I and my two Korean friends made first ascent on Amphu I in
Makalu-Barun National Park in Eastern Nepal.
Here I note the climbing trip.
Route map of "Windy Couloir" on the south-west face of Amphu 1
“Amphu 1” that we aimed is the name given by the Nepalese
government to the peak east of Amphu Laptsa pass and west of Baruntse. The height is Nepal-officially known 6840m as
HMG-MT and Schneider map describe so, while sometimes referred 6740m as
HMG-Finn map does. As we acknowledged, previously
only once a permit for intending the peak was issued to a four-member Japanese
team in the late Autumn 2012. Also, we
found two teams—one German and one Spanish—tried what they call “Amphu” in
2008. However, we believe we have
climbed a different one. The Japanese
recalled that they approached their peak through Chukung glacier, which lies south
of Chukung, east of Ama Dablam, and north of Ombigaichan, while from the north
of Amphu I flows Imja glacier and Amphu Lapcha glacier. Therefore, we guess they actually tried to
climb P6402, northeast of Ombigaichan, or another in the area. At November 2012 they climbed the north face
but retreated due to avalanche danger.
Also, in Spring 2008, five Germans have reported to summit P
6238m (Schneider map) from its north ridge, and they called the peak “Amphu
middle” since it has two neighbor near.
Again in the Autumn of the year, a Spanish climber Jordi Tozas solo-climbed
what he called “Amphu South” (6146m) and “Amphu Middle” via new route.
It is true that the name “Amphu” is frequently used to refer
the peaks and pass in the area, by the maps and probably by the locals. However, the highest one is Amphu I, between
Amphu Laptsa and Baruntse, and we think it is a bit awkward to call lower peaks
of other group “Amphu middle” or “South” and so on, since they are rather quite
afar from Amphu I, the main peak of, if any, Amphu group.
On 19th Sep., we fled over to Lukla. The trek to the objected peak was planned
through two high passes of Zatra la (4610m) and Mera la (5415m). In addition to that, we firstly included to
our acclimatization trip to climb Mera (6461m).
Because we had no climbing Sherpa we did not know the route. We mistakenly climbed through not-normal
route, north-east of the normal route. However,
there were heavy snows which have induced snow avalanche that resisted us to
climb only up to 6200m. Indeed, the snow
of the late monsoon in the Eastern Nepal continued up until in the early
October.
Arrived at the Amphu I Base Camp at 27th
Sep. The elevation of which was 5250m, near
the highest pokhari (lake), which we called “Nilo Pokhari” (blue lake) in the “Panch
Pokhari” area. The leader An Chi-young
had visited this area a month earlier to reconnoiter, and by which it was easy all
for us to set the camp at a best place.
We three have all climbed and got to the top of Mt. Everest
in different years. An has climbed many
Himalayan peaks including Himjung of first ascent the year before. Kim Young-mi has also climbed numerous peaks in
Himalaya and other region. I myself also
have similar mountaineering experience.
After twice of reconnoiter climb up to the 500m-long
glacier, we started to climb 8th Oct. as we got a good weather
window after twelve days of stay in the B.C.
The route in the glacier was a bit complex but without serious danger,
and we fixed ropes a few meters in order to rappelling down. We planned to climb the south-west face of the
peak through a deep couloir left in the wall, taking one of the numerous and
various wrinkles, climbing over to the west ridge after exiting out through a
ramp. At the foot of the glacier, 5480m,
however, we have to have spent hours to recover our gears we deposited days
ago, finding some broken: my helmet and Kim’s crampon. Hers was usable, although mine was not. So I climbed the face without it.
The first day of climbing, a quite strong wind swept
up. At the base camp, we heard later,
tents were damaged due to the gale. Snow
showers and falling icicles bothered us to climb on. The first nine pitches which I leaded were
relatively easy, although the other two have been attacked by falling huge
icicles. The wall became steeper and
steeper as we progressed. The ninth
pitch was all blue ice, could be graded WI5 and 80°.
Myself leading the lower part of the face
Getting dark soon.
However, it proved almost impossible to find a bivouac place on the ice
wall. I felt quite tired and Kim took
the lead. Two more pitches were climbed
in the night and at 20:30 when, suddenly and fortunately, we found an ideal
place to spend the night: by all means a-small-tent size, with ice-clawed its
upside, for which we call the place “Alligator’s Mouth”. We have had a good night, and decided to left
all the camping gears there and lightly go to the top and return the next day.
We started 8:30 in the morning. Kim leaded again. Two more pitches brought us just below a ramp
to the west ridge. However, it was now
almost vertical in soft snow! An took
the lead. The last ten meters were quite
tough, and finally we got up on the ridge.
We found that, to the contrary to our expectation, the ridge was quite
sharp with soft snow. Snow-bars
sometimes upheld no security. The first
three pitches on the ridge necessitated quite delicate climbing. The angle became low; long traverses
continued and the wind, too. Finally we
got up the summit at 3pm.
An leading the summit ridge
at the top of Amphu 1
After some rituals on the summit we hurriedly got down. At the dreadful ridge, where no protection
would work, we belayed each other to climb down carefully. We have arrived back the Alligator’s Mouth, looking
at sunset.
Kim descending down
Descending down the next day was not difficult. We had to leave our gears on the wall for the
rappel protection since V-thread did not work well on the snow-ice mixed ground. We could safely come back to the base camp
and have lunch. We call the route name “Windy
Couloir” (AI5 WI4 XI ED2, 1800m (incl. glacier 500m)).
