Dhaulagiri I | 1996 E Face-NE Ridge up; NE Ridge down

A Netherlands expedition to Dhaulagiri I in 1996 via E Face-NE Ridge up; NE Ridge down, led by Bart Vos. Summit reached on 17th October 1996. 1 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 1927
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID DHA196304
Peak ID DHA1
Year 1996
Season 3
Host Country 1
Route 1 E Face-NE Ridge up; NE Ridge down
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Netherlands
Leaders Bart Vos
Sponsor Dutch Dhaulagiri Expedition
Success 1 False
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 89th claimed
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed True
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach -
Basecamp Date 1996-09-20
Summit Date 1996-10-17
Summit Time 1930
Summit Days 27
Total Days 33
Termination Date 1996-10-23
Termination Reason 3
Termination Notes Success claimed
High Point (m) 8167
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 1
Fixed Rope (m) 100
Total Members 1
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(20/09),C1(25/09,5780m),Biv1(11/10,6100m),Biv2(12/10,6600m),Biv3(13/10,7200m),Biv4(15/10,7600m),Biv5(16/10,8100m),Smt(17/10)
Route Notes C1 at NE Col Bivs on East Face Biv on NE Ridge. Vos - 5 Nov 96 Summited at 19:30 hours after having gone down on North Face to be sure where highest point actually was and up to it again; had left last biv at 8:30 am having had to wait for wind to drop; descended to 7500m, where stayed 5 hours in abandoned Japanese tent; down to C1 on 18th and BC on 19th. Russians and Austrians were on NE Ridge where Vos descended this way - fixed 100m at about 5600m on East Face. Difficulty was the duration and the weather. Most difficult place was rock at 7600-7000m on face. Took 5-10 days supply of food and fuel when started up on 11th Oct and biv tent & sleeping bag & down suit. Snow on face made it possible for him to climb it. Probably climbed new line. Eduard Koblmueller - 9 Nov 96: He does not believe it possible that Vos reached summit - refused to elaborate. But in late Feb 2000, he spoke to a Dutch journalist investigating Vos's Dhaulagiri and Everest summit claims, Ms. Milja de Zwart, who reported to me: "I talked to Mr. Koblmueller and he told me Bart Vos had a nickname on Dhaulagiri. 'The Netherland man' was called 'the Neverland man.' He said he simply didn't believe Vos made it to the top. Vos boasted he wanted to climb a a new route on the eastern wall, but he climbed the classical route just like the others. Koblmueller spoke with the Swiss couple Pierre-Alain and Helene Romagnoli too, and they told me Vos was a very mediocre mountaineer, comparing to his plans. Nobody saw him on the eastern wall ever, except maybe one time; when he traversed eastward for maybe a hundred meters to make a picture of the classical route and thus creating "proof" to back his "claims." However Koblmueller's team arrived at base camp on 12 Oct, only five days before Vos's claimed summit success, and their route diverged from that of Vos. The Austrians summitted on the 19th. Vos said he left base camp -- their base camps were in the area -- on the 23rd. Ministry of Tourism did not give Vos a certificate of summit success since he had no satisfactory photo of himself on top; his only photo was taken at night and could have been taken on any snowy slope. * Leader of Russian Dhaulagiri Expedition in Autumn 96 in Russian Expedition report on their own ascent, said on web site report of expedition activities that Vos did not reach the summit. Autumn 1996 Ascent of Dhaulagiri I by Bart Vos Disputed Vos told me on 5 Nov, 1996, on his return to Kathmandu from his Dhaulagiri I climb without any other members or Sherpas with him (and without oxygen), that he had summited at 17:13 pm (well after dark) on 17 October alone. He had left his highest bivouac that morning at 8100m late at 8:30 am, because he had had to wait for the wind to drop, and then had gone down on the North Face to be sure where the highest point on the mountain actually was, and finally up to the summit. The photo that he claims shows him on the summit could have been taken anywhere: the background behind his body is entirely dark, and in the foreground at his feet on simply gently-sloping snow. The leader of an Austrian expedition on the mountain at the same time, Eduard (Edi) Koblmueller, told me on 9 November after his own return to Kathmandu that he did not believe it possible that Vos reached the top. He refused to elaborate. However his team arrived at base camp on 12 October, only five days before Vos's claimed summit success, and their route diverged from that of Vos. The Austrian summited on the 19th. Vos said he left base camp -- their base camps were in the area - on the 23rd. An expedition from St. Petersburg, Russia was also on Dhaulagiri I at the same time. The published a report in English of their climb on their web site, and it states that only their expedition had succeeded