Annapurna I | 2017 NW Face

A Germany expedition to Annapurna I in 2017 via NW Face, led by Felix Berg. Summit reached on 19th May 2017. 4 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 9398
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID ANN117105
Peak ID ANN1
Year 2017
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 NW Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Germany
Leaders Felix Berg
Sponsor Annapurna I West Face Expedition 2017
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 Canada, Poland, UK
Approach Manang->Tilicho Lake->Tilicho Peak->Helicopter from Tilicho
Basecamp Date 2017-05-11
Summit Date 2017-05-19
Summit Time -
Summit Days 8
Total Days 13
Termination Date 2017-05-24
Termination Reason 4
Termination Notes Abandoned at 6500m due to bad weather, spindrift, slow progress, difficult bivouacs
High Point (m) 6500
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 3
Fixed Rope (m) 0
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 Summited Tilicho (TILI-171-01)
Campsites BC(11/05,4100m),C1(17/05,5000m),Biv1(18/05,6100m),Biv2(19/05,6500m),xxx
Route Notes BC 11/05 4100m C1 17/05 5000m (on the upper part of glacier) Biv1 18/05 6100m Biv2 19/05 6500m HPt 19/05 6500m by Berg, Allen and Bielicki. Once they reached BC from Tilicho, the team was waiting for better weather. There was a lot of afternoon precipitation. On 17 May, they decided to go up. They left BC at 8 am, descended about 200m to 4000m crossed the river and came around the bottom of a ridge and crossed the glacier, which was heavily crevassed. There were seracs on the face in front and rock fall on the left. On 18 May, they went up a huge couloir to about 55 degrees. Started off as snow and then becomes ice. They ended up cutting a ledge in the ice at the top of the couloir at 6100m. They set up their bivouac at about 6 pm, which was half on the ledge and half going down. They spent the night sitting up. Only Bielecki could sleep – he even snored! The next morning the finally got away after having packed up everything. They were roped up and moved on the rope together with the leader putting in ice screws. From the top of the couloir they were going towards the right, less snow and more ice. Slow progress and it started to snow again and there was spindrift. It was worrying. It was no timmediately threatening, however, they did not know how much snow was accumulated and could potentially throw them off balance. At about 5:30 pm they were looking for a bivouac place. They found a rocky ledge, cut off the snow and put the tent on top of it. When they got in they found that it was too sloping. They put two fixed points outside the tent and secured the tent as well as themselves. They spent another uncomfortable night. At one point, the tent ripped on the bottom and they lost sleeping bag and sleeping mat. The next morning they debated what to do. They knew that it was technically not too hard for them and they still had 5 days' worth food and drink. Bielicki was keen to find out what the route looked like around the corner. However, they decided that they were making too slow progress, they would not make the weather window on 21 May and the weather always deteriorated in the afternoon, so they went down. On 20 May they abseiled about 20 pitches on Abalakovs and down-climbed some of the sections. The took the whole day to get down to the base of the wall at about 5100m. The conditions were reasonably safe. They were very lucky though as just when they were coming off the face a big avalanche came down where they had been. They were able to pitch the tent and were actually able to sleep for a change. On 21 May, they took the whole day crossing the glacier and getting to BC. Louis Rousseau left the team on Tilicho due to lack to time to finish the expedition. Final Annapurna I blog by Rick Allen: We had successfully acclimatized on Tilicho Peak, moved to Annapurna N base camp and now everything hinged on the weather. We were really looking for an ideal "weather window" of three days of low wind at 8000m combined with little or no precipitation. Gradually, it became clear it would not be happening. We lowered our expectations and grasped at the promise of a single day of low wind followed by a day of high snow fall. We set off on Wednesday, 17th May on our pure "alpine style" attempt on the NW face of Annapurna. Alpine style is often equated with light-weight style but as we shouldered our 23kg+ packs, the lightness was difficult to appreciate. Our route, paradoxically, led us first down to the glacial lakes at the foot of the N Annapurna glacier, 200m below our base camp (4100m) before climbing slowly over boulder strewn terrain leading towards the moraines below our face. The glacier is extremely fractured and we toiled over alternating rock strewn ridges and abrupt, icy slopes separating deep fissures of crevasses before emerging onto more snowy glacier in the late afternoon. Here, as the characteristic snow shower passed, we pitched our 3 person tent on a flat spot around 5000m and caught the last rays of the evening sun. An hour next morning took us to the base of a huge triangular buttress and an icy couloir running up its right hand side. We crossed the bergschrund (major