Annapurna III | 1978 W Face

A USA expedition to Annapurna III in 1978 via W Face, led by Steve Van Meter. Summit reached on 20th October 1978. 15 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 2163
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID ANN378301
Peak ID ANN3
Year 1978
Season 3
Host Country 1
Route 1 W Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality USA
Leaders Steve Van Meter
Sponsor American Annapurna III Expedition 1978
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 UK
Approach Pokhara->Modi Khola->Annapurna Sanctuary (BC)
Basecamp Date 1978-09-08
Summit Date 1978-10-20
Summit Time -
Summit Days 42
Total Days 0
Termination Date -
Termination Reason 7
Termination Notes Abandoned at 7200m due to cold hands and feet
High Point (m) 7200
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 3
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 14
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 -
Campsites BC(08/09,3960m),ABC(09/09,4400m),Dep(10/09,4875m),C1(26/09,4875m),C2(14/10,5335m),C3(17/10,6035m),xxx(20/10,7200m)
Route Notes Shailendra Raj Sharma, Tourism - 24 Oct 78 Van Meter report: new route on West Face joining West Ridge at 23,600 ft. Sapp, Connor and Landry chose not to go on last section on easy West Ridge; summit long distance from them horizontally and they were extremely exhausted. Trio had been climbing since 7 pm the night before, taking all night to ascend the West Face couloir, 3600 feet of alpine climbing. Continuing on would have necessated a probably biv and possible frostbite. We did this climb in a non-traditional tactic without any Sherpas; our team down to only 5 lead climbers after illness forced 2 others out. To have put up a major new route in the Himalayas under these conditions is a major accomplishment to the advancement of Himalayas climbing. Our group feels that we are a success even though the summit was not reached. High point: Oct 20 noon 23,600 feet Coffee - 23 Oct 78 Were on West Face. Coffee and Van Meter arrived KTM today. Coffee goes back to BC with cash on 25th Oct. 3000 feet of rope to C2 on top of rock buttress; above 17,500 feet: 17,800 to 17,900 feet, about 14-15 Oct. C3 about 2-3 days later, about 19,800 ft on 17 Oct by McCullough, Sapp, Andrews and Van Meter about 3:00 pm. Landry and Connors started from C3 to summit at 10:00 pm 18 Oct in full moonlight - trying and headlamps. Alpine ascent; managed 2000 feet vertical feet of very steep climbing, harder than expected. They reached C3 5:00 or 6:00 am 19 Oct; rested at C3 on 19 Oct. 19 Oct Van Meter and Andrews went and fixed rope on this 2000 ft to give Landry and Connors better chance to summit next night to climb through the night, yet to top early am and get down the same day. 19 Oct Andrews and Van Meter to C2 from C3 after fixing rope while McCullough and Sapp went up and joined Landry and Connors. 2nd team of Mac and Sapp started at 8:30 pm. At about 11:00 pm, when both teams are well above fixed ropes, 2nd team caught up with 1st at about 22,300 feet. Hardest climbing they'd ever done: snow not very deep on rock and not secure. 11:30 pm - 12:00 midnight. Mac feeling high altitude, effects and needed to go down and did so alone. Managed to reach C3 in early hours of am in darkness and then hallucinated 4 hours. Other 3 went on up and it 11:45 am of 20th got onto top of ridge, where Italian and Japanese routes met theirs at 23,600+ feet and +600 yards lateral from top. Figured 8 hours to top from there on no oxygen which meant after dark, so came down and reached C3 at 4:30 pm where they collapsed and Landry went snowblind but Sapp fine quickly. That was end of climbing but not all of mountain. Made first ascent of West Face to establish routes. Buttress was enormous, very long; needed stronger team for 2000 ft of rock climbing at high altitude. Shailendra Raj Sharma - Tourism 13 Oct 78 30 Sept message: BC - 10 Sept 13,000 feet C1 - 23 Sept 16,000 feet Weather unsettled 7 Oct message: from leader weather totally bad 6 and 7 Oct. Rick Mosher going back; his wife Arlette (trekker) sick and requires return to US and husband may go with her to US. Dennis Coffee arrived 5 Oct at BC. Route change requested: from SW Ridge. C1 had been established directly opposite the route. Too dangerous icefall on ridge. Want West Face; estimate 3 camps total; waiting for good weather. Lead climbers Landry and Connor inspected West Face and decided it feasible. Sharma will be given change of route. 7 Oct from LO: route change because of avalanches. Daily snowfall and avalanches. Postcards from Greg say of 4 Oct C2 is at 17,500 feet C3 will be at 19,000 feet C4 top camp Shailendra Raj Sharma - 1 Oct 78 Annapurna III C1 established at 16,000 feet on 26 Sept and then further advance halted due to unsettled and bad weather. All members well. Coffee - 21 Sept 78 Infected hand apparently a spider bite which developed a kind of gangrene. Coffee - 19 Sept 78 SW Ridge looks pretty good although may go off slightly because of serac wall in early part of climb. Highest at 16,000 feet where C1 will be. 2 people on 5 Sept at BC - all on 8th. 14,440 ABC 9 Sept 13,000 BC 8 Sept 16,000 dump 10 Sept Such heavy snowfall that lot of avalanche and will wait 1-2 weeks before putting in C1. No Sherpas with expedition. Coffee, escorted by Hirsch, arrived by helicopter from Chamro village. Coffee has