Annapurna I | 2013 S Face

A France expedition to Annapurna I in 2013 via S Face, led by Yannick Graziani. Summit reached on 24th October 2013. 2 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 8283
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID ANN113302
Peak ID ANN1
Year 2013
Season 3
Host Country 1
Route 1 S Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality France
Leaders Yannick Graziani
Sponsor French on Annapurna I
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 -
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach From Nayapul via Annapurna Sanctuary trail
Basecamp Date 2013-09-22
Summit Date 2013-10-24
Summit Time 1100
Summit Days 32
Total Days 36
Termination Date 2013-10-28
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 8091
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 0
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 2
Summit Members 2
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 Summited unnamed 6505m peak
Campsites BC(22/09,4130m),ABC(06/10),Biv1(17/10,6100m),Biv2(18-20/10,6650m),Biv3(21/10,7150m),Biv4(22/10,7400m),Biv4(23/10,7550m),Smt(24/10)
Route Notes Graziani observed some clear evidences of his [Ueli Steck's] climb around 6700m (holes in the ice from the ice axes, and steps cut into the ice/snow for the feet) then at 7300m (less clearly, but his own mind was not that clear at that stage of his climb). Few days before as he and Benoist were staying on top of a 6505m peak without name for acclimatization, during their second night there, Graziani received a SMS from Steck, telling him he was going to summit Annapurna during the night (Ueli's summit was during the night of the 9th to 10th October. Graziani was given Steck's planning before the expedition and the timeline given by Steck after his climb fully corresponded. He is completely sure Steck did it. Graziani amazed by the fact Ueli Steck had just a single trip to 6500m for acclimatization, then could directly go up for the Annapurna's South Face. About 6505m peak first ascent: For acclimatization, they chose a very nice peak located on the ridge linking the Fish Tail and the main Annapurna summit barrier, the prominent peak north of Gandarva Chuli and given 6505m by the Finnish Map. On the 6th October they put an ABC in the deep gorge upper Modi Khola valley, then a first bivouac (in tent) on the glacier plateau located just W-SW of the Peak (at 5600m) on the 7th October. Then the day after they climbed an obvious gully up to the top where they stayed during two nights for acclimatization. During second night YG felt some imaginary respiratory problems, fearing for their coming attempt on Annapurna. On the 10th October, they descended in one day back to their ABC, then the day after to the BC lodge (more than 6th of tricky descent). On 11th they thought they would meet with Steck, but Steck was already paragliding in Pokhara (Steck apparently ran from the BC to the valley, then to Pokhara precisely the same day). About Annapurna South Face's Steck route: Then from the 12th October, as nobody was ready to help them to carry their gear, the tired pair had a difficult time to establish its ABC at 5000m. Then the cyclone occured, fortunately putting not too much snow on the south side of the Annapurna range (one day and a half of precipitations about 30/40 cms of new fresh snow). When the pair was back at ABC on the 16th October, they found that their tents had been lightly sagging by the snow. On the 17th October, the pair begun the proper climb by a safe rocky spur on the left side of the main corridor (average slopes from 40 to 50 degrees with some bits of rock passages) from the bergschrund at 5750m up to 6100m. On the 18th October, the pair chose to make a traverse on the right across ice flutes to reach a safe bivouac place at 6650m, well-protected from any avalanche danger as it is located on a terrace of the main spur going to the central summit. Difficulties that day: 50/70 snow icy slopes (not rocky at all). On the 19th, the pair stayed at the bivouac; there was a snowfall in the afternoon. On the 20th the pair stayed again at the bivouac. As it was still snowing during the afternoon with quite a lot of wind, the pair established its bivouac deeper within the cornice (very good shelter). The weather forecast was annoucing very good weather for the days after. On the 21st after a good rest with much food and drink, the team reached the foot of the main rock barrier at 7000m, then attacked the difficulties from 1 pm (according to Graziani they were deeply late at that stage, as Benoist's rhythm was already decreasing). They had 4 very hard pitches including two short extreme ones of 15m each. S Benoist led these ones. It was 90-degrees steep in very delicate ice with no protection: Benoist being sometimes blocked high above without any protection, he would ask Graziani