crevasse) which separates the glacier from face and began to climb. This was to be the last moment for the next 3 days we had flat ground the size of six boot prints under our feet. The couloir started as a snow slope but increasingly hard icy streaks predominated at an average of about 55 degrees. It was also long, longer than we had estimated and the afternoon snow showers were well developed as we approached its top. No break in the angle provided any relief for a bivouac site so we began to cut a ledge in the ice at the foot of a rock wall where we could secure the rope. Torrents of spindrift poured intermittently down the wall and during these interludes we variously crouched or hung on, alert to the possibility that a full airborne avalanche may develop. At sunset, the snow relented once more and we had a glimpse of the sun and the Eastern flanks of Dhaulagiri. Finally, we had a ledge for half a tent and we could sit in a row, belayed inside our tent fabric with a single pole keeping it off our faces with our legs hanging free. We cooked a simple meal and brewed many hot drinks before lapsing into fitful rest. Through the tiny vent we watched a clear, starlit night develop over the central Nepal Himalaya. Getting moving in the morning was slow as we melted more snow for hot drinks, carefully unwound our safety lines which attached everything to the wall and ourselves and packed our sacks. The icy slope slanted right from the top of the couloir and we chose to rope up from the start, one climber leading and placing ice screws as the other two followed simultaneously. Whether because of the sleepless night, the effect of two days effort or the brittle, thin ice over rock, we were moving more slowly than the day before and yet again the snowfall began and we had no-where to place a tent. The descending spin drift clouds added urgency to our search and one hour before dark we tried to make something of a sloping rock ledge at 6500m. This sloped alarmingly and gathered so much snow that at the end we were hanging in our harnesses from our belay points, shrouded in tent fabric. No question of removing our boots to change into dry socks, adding warm clothing and only with the greatest efforts by Felix did we manage to melt some snow to produce a drink. By contrast, the sitting bivouac of the previous night had been luxurious. We constantly disturbed one another as we sought to shift our positions to alter the pressure of harnesses on our bodies and shivering became almost constant. When one careless movement produced a rip in the tent ( not designed to be hung exactly like this) we suddenly had a new view of the world, through the hole in floor to the glacier far below. Things deteriorated overnight as we lost one sleeping mat to the abyss and in the morning as we began to extricate ourselves from the bivouac, one sleeping bag slipped through the cellar door and disappeared. It was an open question up to this point whether we should continue upwards or descend. On the one hand, we had climbed half the face, we had confidence we could handle the technical difficulties and we ample food and gas for several more days. However, the incessant afternoon snowfall was alarming, we had slowed on the second day and after two practically sleepless nights we were not going to accelerate. From here onwards, retreat would become much more serious and breaking through to the summit ridge would require full commitment. The loss of one member's sleeping bag tilted the argument firmly in favour of descent. Multiple nights above 6500m without a bag would be impractical, even if we could find tent sites in the steep terrain above us, which seemed unlikely. Nine hours, 20 rappels from "Abalakov" ice belays and several pitches of downclimbing later, we were back on the glacier, not a little relieved and glad to pitch our wounded tent on some flat snow. As we cooked up the first meal for two days, the sound of powder snow avalanches pouring down the face confirmed our decision to descend. Another full day took us back down the glacier and its moraines to the welcoming tents of base camp. Toiling back up from the glacial lakes, as the evening sleet continued, it became clear there never really was a "summit weather window".
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Seven Summit Treks
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference -
Primary ID -
Checksum 2462880
Year 2017
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) nw face

Members

4 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Louis Rousseau M 1977 Canada Climber St-Ferreol-Les-Neiges, Quebec Epidemiologist Details Other expeditions
Adam Radoslaw Bielecki M 1983 Poland Climber Tychy, Poland Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Richard Frank (Rick) Allen M 1954 UK Climber Aberdeen, Scotland Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Felix Alexander Berg M 1980 Germany Leader Interlaken, Bern, Switzerland Managing director of a travel company Details Other expeditions

References

2 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
ANN117105 - - http://blog.summitclimb.de/2017/05/24/annapurna-report/ - - -
ANN117105 - - http://blog.summitclimb.de/2017/05/17/annapurna-bericht-von-felix-berg/ - - -