Annapurna I | 1975 SE Ridge

A Austria expedition to Annapurna I in 1975 via SE Ridge, led by Gerd Gantner. Summit reached on 5th April 1975. 9 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 2293
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID ANN175101
Peak ID ANN1
Year 1975
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 SE Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Austria
Leaders Gerd Gantner
Sponsor Austrian Annapurna I Expedition 1975
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, W Germany
Approach -
Basecamp Date 1975-03-24
Summit Date 1975-04-05
Summit Time -
Summit Days 12
Total Days 0
Termination Date -
Termination Reason 5
Termination Notes Abandoned at 6350 due to deep snow
High Point (m) 6250
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 3
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 9
Summit Members 0
Member Deaths 1
Total Hired 7
Summit Hired 0
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired False
O2 Used False
O2 None True
O2 Climb False
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep False
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken True
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits -
Campsites BC(24/03,4200m),C1(28/03,4700m),C2(30/03,5500m),C3(06/04,6150m),xxx(05/04,6250m)
Route Notes Gantner, et al. - 4 May 75 Jaschke and Brunner still at BC with LO and kitchen boy; send mail only on 5th and 12th May. In KTM about 20 May; doing geological research. 5 arrive today by bus. Schwarzenlander (leader) coming more slowly and arrive 8 or 9 May. C2 highest camp, a snow cave temp C3 established on 6 April at 6150m by Franz Tegischer and Sebastian Hoelzl; continued making fixed rope to 6250m and on 5th-7th actually carried loads to this point. 10th - Gantner, Hoffmann, Schwarzenlander and Schmidl carried to C1; Schmidl down next day, other 3 up to snow cave. Gantner and Hoffman carried 13th above cave to while Franz to C2 and stayed with Schwarzenlander. 13th snow started. 14th snow all day, stayed where they were. 15th snow all day, very bad visability, nearly 2m deep snow; tried to come down but too dangerous all fixed ropes buried in snow; decided stay up another night. 16th clear. Gantner and Hoffmann decided to come down, but no radio contact with C2. Reached C2 from cave at 10:50 am mean while Schwarzenlander informed by radio they had been covered by avalanches he able free himself while Tegischer died. Schwarzenlander able to slash tent and got out - has some frostbite his fingers; no movement from Tegischer - such deep snow next am took 3-1/2 hours from cave to C2 and danger of more avalanche. Buried on 22nd in glacier at C2; before that all came down to BC waiting for snow to stabilize. Had not reached ridge yet; highest point was about 100m below ridge. MP Khanal, MFA - 21 April 75 Annapurna member Franz Tegischer, 27, killed by avalanche 16 April at 12:30 am (night time) in C2. Not decided whether to continue leader says. No mention of body recovery. Gantner - 7 Aug 75 BC at 4400m to west of Tent Peak; climb onto North-South Ridge at about 5000m south of Fang. Basically rock and ice climb 45 to 50% slope onto ridge, then along SW Ridge to Annapurna I. 7 or 8 high camps; no climbing oxygen (maybe sleeping) from Fang to Annapurna I 2-1/2 km. All over 7000m 4 camps along ridge 1 top of ridge 1 before Fang 1 after Fang Leave Sun 9th Leave Pokhara about 11th About 8-10 days to BC 7 weeks climbing Mid-May on summit Most difficult part of climb is pillar onto ridge and objective danger of avalanching onto glacier (S Annapurna Glacier). Janzen - 6 March 75 6 Sherpas and sirdar and 1 cook, 2 kitchen boys and 2 mailrunners. 7 members here and 2 arrive 17 March. Leave 9 March by truck to Pokhara Leave Pokhara with 150 porters (3 tons). Leave Pokhara about 11th and reach BC in about 10 days in same place as Annapurna South Face BC. Letter from Gerd Gantner - March 21, 1975 The expedition members and the climbing equipment left KTM on the 10th of March at 9:OO am on two large trucks. We arrived in Pokhara at 5:00 pm. The 11th of March was used to adjust our loads into 30 kg porter loads. Just as we were finishing it began to rain very heavily along with a strong wind; maybe Annapurna was trying to tell us something? The porters were also arranged to come in the morning. From 8:00 am to 10:00 am we had given 152 porters their loads and a three-days advance. We had to pay each porter 18 NR per day because the other 3 expeditions had paid that much even though our route was suppose to be easier. Route to Machhapuchhare Base Camp March 12th Surkhet March 13th Khare March 14th Ghandrung March 15th Chomro March 16th Kuldi March 17th Hinko March 18th Machhapuchhare BC We had what all think was the ususual porter trouble, some not being able to carry any further because of pain or cold. There always seemed to be another porter there to carry two loads. Five porters carried twice between Hinko and Machhapuchhare BC. Twenty five porters said that they would carry loads up to our BC. On March 19th all porters went down to make two carries of firewood while Gerd Gantner, Franz Tegisher and Ernst Schwarzenlander each carried a load and located our Austrian Annapurna I BC at elevation 4200m. March 20th 6 porters returned to Pokhara while 6 members, 7 Sherpas and 19 porters carried to BC. The weather till today had been very good, clouding in the afternoon very little rain or snow then clearing by 7 or 8 pm. Today it clouded over by 11 am, started to snow and continued to snow until 7:00 pm. March 21st dawned clear and only clouded over at 3:00 pm, the usual time. Six members, 6 Sherpas and 19 porters carried loads to BC. March 22nd the last of the loads were carried to BC so we decided to move up from Machhapuchhare BC. Dr. Joerg Schmidl and Wastl Hoelzl arrived today. The 23rd dawned cloudy and windy so we decided to wait one day. The 24th the weather was still not very good, broken clouds, but we decided to move as Machhapuchhare BC ws getting crowded. The weather was on our side and so on March 24, 1975 we established the Austrian Annapurna I BC. Letter from G. Gantner, BC - April 9, 1975 The morning of March 26th gave us about 1-1/2 feet of snow so we decided to take another day of rest. The 27th of March, the day we wanted to start the expedition above BC, the Sherpas decided that they didn't want to go any further with us. From 8:00 am ot 4:00 pm we tried to persuade them to stay with us, to no avail; after being paid for being with us for 21 days they returned to KTM with all their equipment. All seven Sherpas, the cook and two kitchen boys left us. Our liaison officer, Babu Ram Pun, tried very hard and we think he did an excellent job in trying to persuade the Sherpas to stay. But the Sherpas had made up their mind. C1 establish March 23, elevation 4700m, @13:00 hours. Established by Ernst Schwarzenlander Franz Tegischer Barni Hoffmann Wastl Hoelzl Gerd Brunner Winfried Jaschke Joerg Schmidl The route follows the lower moraine for 1 hour then turns left in front of Annapurna south face and rises for 2 hours to a small knoll. C2 establish March 30 @12:00 hours, elevation 5500m Established by Franz Tegischer Ernst Schwarzenlander Barni Hoffmann Wastl Hoelzl The route from C1 to C2 is through a glacier which seems to change from day to day. C2 lies on the upper side of the glacier at elevation 5500m and is about a 5-hour climb from C1. Because of the good weather the dangers of the glacier have been showing up through the melting snow. The route is dangerous with seracs on the glacier and also seracs hanging on Modi Peak above, but it is the safest of all the other possibilities. The weather had been good until last night (April 8th) strong winds and heavy snow caused minor damage to our camps.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency -
Commercial Route -
Standard Route -
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference -
Primary ID -
Checksum 2447453
Year 1975
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) se ridge

