Annapurna I | 2008 NW Face-SW Ridge

A Poland expedition to Annapurna I in 2008 via NW Face-SW Ridge, led by Piotr Morawski. Summit reached on 30th April 2008. 4 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 5942
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID ANN108101
Peak ID ANN1
Year 2008
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 NW Face-SW Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Poland
Leaders Piotr Morawski
Sponsor MBank West Face Annapurna Expedition
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 Slovakia
Approach -
Basecamp Date 2008-04-15
Summit Date 2008-04-30
Summit Time -
Summit Days 15
Total Days 22
Termination Date 2008-05-07
Termination Reason 4
Termination Notes Abandoned at 7950m due to bad storm
High Point (m) 7950
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 4
Fixed Rope (m) 350
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 Climbed Ama Dablam (3-4 April) (AMAD-081-01)
Campsites BC(15/04,4200m),ABC(18/04,5000m),C1(23/04,5500m),C2(25/04,6300m),C3(26/04,6700m),C4(29/04,7800m),xxx(30/04,7950m)
Route Notes BC at 4200 m ABC below NW Face C1 on face C2 on face C3 on face C4 on face 5m below SW Ridge High point at SW Ridge. To acclimatize for Annapurna I, the team went first to Ama Dablam to climb its normal SW Ridge route. They pitched BC on 23 March at the normal site at 4600m and ten days later two members were on the summit. They had made C1 on 26 March, gone down to BC on 28th, returned to C1 on the 30th, slept in C2 on 31 March, and in C3 on 2 April. Hamor and Morawski summited on the 3rd, Pustelnik and Zaluski on the 4th. All descended to BC together on the 5th, left BC on the 6th and returned to Kathmandu on the 9th. They had no Sherpas and no oxygen with them and had no accident, illness or frostbite. They fixed 1000M of new rope on the route, which Pustelnik found "technically very challenging;" he is surprised that there are so few accidents on it and that commercial expeditions climb it. For at least 35m it is Grade VI, and he fell a couple of time when the brittle stones slipped off under his feet. Then they went to Annapurna I and its NW Face. They left Kathmandu on 12 April for Pokhara and helicoptered from there to BC on the 15th. BC was pitched at 4200m at the lower (northern) BC site (Pustelnik called it the Herzog BC site) and next day they began to look for a good line up the mountain. On the 18th they made ABC at 5000m under the NW Face. C1 was pitched on the 23rd at 5500m, across the glacier from ABC. To reach it, they crossed under a huge serac to a small gully, where they camped. During teh night they heard a loud bang, and when they looked out of their tents the next moring, there was no ABC tent to be seen but a large hole had appeared in an existing crevasse. Pustelnik joked that a UFO had taken their tent away and left the hole; he couldn't explain in any other way what actually had happened. C1 was their first of four camps on the NW Face. They made C2 on the 25th at 6300m and C3 the next day at 6700m in a crevasse under overhanging rock. They then spent three nights here while light snowfall was blown about in spindrift that got into their tents. They were able to move up again on the 29th; they took with them the minimum possible amount of gear for their final push to the summit, and C4 was really a bivouac at 7800m at the top of the face just five meters below the SW Ridge. On the 30th the four members together made their bid for the summit along the SW Ridge, which they had joined north of Varaha Shikhar (Fang), and at noon they were at 7950m, 150 vertical meters (250 linear meters) from the summit. But they could proceed no farther: the wind was fierce, snow was falling, and lightning was striking the mountain and several times hit them mildly -- "it was really unpleasant," said Pustelnik. At 7:00 pm, they had to bivouac above C4 because the turbulent wind-driven snow made almost white-out conditions. On 1 May they descended to C3 and the next day were back in BC. "We were tired" so had no chance to resume their climb. They left BC on 7 May when a helicopter picked them up from there and brought them to Kathmandu. They had fixed a total of 350 meters of rope: 250m below C2 and 100m more above C3. No Sherpas, no oxygen, no health problems except for some slightly frostbitten fingers. Pustelnik doesn't understand why so few climbers use this route since it much safer than the avalanche-swept north and south faces.
Accidents Slight frostbite on Annapurna I
Achievement -
Agency Cho Oyu Trekking
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2459565
Year 2008
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) nw face-sw ridge

Members

4 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Piotr Jerzy Morawski M 1976 Poland Leader Warsaw, Poland Teacher Details Other expeditions
Peter Hamor M 1964 Slovakia Climber Horka, Slovakia Alpine instructor Details Other expeditions
Piotr Czeslaw Pustelnik M 1951 Poland Piotr Czeslaw Lodz, Poland Teacher Details Other expeditions
Dariusz Jerzy Zaluski M 1959 Poland Climber Warsaw, Poland Film-maker & alpine guide Details Other expeditions

References

4 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
ANN108101 - - http://www.peterhamor.sk - - -
ANN108101 - - http://www.piotrmorawski.com/expeditions/2008_Annapurna/index.html - - -
ANN108101 AAJ Griffin, Lindsay - - 83:321-322 (2009) -
ANN108101 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12200932103/Asia-Nepal-Annapurna-Himal-Annapurna-I-8091m-West-Face-Czechoslovak-Route-Attempt - - -