for encouragment, the later doing as best as he could. This done and the night coming after a short debate, they eventually agreed to say it was too hard to continue to climb during the night, as the pair did a 15m abseil on their left and cut a short margin (large like a foot) to bivouac around 7150m. During that night Graziani broke his thermarest. The weather was absolutely perfect, no wind, not too cold. On the 22nd, by some still hard pitches in ice the team could reach almost the end of the main rock barrier and established its bivouac at 7400m located on the very top of the huge dihedral bordering the main rocky barrier on its left. * During that part of the climb, they could observe around the middle of the rock barrier an old 90's Friend (with a straight axis/came in French and an seemingly old dated carabiner) put in a crag on their right: maybe a vestige from Beghin-Lafaille retreat? As their king-size platform had a hole in the center and that they didn't at first install their tent properly, they later tended to slip slowly into the hole during the first stage of the night! Graziani fearing a fatal fall after awhile, he decided the pair should go outside and dig the platform better to make their bivouac safe. On the 23rd, after some labourious attempts, in 3 to 4 pitches (including one still very hard led by Benoist) they could reach a 7550m bivouac. Benoist was often leading the ascent during main difficulties, as Graziani explained that reversible climb was very hard to manage (too exhausting to always change pitch after pitch). Thus they preferably changed after 2 or 3 pitches (more or less sometimes). On the 24th, at 3 pm the pair started in 40/45-degree slopes, then climbed the small 30m (half a pitch) bastion without any protection (60 degrees in mixed ground), then again 40/45-degree snow slopes up to 200m under the top (Benoist broke the trail up to this stage, still in good shape). Then the slopes went steeper (55 to 60 degrees in mixed ground) to reach the top of the main summit ridge. From there, in 15 minutes they eventually reached the very top at 11 am. As Graziani was exactly 40 years old that day, he tried to call his mother in France (in Nice), who wouldn't unfortunately answer! Then they immediately begun with the descent down to their 7550m bivy place. Most of time they would downwalk-climb without abseils the slopes (they left one piton for the 30m abseil of the rock bastion). Here Graziani could consider again that his partner was going slowly, too much so he had to shout on him: "we have to go fast, quickly!" In fact, not seeing him abseiling down the 30m bastion, calling for him with no answer, 3/4 hour after Graziani went back up to search for his companion, fearing he may have fallen to his death. Arrived at their 7400m bivouac, as the evening begun to turn windy and seeing his teammate's decreasing state, Graziani felt suddenly much concerned about their critical situation: comitted above a 500m rocky barrier, with 2000m more abseil and downclimb to come after. Moreover Yann Giezendaner (weather forecast engineer based in Chamonix, France) announced him new snow coming for the day after during the afternoon! On the 25th, Graziani woke up in advance at night to prepare the abseils. They begun it from 6:30-7:00 am, in a very good clear weather without wind. They left pitons, friends, slings, had some "fil d'araignee" abseils to overcome, but luckily the ropes didn't get stuck so they could reach the footstep of the rock barrier safely. Then they traversed far on the right in very good snow conditions to be sheltered by the rock barrier above of any avalanche danger (straight above the rimaye), and stopped there at a 6900m place around 2 pm ("still too late!" says Graziani) where they dug a terrace to make some hot water. At 3 pm, they started again to abseil down on Abalakov anchors until the night. Benoist's state was continuing to decrease, Graziani managing 100% of the abseils installation. At one stage, Benoist told to Graziani: "I think I must have remained there on top": he had fallen asleep during 25 minutes whilst waiting for his turn. As the night begun and Benoist wanted to stop, Graziani demanded to continue during the night (as they were still far from the rimaye, in very large 60 to 70-degree slopes), even with no more lamps (Graziani lost his one on the way up, and had no more batteries on his alternative one). Graziani proposed a system: Benoist would keep the stove working to make light whereas Graziani would install the abseil; then Graziani would take the stove with him and abseil; then his partner would join him and do the whole procedure again. At first again Benoist refused it but Graziani forced his friend to to so. Like this, with abseils getting more and more fixed on doubtful anchor points (sometimes on inverted Friends, "on shit stuff!") as