in "conquering" the mountain. It specifically says that the Dutchman, after his third (and again vain) attempt, "had to retire from Dhaulagiri." The Nepalese ministry of tourism never gave him a certificate of his summit success. The official in charge of the mountaineering section said Vos had no satisfactory picture of himself at the top, and the official knew about the grave doubts of Vos's success on Everest in 1984. A member of the spring 1984 Dutch Everest team, of which Vos was also a member, Miss Mariska Mourik, wrote to me on 25 Nov, 1999 about Vos's failure on Everest. She added: "I never doubted Bart's ascensions of Cho Oyu and Dhaulagiri (the third time in 1996). I believed that Bart wanted to prove, to himself and to others, that he was capable of climbing the high Himalayan peaks. But then, by sheer coincidence, I met (members of the Russian Dhaulagiri team) Alexei Choestrev and Nikolay Pimpkin in Chamonix in the summer of 1997. During our conversation they mentioned having been on the Dhaulagiri in the autumn of 1996. Then you must have met Bart Vos, I said, a Dutchman who reached the summit after having soloed a new route in the east face. Through Nicolay and Alexei I learned that Bart was on the normal route, the Northeast Ridge, with all the other expeditions, and that he never went any higher than the camp at 7200m. He followed Alexei and Nickolay on their summit attempt, but gave up before them, and went back to base camp. Alexei was shocked when I showed him an article from a Dutch newspaper with a drawing of the East Face and Bart's new route. "There was no one there, there was no one there, "Alexei kept repeating, all the while making an erasing motion with his hand over the dotted line straight up through the East Face. Once back in St. Petersburg, Alexei sent me a translation of his brother's dairy (brother Nikolai was also a member of their team) in which the Russian's encounters with Bart are mentioned, and he sent me the dated photographs of Bart drinking vodka with the Russians in their ice cave in camp 2 (on 13 October, when according to his own account he was all alone in the East face). Alexei and Nickolay told me repeatedly that while on the mountain, and later that year during the annual meeting of St. Peterburg climbers, to which Bart was invited for having helped part of the Russian expedition through the snowstorm during the trek back, that Bart never even pretended to have reached the summit of Dhaulagiri, and that he would have to go back, a fourth time. But in Holland he gave a completely opposite story, claiming to have soloed up the East Face and reaching the summit on 17 October (when he was, according to the Russian diary, already on his way back down to Base Camp)." "I have nothing against Bart. I actually pity him. What kind of joy or satisfaction can he get from these false successes?" In March 2000, Vos brought legal proceedings against a Dutch newspaper, Algemeen Daqlbad, for an article it had just published written by Ms. Milja de Zwart, a Dutch journalist who had recently been investigating the credibility of Vos's climbing claims, in which she concluded he had not summited Everest and Dhaulagiri I. In April, the judge hearing his case ruled against Vos: "We will not sustain the demand to rectify because the indications Bart Vos didn't reach the summits (Dhaulagiri and Everest) are this strong, that it is not improper to disbelieve Bart Vos in public. "We refer to the fact that Vos changed his formerly firm claims on important subjects, such as dates, and in the end doesn't give a sound explanation of his activities and whereabouts during the climbs of Everest 1984 and Dhaulagiri 1996. Doing so, he admits he gave false statements at the time. "Everything considered, at this stage we think it very plausible on the ground of these investigations, the Algemeen Daqlbad could fairly conclude that Bart Vos's story doesn't fit. There are many contradictions, which hardly could be explained, except by assuming vos didn't reach the summits." Vos had the right to appeal this decision until 20 April, but did not do so, according to a fax to me from Milja de Zwart on July 19, 2000.
Accidents -
Achievement 1st Dutch ascent
Agency Trekking International
Commercial Route -
Standard Route -
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference -
Primary ID -
Checksum 2456330
Year 1996
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) e face-ne ridge up; ne ridge down

Members

1 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Bart Vos M 1951 Netherlands Climber Femnes, Netherlands Manager (IBM) Details Other expeditions

References

4 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
DHA196304 AAJ Hawley, Elizabeth - - 71:289 (1997) -
DHA196304 - Vos, Bart Hoger dan de Dhaulagiri Nijgh & Van Ditmar - -
DHA196304 HIGH - - - 175:91-92 (Jun 1997) -
DHA196304 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12199728902/Asia-Nepal-Dhaulagiri-I-Solo-Ascent - - -