swollen right hand from infection, nature of which is unknown. Was seriously ill with very high fever (104 degrees) and even at times delirious; now fever down and hand not so swollen as before, Had hoped to walk to Pokhara, but yesterday found he was too weak and sent for helicopter. Hopes to be able leave KTM after only couple of days. JOMR - 6 Sept 78 Annapurna III had no Sherpas at all with them when they were in Pokhara; when asked who would be cook for LO, they pointed to the 7 BC members. (Mike Cheney earlier reported expedition fired their Sherpas evening before leaving KTM). Expedition seemed to have no idea about their route. Steve Van Meter - 18 Aug 78 New route: SW Ridge, which Italians looked at in 1977 and decided would too long because of technical difficulties of steep ice and rock, long ridge to summit; ridge is quite narrow; think it is climbable. If not feasible (too many objective dangers), could switch to West Ridge or would like alternative mountain, Annapurna II or IV or Gangapurna. Approach via Modi Khola. BC 12,500 feet at foot of glacier. Route is up glacier. 2 or 3 camps above BC; definitely one on 2 rock wall high up on ridge at 22,000-23,000 feet, which could be highest camp. No Sherpas above BC except sirdar Sange Sherpa who will help through icefall to 17,000 or 18,000 ft. We want to try to climb this peak without any Sherpas on the mountain. 1) to keep cost down, and 2) seems to be trend in Himalayan climbing. Leave KTM about 22 Aug. 7 or 8 days to BC with 60 porters. Summit 1st-2nd week Oct. Slowest part of climb probably icefall and 1st rock wall; could be avalanche area. $40,000 budget No oxygen 7 people at BC Annapurna III Steep ridge mixed rock and of 3 miles to summit. 2nd rockwall 22,000-23,000 ft. Long steep ridge with maybe C3 on this ridge. C2 17,000 ft. 1st rock wall 15,000-17,000 ft. Glacier - icefall 12,500-15,000 ft with C1 somewhere on glacier. BC - 12,500 ft Letter from Tom McCullough, BC - 5 Oct 78 The sole way onto any route is via a long, trip consuming day through one ice field - treacherous looking but quite benign and dying. So our first team is up onto one of the long finger-like rock buttresses that invades the icefield, then along the snow rock ramp to the West Face start. Seems like a variation of the West Face will become the new route. The summit pair has been selected and along with that decision goes all the acrimony, mashing of teeth. Then everyone settles into their role and we continue. Werner Landry and Ed Corners are to go for the summit with usual offerings of the possibility of a second and maybe even a 3rd attempt. I have managed to keep some of the people well during Dennis' absence, the most notable failure being my own health for 3 days. Letter from Tom McCullough - 23 Sept 1978 Slowly moving we are moving materials up to the base of the buttress. Bad weather has slowed our movement. New snow impaired our crossing of a high morraine to reach advanced base at 16,200. Right now Ian studying all the medical books. My training as in EMT is coming in handy. Hopefully Dennis will return soon. My first guess was a bug bite but he wasn't sure; would be good to get some word about his condition. We are still plagued by a few bugs, colis-infected bites; takes a long time for wounds to heal. Couple of climbers have gone up around Tent Pass to take a look around to avoid camp fever. The fall colors are spectacular, very delicate small alpine flowers changing colors. Weather getting cooler but when will the monsoons end? The mist seems to settle in the Sanctuary. Volley ball had become a regular pastime, our game improves with time at altitudes. Each day we have some activity going on. We will send 2 climbers up to advance in two days to search the route (Ed Connors, Werner Laudry). I'll go up with them to film their movement. Camp spirits are high, but everyone would sooner be on the mountain. Letter from Tom McCullough - 16 Sept 78 We are safely settled at base camp nursing our colds, wounds and wet clothes after too many times across the Madi Khola. We finally got all the loads across; a week-long study in frustration in trying to coax the porters across the river early enough in the morning while the river is still passible. The delay caused us to [use] more base camp supplies than planned so we have been sending out for food with each mail run. Speaking of leaches, they were not so bad at our various camp sites and especially at Macchapuchhare base camp. Letter from Tom McCullough - 28 Aug 78 Tonight we are at Hinko, blocked from the Annapurna 3 base camp by three rivers. Tomorrow, early we will cross the rivers when they are lower. Alternatively build some bridges. Everyone has managed to come down with a cold - seems to be the continual runny nose and cough that the porters have. We are almost a day behind schedule. We probably will not be able to pay the porters to base camp since the budget was very slim in the area. We will ferry the 30 loads overselves over about 4-5 days. We had three good days of carrying mixed with 3 days when the porters would go no further at mid-afternoon.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency -
Commercial Route -
Standard Route -
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference -
Primary ID -
Checksum 2448840
Year 1978
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) w face

