoram with Herve Barmasse done in alpine style in 43 hours. And perhaps a 5
hour descent from top while completing a solo South-North traverse of Everest
is worth a mention. Tamara Lunger, his partner, garnered world-wide appreciation
during 2015/16 the winter ascent of Nanga Parbat as she gave up her climb due
to extreme fatigue 70-100m
(depending on the report being followed) below the summit, a wise and bold
decision indeed. Alex Txikon, Ali
Sadpara and Simone Moro made it to the top.
For Simone all of this came with a cost. From the highest brawl on Everest to switching routes on
Nanga Parbat, controversy is like a constant companion to him. An
article ‘Simone Moro: The Winter Maestro’ in Climbing.com introduces him as : “With four first winter ascents of
8,000-meter peaks, Simone Moro has taken the art of climbing in harsh
conditions to new heights, but controversy plagues his climbing résumé.” No
wonder therefore as some dismissed this as an impossible climb while a few others
dubbed it as a sponsored high-altitude picnic. A Two-member, alpine style push in the Himalaya should help Simone ward off his disliked companion.
As soon as the traverse was announced people me included, haven’t spent time before reminding of the first traverse in 1989 by Anatoli Boukreev. Although this is correct it does not do justice to the Russian achievements on Kanchenjunga that year when Boukreev almost missed the bus.
As soon as the traverse was announced people me included, haven’t spent time before reminding of the first traverse in 1989 by Anatoli Boukreev. Although this is correct it does not do justice to the Russian achievements on Kanchenjunga that year when Boukreev almost missed the bus.
1989 Russian Kanchenjunga Saga
After
the successful ascent of Everest in 1982, planning for the second Himalayan
expedition started with setting up of an Organizing Committee in November 1986,
followed by a reconnaissance trip in the spring of 1987 under the leadership of
Eugeni Tamm. (leader of Everest 82) The final number of mountaineers in the
expedition, both main and reserve, was fixed at thirty which eventually became
twenty-nine.
In the spring of 1989, twenty-nine climbers with a five-member film crew and seventeen sherpas under the leadership of Eduard Myslovsky head for the Himalaya with around 10 tons of baggage which was dropped at Calcutta by a transport plane. From then on, the climbers and gear travelled to Nepal via Biratnagar by buses and lorries. More than six-hundred porters, trekking for about three weeks in the jungles of Nepal, ferried the expedition’s load to the site of Base Camp on Yalung Glacier.
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| Eduard Myslovsky |
In the spring of 1989, twenty-nine climbers with a five-member film crew and seventeen sherpas under the leadership of Eduard Myslovsky head for the Himalaya with around 10 tons of baggage which was dropped at Calcutta by a transport plane. From then on, the climbers and gear travelled to Nepal via Biratnagar by buses and lorries. More than six-hundred porters, trekking for about three weeks in the jungles of Nepal, ferried the expedition’s load to the site of Base Camp on Yalung Glacier.
The
team laid siege on the mountain setting up Camp 1 - 6150m, Camp 2 - 6650m and Camp 3 on the plateau at
about 7200m. From there six further camps were established in three directions
with two camps (4ju and 5ju) on the route to the South summit, two camps (4s
and 5s) on the route to the col
between the Main and Central summits and two camps (4ja and 5ja) on the route
of the first ascent in 1955 placed at heights of 8100-8200m, providing maximum
safety while facilitating the traverse.
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| Kanchenjunga massif showing routes and high-altitude camps (Image by Eduard Myslovsky courtesy Alpine Journal, Vol.95) |
This elaborate logistical affair resulted in pioneering new routes on Kanchenjunga’s Main, Central and South summits. Then with two different teams of five members each, the Russians successfully traversed all four peaks from opposite directions. Anatoli was one of ten members who had successfully traversed.
Sergei Bershov (L), Anatoli
Boukreev, Evgeni Vinogradsky, Aleksandr
Pogorelov and, Mikhail Turkevich completed the traverse from Yalung
Kang to South Summit. Vasili
Yelagin (L), Grigory Lunyakov,
Zijnur Khalitov, Vladimir Balyberdin and Vladimir Koroteev completed the traverse starting
from South Summit to Central, Main & Yalung Kang.
In
doing so, there were altogether 85 men/ascents on all four summits of Kanchenjunga!
With
generous help from Eduard Myslovsky’s report in 1990/91 Alpine Journal, and Eberhard
Jurgalski’s meticulous data from 8000ers.com in fillling the gaps, here goes the complex details of
those 85 summits chronologically. (# of
summits in red)
The initial effort concentrated on setting up all Camp five(s) and in this process several ascents were made.
The Main summit (8586m) was reached on 9th April, by a new route from Camp 5s on the col between the Main and Central summits. (4 summits)
The South summit (8476m) was reached on 15th April from Camp 5s by a new route to the right of Japanese and Polish routes. (4 summits)
The Central summit (8482m) was reached on 15th April, by a new route from Camp 3. (4 summits)
The Main summit (8586m) was reached by the standard route from Camp 4ja on 16th April at 5:30pm. (8 summits)
On 17th April there was a repeat of South summit route starting from Camp 5s. (4 summits)
Having setup all camps in place, members of the expedition came down to the oxygen rich forest area of Tseram (3750m) for rest, recuperation and finalized plan for next phase, the traverse.
