Anidesh Chuli | 2013 E Ridge

A New Zealand expedition to Anidesh Chuli in 2013 via E Ridge, led by Rob Frost. Summit reached on 4th May 2013. 4 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 7956
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID ANID13101
Peak ID ANID
Year 2013
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 E Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality New Zealand
Leaders Rob Frost
Sponsor New Zealand Anidesh Chuli Expedition 2013
Success 1 False
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 -
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries USA
Approach Bus to Taplejung->trekked to Ghunsa south of Ramtang Valley
Basecamp Date 2013-04-29
Summit Date 2013-05-04
Summit Time -
Summit Days 5
Total Days 20
Termination Date 2013-05-19
Termination Reason 6
Termination Notes Abandoned at 6500m due to accident
High Point (m) 6500
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 2
Fixed Rope (m) 50
Total Members 4
Summit Members 0
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 0
Summit Hired 0
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired True
O2 Used False
O2 None True
O2 Climb False
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep False
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits -
Campsites TBC(20/04,4600m),TABC(25/04,5100m),BC(29/04,4800m),C1(27/04,5500m),C2(02/05,6017m),xxx(04/05,6500m)
Route Notes BC north of Ramtang Valley ABC temp in Ramtang Valley C1 Ramtang icefall on SW side High point at 6500m just below crest of East Ridge. 4 May 2:30 pm Scheele evacuated with Dare, who he was climbing with; his memory is still spotty. BC - 4800m ABC - 5100m C1 - 5500m C2 - 6400m 4 May Scheele and Dare on mountain when accident occurred; rescued by Simone Moro. Rob Frost report: Members: Decided to climb without oxygen nor Sherpas, climbing by pairs as follows : Rob Frost and Andrei Dusschoten Ben Dare and Scott Scheele Found in Dingle's book "Wall of shadows" pictures from White Wave, which gave them lust to attempt it. Events: "The original plan was that we had porters to Ghunsa, then yaks to BC; however the yaks reached the mouth of the Ramtang glacier, but couldn't go any further. So we needed to try get porters again, but they had all returned to Ghunsa where there was a festival on!" Thus the team lost nearly one week carrying loads from the temporary BC site at the junction of Ramtang and Kangchenjunga glaciers (at around 4500m) to a subsidiary BC at 4800m, then to an ABC at 5100m at the foot of the main Ramtang upper icefall. On the 2nd May, the 4 members went to C2 at 6000m, then on the 4th (after waiting a day for avalanche conditions to settle) Rob and Andrei went back to BC to rest while Ben and Scott started out on the team's first summit attempt. On the morning of 4 May Ben Dare and Scott Scheele started from C2 (6000m) enroute to C3 (theoretically located on the ridge around 6500m). On the last pitch below the ridge, just below 6500m, Scott Scheele took a lead fall of approximately 80 to 90 meters (the pair was climbing in double ropes). Scotts fall created a small of spindrift avalanche that struck Ben Dare at the belay; however is unlikely that the avalanche was the cause of the fall and was more likely triggered when Scott fell as he was transitioning from steep ice to snow at the crest of the ridge at the time of the fall. The fall occurred at approximately 3:30 pm, in deteriorating conditions with heavy cloud and snow blowing in at around 1:30 pm, which limited visibility at the time of the accident to between 20-30m - with occasional brief longer clearances. During the fall Scott sustained head injuries, thankfully reduced by his now broken helmet, but apart from this, he was largely unscathed and only suffered minor cuts and bruising. Immediately after the fall he was unconscious for nearly 5 minutes, and was hanging upside down from the ropes before slowly regaining consciousness. During this time Ben re-rigged the ropes and abseiled down to Scott before beginning to lower him back down the to a bivy site at around 6450m, which they reached at 6:30-7:00 pm, and spent the night in their small tent. He was after semiconscious, very confused, could not remember anything...and dillusional, he even wanted to climb back up! Ben: "He was just lucky to have not hit something. I had to carry his bag and drag him down through the snow back to our camp at 6000m. On the steeper ground I couldn't trust him to abseil so had to lower him all the way down." When we finally reached our 6000m camp, at 2:30 pm on the 5th, I tried calling the others (Rob and Andrei) at BC on the radio. However due to the poor connection I could not only relay that we were at camp 6000m and could not get information regarding the accident through to them. Following this I then activated our emergency locator beacon and tried unsuccessfully to use the radio again. Once the beacon had been activated emergency services in New Zealand (where the beacon was registered) were notified and subsequently Rob and Andrei received a