Cho Polu | 1954 N Ridge from E

A New Zealand expedition to Cho Polu in 1954 via N Ridge from E, led by Edmund Hillary. Summit reached on 3rd June 1954. 3 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 3475
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID CHOP54101
Peak ID CHOP
Year 1954
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 N Ridge from E
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality New Zealand
Leaders Edmund Hillary
Sponsor New Zealand Alpine Club Barun Valley Expedition
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 -
Approach -
Basecamp Date -
Summit Date 1954-06-03
Summit Time -
Summit Days 0
Total Days 0
Termination Date -
Termination Reason 4
Termination Notes Abandoned below summit due to poor visibility
High Point (m) 6600
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 0
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 2
Summit Members 0
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 1
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 False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits Climbed Baruntse (BARU-541-01), Pethangtse (PETH-541-01), Pethangtse East (PTHE-541-01), Chago (CHAG-541-01) and Nau Lekh (NAUL-541-01) (all 1st ascents); attempted Makalu II (MAK2-541-01); recon Makalu (MAKA-541-02)
Campsites xxx(03/06,6600m?)
Route Notes Notes by Elizabeth Hawley, July 2000 Sir Edmund Hillary led a team from the New Zealand Alpine Club in the spring of 1954 to a group of Nepalese mountains around the Barun Valley east of Khumbu and west of Makalu. The team of ten members consisted of eight New Zealanders and two Britons. Amongst the peaks they went to was Baruntse, to which they gave this name since they could discover no existing name. According to Hillary's 1956 book about the expedition, East of Everest, (pgs 60-61), one New Zealand member of the expedition, Norman Hardie, went on June 3 to a peak they were told by local people was called Cho Polu, and, Hardie reported to Hillary, Hardie and Urkien Sherpa "climbed the large domed ice peak, 22,060 ft (nearly 6900m) to the south [of the col from which they had started this climb ... The ridge had a variety of ice, snow, rock and cornice, and the climb of a little more than two thousand feet took about four hours. By the time we were on the summit, clouds had obscured what should be a very good view." They had some difficulty with the route down but returned safely to the glacier at the foot of the mountain the same evening. Years later, I asked Hardie for more details of the climb, and he said that they had not actually climbed Cho Polu, but had been on a different nearby peak. He did not know its name, if any. Norman Hardie - 12 Feb 1982 From letter to Elizabeth Hawley: On 3rd June 1954, Urkien and I, from the col north of Cho Polu climbed along the mixed rock and snow ridge, in cold damp snow and poor visibiliy. We went for a long time and then came to a snow peak in thick cloud. Here we paused in the cold, and went back to our camp as fast as possible in miserable conditions. I believed we had climbed Cho Polu, and wrote accordingly in the N. Z. Alpine Journal of that year. We then crossed the col to the north and descended to the Imja. In June 1956 I began plotting all the survey work done in the Barun and Hongu. Many hundreds of photographs were enlarged to a definite scale and I had lots of survey bearings and notes. In a photograph taken by one of the others I saw a snow bump, not the summit, and at that late stage I got the impression that this was what we had climbed. Back again in 1960, from the Imja, I looked carefully at Cho Polu, in clear conditions, and I now think we did not climb it in 1954, although we had completed all the difficult sections - and there were in fact few difficulties. If you are writing historical notes I prefer you to be brief and state something like - partial ascent from north in poor visibility, summit not reached.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency -
Commercial Route -
Standard Route -
Primary Route True
Primary Member True
Primary Reference True
Primary ID BARU54101
Checksum 2440136
Year 1954
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) n ridge from e

Members

3 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Edmund Percival Hillary M 1919 New Zealand Leader Auckland, New Zealand Apiarist & alpinist Details Other expeditions
Norman David Hardie M 1924 New Zealand Climber Christchurch, New Zealand Civil engineer Details Other expeditions
Urkien Sherpa M - Nepal H-A Worker Khumjung, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions

References

0 recorded references.