Annapurna I | 2008 S Face

A Switzerland expedition to Annapurna I in 2008 via S Face, led by Ueli Steck. Summit reached on 22nd May 2008. 2 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 5945
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID ANN108104
Peak ID ANN1
Year 2008
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 S Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Switzerland
Leaders Ueli Steck
Sponsor Annapurna I Expedition 2008
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 -
Approach North from Pokhara
Basecamp Date 2008-05-05
Summit Date 2008-05-22
Summit Time -
Summit Days 17
Total Days 18
Termination Date 2008-05-23
Termination Reason 14
Termination Notes Abandoned at 7400m due to call for rescue attempt of Inaki Ochoa
High Point (m) 7400
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 0
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 2
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 Parchamo (6 May) and Tengkangpoche (TKPO-081-01)
Campsites BC(05/05,4200m),Biv1(14/05,4800m),Biv2(15/05,5900m),xxx(15/05,5900m);Ochoa.rescue(22/05,7400m)
Route Notes BC at right side of South Annapurna Glacier Biv on glacier below South Face Biv on South Face east of Bonington route High point at 2nd bivouac. Annapurna I Expedition led by Ueli Steck - 26 May 2008 Before attempting Annapurna I, the two Swiss climbers, Ueli Steck and Simon Anthamatten, went to Khumbu and climbed two smaller mountains as warm ups. They flew to Lukla on 29 March, trekked via Namche Bazar, Thami, and Thami Khola to Thengpo village, where they had their BC in a lodge. On 2 April they trekked westwards to Tashi Laptsa pass at 5800m and back to BC the same day. They returned to Tashi Laptsa on the 5 and slept there. On 6 April they climbed Parchermo via its North Ridge to its 6187m summit and returned to BC. Now they turned to Tengkangpoche, which had been successfully climbed only once before, in an unauthorized ascent by a British-American team in the autumn of 1984 via its East Ridge from the south. They approached from the north, where nine teams had failed from 2002 to 2006 on various northern lines. The Swiss tackled its North Face and made their first attempt on 10 April, when they went from BC to 5500m and bivouacked there. On the 11th they got to 6000m, and then falling snow and wind drove them back to BC. Now they took a rest to wait for better weather. They went to Namche for yak steaks on the 14th and returned to BC on the 15th. A week later they made their summit push of Tengkangpoche in just four days: from BC on 21 April they went up to 5100m on the North Face and bivouacked there. The next day they were at 5600m; on the 23rd they surmounted the 85 degree last section of their line on the North Face to reach the summit ridge, the West Ridge, at 6350m and made their last bivouac there. They went to the top on 24th April and were back in BC the same day. On 28 April they flew from Lukla to Kathmandu and the next day flew to Pokhara for their climb of Annapurna I. Steck said in Kathmandu on 28 March, when they had just arrived in Nepal, that he expected their alpine-style ascent via a difficult unclimbed line on the South Face, east of the Bonington route, to the East Ridge to the top and back to BC would take them a total of eight days, and they would return to Kathmandu about 20 May. But in the end, they sacrificed their summit chances by the serious altitude sickness of Inaki Ochoa, and they were late getting back to Kathmandu. From Pokhara they trekked north and arrived at BC on 5 May at 4200m in a rocky area on the right side of the South Annapurna Glacier at the same site as that of his spring 2007 attempt. After some bad weather, on 14 May they climbed from BC to bivouac at 4800m on the glacier below the South Face, and on the 15th they bivouacked at 5900m on the face, but from 12:00 noon there was heavy snowfall and wind, and they had to go to BC on the 16th to be safe from avalanching and wait for good weather. When they were still in BC on the 19th Steck received a telephone call from Horia Colibasanu, the Romania member of the team led by Spaniard Inaki Ochoa at the far eastern end of the the South Face, saying that both of them were in trouble and asking for help. Colibasanu was extremely tired and his voice was not very clear on the satellite phone, but Steck could make out that Ochoa had frostbitten fingers and (this was not very clear) maybe cerebral edema. The two Swiss had no high altitude equipment at BC, but 9:00 pm on 19 May they packed up some medicine (Ochoa and Colibasanu had none with them) and started up the mountain via Ochoa's route. Two Sherpas from Ochoa's BC showed them the way up the face from C1. At 4:00 am on the 20th on their way to C2, they had to stop because they could not see in the dark and the Sherpas had gone back to BC. At 6:00 am in daylight they started up again and reached Ochoa's C2 at 5800m at 1:00 pm. But now they were in clouds and snow was falling. Part of the route from C1 to C2 was fixed, and all of the way between C2 and C3 had been fixed, but there was avalanching in the afternoons, and they slept in C2 that night. On the 21st they got to C3 at 6800m at about noon, and then stopped again because of new snowfall and the heat was causing avalanches. They would be unable to reach C4 that day. Furthermore, they did not have the proper shoes and heavy down jackets for higher altitudes. But Alexei Bolotov, a Russian member of the expedition led by Sergei Bogomolov, climbed to 6800m on the 21st, and he gave his boots to Steck in exchange for Steck's lighter shoes. So on the 22nd Steck climbed alone to C4 at 7400m on the East Ridge. It took him eight hours to reach C4 because a lot of new snow had fallen, and Colibasanu earlier had to break trail for Steck on the ridge to C4. They met on the ridge, and Steck learned that Colibasanu had cerebral edema. Steck gave him some medication, Colibasanu got better and continued down to C3, where he met Anthamatten, while Steck went along the ridge to C4 and got there at about 4:00 pm on the 22nd. He found Ochoa seriously ill with both cerebral and pulmonary edema. Ochoa immediately recognized Steck and spoke to him, but his speech was not clear. His mind "came and went," and he was not moving at all. Steck spent the night of the 22nd/23rd with him, gave him injections and sips of water. On the 23rd he was a little better and managed to ask for coffee; coffee was not available but Steck gave him an energy bar and water. Ochoa's condition deteriorated: he became unable to speak or move at all. When he stopped breathing, Steck pressed his chest and got him breathing again, but at 12:10 pm his head snapped back: Ochoa was dead. The weather was bad again on the 23rd so Steck was unable to descend. He moved Ochoa's body out of the tent, where it remains, and spent the night there. On the 24th Steck went down all the way to his own BC. He is attempt to climb Annapurna I was clearly over. In the meantime, Anthamatten, who had gone down to C3 when Steck had gone up to C4, had roped Colibasanu to himself and on the 23rd they had gone down to C2, where a helicopter picked up them and one of Ochoa's Sherpas on the 24th and dropped them off at about 4100m, the spot marked on most maps as Annapurna South Base Camp; Ochoa's BC was there. They stayed there that night. The next day, the 25th, Steck arrived, and on the 26th Steck and Anthamatten flew by helicopter to Pokhara and by scheduled flight to Kathmandu.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Royal Orchid Treks
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2459587
Year 2008
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) s face

Members

2 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Simon Nathaniel Anthamatten M 1983 Switzerland Climber Zermatt, Valais, Switzerland Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Ueli Steck M 1976 Switzerland Leader Ringgenberg, Bern, Switzerland Alpinist Details Other expeditions

References

1 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
ANN108104 - - http://www.uelisteck.ch/index.php?id=28,151,0,0,1,0 - - -