call on our satellite phone to inform them of this. This was the first they knew that something had gone wrong and, after previously being informed that we were back at camp 6000m, they set out from BC that afternoon and climbng through the night they reached the camp at 3:00 am on the morning of the 6th. When they arrived with the satellite phone were we able to establish a line of communication and called for a helicopter rescue to try get Scott off the mountain. They at arrived at 10:30 am that morning and Scott, accompanied by Ben, was flown back to Kathmandu. Arriving 45 hours after the accident thanks to the great efforts of the crew from Fishtail Air. Rob Frost and Andrei Dusschoten will leave BC on the 19th May. Their last days will be occupied with cleaning the mountain's camps and fixed rope. The route: From ABC (5100m) to C1 (5500m), the route went up through the icefall. Starting centrally and then tending right towards the rock buttress below the North Ridge. Typically on low-angled snow and ice with some short steep sections, where one 30 meter section of rope was fixed at about 5400m. From C1 to C2, the team avoided the broken ground at edge of the glacier by climbing up through the rock buttress (mainly still on snow), reaching a flat snow arete coming from the neve below the North Ridge of Anidesh Chuli. They then took a course ESE across the most flat neve, below the NE Face, to a campsite at 6000m below the East Ridge. This section of the route while being relatively straightforward was threatened by a nearly continuous serac barrier that stretches across the center of the NE Face. C2 was settled on a small rib lying just NNE from the col at 6350m on the East Ridge and in a gap with the main serac barrier. And while it was the safest place to establish a camp in the area, it was still threatened from the slopes above and had significantly less protection than C1. From C2 to the ridge, at first duo of Ben and Scott had to climb 200m of 30 to 40-degree snow slopes, then tried to link snowy ramps separated by ice cliffs, most of the time in 60-degree steep slopes up to 80-degree short sections, "not steep, but tiring." Above their high point, according to Ben Dare: The East Ridge definitely the easiest way to reach summit. Some rocky steps at the end of the ridge. This year however, the summit was cut off by an ice cliff (15 to 20 meters high) overhanging across the top of the ridge and the NE Face. Coming from the East Ridge, he believes that they would have tried to overcome the difficulty, whether on the right by traversing under the ice cliff, across the NE Face, to the North Ridge, or on the left via the steeper South Face. It seems likely that conditions could potentially allow for an easy way in some years, and a quite difficult one during others! All depending on condition of the ice cliffs. "All the ice we encountered was very old and brittle, not soft new alpine ice, dinner plating on nearly every swing and taking 3-4 swings to get a good stick. It was even difficult to get screws to bite at times because it was so hard!" North Ridge seemed very broken with lots of ice cliffs and the problem of a very steep climb to reach the main col at the begining of the proper N Ridge. However, as with the E Ridge, depending on the conditions, this route may be faster than the E Ridge. This year however, the overhanging summit mushroom cliffs appeared to be up to 40-50 meters high! Recommandations / Kangbachen normal route : Route 56 of Jan Kielkowski originally taken by the Polish (1974) is much safer nowadays than 57 (Yugoslavians in 1965), which is in very broken now! Route 52 of Wedge Peak first ascent seems very broken nowadays, possibly a better line in the center (direct line), same on Ramtang (6601m), where nothing done on SW face yet allowing a very nice solution trough a narrow couloir on the right side of the face.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Dream Himalaya Adventures
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2461355
Year 2013
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) e ridge

Members

4 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Benjamin Richard (Ben) Dare M 1984 New Zealand Climber Queenstown, New Zealand Engineer Details Other expeditions
Robert Graham (Rob) Frost M 1983 New Zealand Leader Ruthesay Bay, Auckland, New Zealand Geotechnical engineer Details Other expeditions
Scott Blackford Scheele M 1989 USA Climber South Westland, New Zealand Glacier guide Details Other expeditions
Andrei Karl Van Dusschoten M 1975 New Zealand Climber Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand Geologist Details Other expeditions

References

4 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
ANID13101 - - http://www.whitewave2013.tumblr.com/ - - -
ANID13101 AAJ Griffin, Lindsay - - 88:327-328 (2014) -
ANID13101 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13201212613/Anidesh-Chuli-6808m-northeast-face-to-east-ridge-attempt - - -
ANID13101 NZAJ Frost, Rob The 2013 New Zealand White Wave Expedition - 65:84-89 (2013) -