On 29th April, the first support group for the traverse, ferried oxygen cylinders to Camp 5s and continued their climb to the Central summit reaching the top by 11:20am. (3 summits) Coming down to the saddle they were joined by two more members, all of whom reached the Main summit at 2:20pm coming down to Camp 3 for the night. (5 summits)
Anatoli was in the first group led by Sergei Bershov which started the traverse on 30th April. Starting from Camp 5ja they climbed Yalung Kang (8505m) and returned to Camp 5 for the night. (5 summits)
On the same day (30th April) a second support group left Camp 4ja, ferried oxygen up to Camp 5ja, summited Yalung Kang by 3:00pm and returning to Camp 4 by 7:00pm (6 summits)
On 1st May, Bershov's group continued the traverse as they left Camp 5 at 8:00am, were on the Main summit at 10:00am, on the Central summit at 12:40pm and on the South summit at 2:45pm. While coming down they removed Camps 5ju and 4ju and descended to Camp 3 at 7:00pm for the night. (15 summits)
The second traverse group lead by Vasili Yelagin left Camp 5ju at 9:00am on 1st May and reached the South summit at 12:30pm, Central summit at 3:50pm, Main summit at 5.40pm, and came down to Camp 5ja by 8:00pm. The two traverse parties met each other on the saddle between the South and Central summits around 2:10pm. (15 summits)
On the same day (1st May) the second support group left Camp 4ja and reached the Main summit at 12:00pm where they met the second traverse group, and continued down to Camp 5s by 7:00pm. Next day they removed Camps 5s and 4s and came down to Camp 3. (4 summits)
The second traverse group left Camp 5ja on 2nd May, climbed Yalung Kang, and the same day came down to Camp 3 therefore completing the both the traverses. (5 summits)
On 2nd May a third support group which included Ang Babu Sherpa, moved on to Camp 5ja, and continued their ascent till the Main summit. They removed Camps 4ja and 5ja while coming down, completing the removal of all high-altitude camps. (3 summits)
Perhaps the most intriguing/striking fact of the 1989 team which
goes unnoticed is the strict and rigorous challenges one had to overcome to
find a place in the team apart from climbing skills. With lifting of the iron
curtain and expeditions to 8000ers becoming a reality, the competition for a
ticket to the Himalaya was fierce. During winter and spring 1987-88, thirty candidates
were selected from more than 60 of the best Soviet mountaineers by a battery of
physical tests and high-altitude training races. The
worst liked test required each participant to jog on a treadmill in a
compression chamber which was gradually changed to simulate 8,500 meters. In the summer
of 1988 the hopeful participants went for a high-altitude traverse of 7439m Peak
Pobeda (Victory), in the Tien Shan. The traverse began from the Peak of
Military Topographers and led to Peak Vazha Pschavela with total distance of
about 10km at a height of 7000m. Twenty-four mountaineers out of twenty-nine,
three out of five members of the film crew, and one Sherpa making ascents of
summits of the Kanchenjunga massif alongwith the speed of the traverse is
a testament to their pre-expedition preparation.
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| Anatoli Boukreev, 1996 Everest Base Camp (Image courtesy Aspenpeak-magazine.com) |
Although their expedition was a staggering success, the huge bandobast and supplemental oxygen did play an important part. Anatoli later resented at the inflexibility of the team leadership which ‘denied him the opportunity of a success without using supplemental oxygen’. It was his first Himalayan experience. Had it not been for Coach Tchorny who highlighted the fact that not only Anatoli won the endurance races, he had finished among top five in every other category, Boukreev would have missed this opportunity as his name was on line to reduce heavy representation of climbers from (his region) Almaty, alongwith the political and bureaucratic pressure of including a woman in the team.
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| Simone Moro and Tamara Lunger (Image courtesy Cultura.trentino.it) |
As I write, the two-member team after reaching Base Camp on Yalung Glacier, is now busy in acclimatizing and opening route till the ridge. According to some reports, Simone has dedicated this project in memory of his longtime partner Anatoli Boukreev who was killed in an avalanche during a winter expedition with Simone on Annapurna in 1997.
“Honestly speaking, this could be already a huge project,” says Simone. “We could also close our aim if we will be able to open a new route in Alpine style to the summit of Yalung Kang and come back. We could celebrate. But we decided to let the game open.”
Sending all wishes and Himalayan luck their way for playing the
game safely, for if successful, the “highest traverse possible on the planet”
as described by Moro in a Facebook post, could well be the climb of their
lifetime and a worthy dedication to a lost friend.
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References:
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Data on Kanchenjunga Main &Subsidiary peaks from 8000ers.com compiled by Eberhard Jurgalski
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