Members

15 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Dennis R. Coffee M 1948 USA Exp Doctor Phoenix, Arizona Psychiatrist Details Other expeditions
Edward H. (Ed) Connor III M 1942 USA Climber Santa Barbara, California Irrigation contractor Details Other expeditions
Werner Raphael Landry M 1946 USA Climber San Diego, California Geologist Details Other expeditions
Thomas E. (Tom) McCullough M 1949 USA Exp Photographer Sandia Park, New Mexico Expedition Photographer Details Other expeditions
Richard (Rick) Mosher M 1946 USA Climber Santa Barbara, California Business-machines repairman & alpine guide in the Sierra Nevad Details Other expeditions
Gregory (Greg) Sapp M 1955 USA Climber New York, New York Travel agent Details Other expeditions
R. Steven (Steve) Van Meter M 1955 USA Leader Santa Barbara, California Real estate agent Details Other expeditions
Guy Andrews M 1959 USA Climber San Diego, California Travel agent Details Other expeditions
Kelley Davenport F 1950 USA Member San Diego, California Graphic designer (commercial artist) Details Other expeditions
Louis Hirsch M 1955 USA Member Tucson, Arizona Surveyor Details Other expeditions
Jody Johnson M 1958 USA Member Scottsdale, Arizona Secretary & student Details Other expeditions
Mike Kiljan M 1939 UK Member Fairbanks, Alaska Civil engineer Details Other expeditions
Arlette Mosher F 1941 USA Member Santa Barbara, California Professional photographer Details Other expeditions
Ann Reynolds F 1946 USA Member Sandia Park, New Mexico Architect Details Other expeditions
Sange Sherpa M - Nepal Sirdar - - Details Other expeditions

References

3 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
ANN378301 AAJ Connor, Edward H. - - 53:59-61 (1979) -
ANN378301 MM - - - 67:13 (May 1979) -
ANN378301 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12197905900/Annapurna-III-Attempt - - -