Cholatse | 2004 N Face

A S Korea expedition to Cholatse in 2004 via N Face, led by Park Jung-Hun, Choi Kang-Sik. Summit reached on 16th January 2005. 2 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 5146
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID CHOL04401
Peak ID CHOL
Year 2004
Season 4
Host Country 1
Route 1 N Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality S Korea
Leaders Park Jung-Hun, Choi Kang-Sik
Sponsor -
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 -
Basecamp Date 2005-01-02
Summit Date 2005-01-16
Summit Time 1200
Summit Days 14
Total Days 15
Termination Date 2005-01-17
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 6440
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 Climbed Lobuche East
Campsites BC(4200m,02/01),Biv1(5650m,13/01),Biv2(5900m,14/01),Biv3(c6300m,15/01),Smt(16/01)
Route Notes Cholatse, first winter ascent of the North Face by new variants to the French Route. Koreans, Park Jung-Hun and Choi Kang-Sik reached the summit of 6440m Cholatse at midday on January 16, 2005, having made the first winter ascent of the North Face. The two arrived at base camp (4200m) on January 2 and climbed Lobuche East to acclimatize. Due to the onset of poor weather on the 9th, the two men were unable to begin their alpine-style ascent until the 13th. They opted to travel as light as possible, packing for only one night out and two days climbing. They took a 55-liter rucksack, two 55m ropes (7mm and a 5mm Kevlar), 15 pitons, 10 slings, two quick-draws, four screws, a fish-hook, three RURPs, two snow stakes, a bivouac sac each, one gas canister, one stove, two Sierra cups, power bars, power gel, coffee, cocoa, and only two biscuits between the two. Before sunrise the two men trudged through crusty snow to reach the main wall and began climbing the lower section via three pitches on a moderate 60-degree spur. After the fifth pitch they followed a c80-degree couloir roughly seven meters wide, where each pitch of blue ice took anything from 40 minutes to one and a half hours to climb. At around 1 pm the climbers reached a difficult section of black ice at 5600m. One pitch above this, at c5650m, they made their first bivouac. By 8:00 the following morning Park had worked through an overhanging section using RURPs and a fish-hook. The pair then made a short traverse left and climbed four pitches of 75-degree mixed climbing to reach a fork in the couloir at 5900m. Here, they made their second bivouac. The next morning, they followed the right branch, a 65-degree couloir, and made their third bivouac on the NW Ridge just five pitches shy of the summit. They began their trudge to the top by eight the next morning, summitted around noon, shot three rolls of film, then began their descent of the SW Ridge. In order to speed their descent they left pitons and ice-screws behind and by 4 pm had made it down to walk-able terrain. Here, they shortened the length of rope between them. Low on the glacier Choi suddenly fell 25m into a rimaye about one meter wide and 50m deep. He broke a leg and Park fractured ribs in his fall. By the time Choi had been brought to the surface, freezing darkness had already descended. Despite being only four hours from the nearest habitation, Na La, their injuries, lack of provisions and total exhaustion forced them to bivouac for a fourth night. Finally, the two men reached Na La the next day and asked an elderly man to summon a rescue helicopter immediately. Both climbers were successfully evacuated but Park was eventually to loose eight fingers, while Choi suffered the loss of nine fingers and all of his toes. Unfortunately, all the camera film was lost in the rimaye and while Park returned the following spring to see if he could find the camera and film, he was unsuccessful. This ascent is the most dramatic and, despite the injuries, most acclaimed effort out of all the winter alpine-style first ascents made by Koreans.
Accidents Park and Choi fell into a small crevasse (Park fractured leg and Choi broken leg)
Achievement -
Agency None
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2458676
Year 2004
Summit Success True
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) n face

Members

2 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Jung-Hun Park M 1971 S Korea Co-Leader Sacheon, Gyeongsangnam, S Korea - Details Other expeditions
Kang-Sik Choi M 1980 S Korea Co-Leader Hadong, Gyeongsangnam, S Korea Physical education student Details Other expeditions

References

3 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
CHOL04401 CLIM - - - 17:68-69 (Jul 2006) -
CHOL04401 AAJ Lee, Young-Jun - - 80:417-419 (2006) -
CHOL04401 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12200641700/Asia-Nepal-Annapurna-Himal-Mahalangur-Himal-Khumbu-Section-Cholatse-First-Ascent-of-North-Face-by-New-Variants-to-French-Route - - -