Members

9 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Gerhard (Gerd) Gantner M 1944 Austria Leader Voels, Tirol, Austria Pharmacist Details Other expeditions
Ernst Schwarzenlander M 1946 Austria Climbing Leader Spittal an der Drau, Carinthia, Austria High school teacher of physical education Details Other expeditions
Joerg Schmidl M 1943 Austria Climber Innsbruck, Tirol, Austria Anesthesist Details Other expeditions
Gerd Brunner M 1946 Austria Climber Salzburg, Austria Biologist Details Other expeditions
Winfried Jaschke M 1946 Austria Climber Innsbruck, Tirol, Austria High school teacher of biology Details Other expeditions
Sebastian (Wastl) Hoelzl M 1945 Austria Climber Innsbruck, Tirol, Austria Achivist in Tirolian government archives Details Other expeditions
Franz Tegischer M 1948 Austria Climber Innsbruck, Tirol, Austria Civil engineer & alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Bernhard Hoffmann M 1951 W Germany Climber Innsbruck, Tirol, Austria Economics student (University of Innsbruck) Details Other expeditions
Verne V Jerzen M 1945 Canada Climber Vancouver, British Columbia Civil engineer Details Other expeditions

References

3 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
ANN175101 AAJ Guha, Kamal K. - - 50:519-520 (1976) -
ANN175101 MM Dyhrenfurth, G. O. & Dyhrenfurth, Norman Annapurna - 58:44-47 (Nov 1977) -
ANN175101 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12197651904/Asia-Nepal-Annapurna-I-Attempt - - -