they were running away, the pair eventually reached its first bivouac place after 600m of 16 to 17 abseils at 3 am on the 26th (Graziani: "I was in trance, 100% focused on surviving ... I could really only begun to disconnect when the helicopter arrived"). This night was luckily still beautiful with no snow as it was initially expected (Graziani could work with bare hands at 6700m). Here they tried to prepare tea with no success, having maximum 3 mouthfuls of it, then they just ran away from gas. On the 26th, Graziani woke up quite happy thinking they were very close now to the end of their descent, but here he had to consider that his friend was almost completely shocked now; Benoist eating snow in his bowl, Graziani shout on him: "you mustn't eat snow! Children only do that!" At 8:30 am, after 3 abseils, Graziani understood that they would never be able to reach BC's lodge by their own means and that he had to call for an heli-rescue which would pick them up from the footstep of the face, at the plateau just under the rimaye. Unfortunately, his phone didn't have enough credit for it, even if he already could briefly reach the BC lodge manager just before (JB "James Brown" Gurung!). So they continued down with some more abseils and reached eventually the rimaye at 5750m. Here they left their ropes in the rimaye as these were blocked. Soon after beginning the descent to ABC, Graziani fell into a crevasse and apparently almost broke a rib (medical diagnostic needs to be confirmed)! Then they needed 6 more hours, even in an easy glacier ground, to reach their ABC at 5000m respectively at 6 pm for Graziani and 6:30 pm for Benoist. There with only half a gas bottle left and some dried soups, Graziani realized he hadn't to waste the gas so had to find fresh water and not snow to make boiling water. So groping around, he could find in obscurity a thin water dish nearby the camp. During the night they had more hot water, Benoist breathing heavily, Graziani knowing his friend would never recover in that place. On the 27th, as his satellite phone had not much battery left, Graziani could used their solar panel battery luckily left at the ABC. Thus Graziani could call back BC's lodge manager to launch a rescue. JB Gurung called them back around 9 am (as Graziani was going to search for water) to announce heli-rescue was going to happen in the afternoon; as it was unfortunately cloudy this afternoon, the helicopter didn't come. On the 28th, eventually the helicopter could pick them up in the morning from the ABC safely to Kathmandu. As Graziani felt totally groggy after the helicopter rescue, the young French members of the Gaurishankar South Face expedition assisted them to deal with administration details (heli-rescue, hospital, insurance and repatriation questions); Graziani feeling better during the afternoon. Conclusion: Stephane Benoist has both black frozen toes and fingers and will stay at the CIWEC hospital as long as he needs before flying back to France. His fingers and toes will have to be partly cut. He was diagnosed as well with pneumonia that he may have contracted during the descent. Benoist was telling to his wife before leaving: "I want to challenge myself very far." Yannick Graziani just has blisters on both big toes. He will leave Kathmandu on the 1st of November. He considers they have been too far on that climb and that it isn't a good example for young generations (as he could tell first to the Gaurishankar French team). Benoist led most of the hard pitches on the way up but lost control during the descent and wouldn't be alive without his companion ("From 6900m, I had to look after him to save our lives"). To remain secure, he considers they should have decided to retreat at the top of the rock barrier at 7500m, meaning on summit day.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Monviso Treks
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2461573
Year 2013
Summit Success True
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) s face

Members

2 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Stephane Francois Christian Benoist M 1971 France Climber Castagniers, Alpes-Maritimes, France Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Yannick Marcel Graziani M 1973 France Leader Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France Alpine guide Details Other expeditions

References

5 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
ANN113302 AAJ Graziani, Yannick Annapurna At Last - 88:19-21 (2014) -
ANN113302 AJ Graziani, Yannick Life Wish - 118:24-32 (2014) -
ANN113302 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13201212553/Annapurna-at-Last - - -
ANN113302 - - https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_2014_files/AJ%202014%2024-33%20Graziani%20Annapurna.pdf - - -
ANN113302 ROCK Douglas, Ed The Other Annapurna - 251:48-59 (2018) -