Dhaulagiri III | 1973 SW Face-W Ridge

A W Germany expedition to Dhaulagiri III in 1973 via SW Face-W Ridge, led by Klaus Schreckenbach. Summit reached on 20th October 1973. 8 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 2340
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID DHA373301
Peak ID DHA3
Year 1973
Season 3
Host Country 1
Route 1 SW Face-W Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality W Germany
Leaders Klaus Schreckenbach
Sponsor German Himalaya Expedition 1973
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 1st,2nd
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach Pokhara->Jomsom->Mu La->Mukut
Basecamp Date 1973-09-21
Summit Date 1973-10-20
Summit Time 1250
Summit Days 29
Total Days 41
Termination Date 1973-11-01
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 7715
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 4
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 7
Summit Members 6
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 3
Summit Hired 1
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 -
Campsites BC(21/09,4000m),C1(24/09,5000m),C2(27/09,5300m),C3(12/10,5900m),C4(18/10,6950m),Smt(20,23/10)
Route Notes K. Schreckenbach - 28 Nov 73 Bernd Schreckenbach not fit at time of summit attempts. Frostbite: K. Schreckenbach, 3 toenails lost + 2 finger nails will go Hans Salers toes, but will not lose anything. All will be here by today; KS, Saler, Harberl and LO arrived yesterday. Route changed for first summit group because of snow; West Face slope below it and then via SW Face and W Ridge. No accidents, serious illness Small accident 50m by Harberl by avalanche on Charter Ridge 1st Oct - not much avalanching Klaus Schreckenbach, C2 - 24 Oct 73 21 Sep - reached Base Camp near Mukut (4000m) 24 Sep - C1 (5000m) established by K Schreckenbach, Hans Saler, Klaus Suessmilch, Bernd Schreckenbach 27 Sep - C2 (5300m) established behind the Charter Ridge (5650m) by Peter Von Gizycki and Konrad Hiller 30 Sep to 9 Oct - bad weather, heavy snowfall 11 Oct - provisional C3 established at 5600m by Klaus Schreckenbach, Hans Saler and Gerhard Haberl 12 Oct - after a stormy night final place for C3 at 5900m (snow cave) 13 Oct - heavy snowfall 18 Oct - C4 (6950m) established by Saler, Hiller and Sirdar Norbu (snow cave) 20 Oct - top of Dhaulagiri III reached by K. Schreckenbach, Saler and Haberl, very stormy 23 Oct - top of Dhaulagiri III reached by Suessmilch Von Gizycki, Hiller and Norbu Besides some small frostbite, we are all well and we will reach Kathmandu in about 3 weeks. K. Schreckenbach - 8 Sept 73 Saler left by road for Pokhara this morning and Schreckenbach leaves with LO by RNAC at 11:30 am today, thus all in Pokhara. Leave Pokhara tomorrow for base camp arriving there 25th or 26th Sept (1st mailrunner back from base arrive Pokhara 2-3 Oct). K. Schreckenbach - 6 Sept 73 All expedition baggage and members except Saler reached Pokhara on Mon, 3rd Sept; now arranging porters. Expedition leaves Pokhara Sun, 25 Sept at base camp near Mukut. Leave base camp beginning of Nov for return KTM. K. Schreckenbach - 2 Sept 73 To Mukut and then south, up glacier end of point of 6181m to Dhaulagiri III from west onto east 200-300m of West Ridge of Dhaulagiri III; totally new route (which could be of interest to future expeditions to Dhaulagiri V). Schreckenbach arrived today; all other members except Saler leave NDH (New Delhi) by road today to Pokhara; hope to leave Pokhara on 8 Sept. 6 high camps, 2 base, 1 at Mukut and 1 after Charter Ridge; may use snowholes at high altitide which are much warmer than tents. 3 high altitude Sherpas. All members unmarried. Pokhara to Mukut about 16 days so arrive BC about 24 Sept. Hope we can reach the peak after 4 weeks; another 1-2 weeks to return all equipment to BC. 1st summit team 2-3 members and if weather and health permit hope more subsequently. Dhaulagiri III conquered They're back from the mountain with frostbite and grizzly beards. Back from the top of Dhaulagiri III - the highest mountain climbed by a German team (7715m). They had met us with hope and confidence some months ago (German news Sept 15, 1973) and now they came to our offices with triumph and humility. "It was no sense of victory really," said 29 year Klaus Schreckenbach, leader of the 7-man German Himalaya Expedition, "when we stood at the summit we first were happy that it was over, the fight and challenge was behind us. One felt a feeling of friendship with the others," he searched for words. "You feel happy afterwards, you know." Gerhard Haberl (27) who came with Schreckenbach also found it difficult to explain how it was to be at the top. "You relax once you get there. you thought it was hard but once you're there you say you've have done your job," he said showing his discoloured frostbitten fingers. The others had frostbitten toe nails and couldn't even dance with the villagers of Mukut a stopover near their base camp, when their victory was celebrated. They'd reached Mukut after a 12-day trek out from Pokhara, the starting point, with 59 porters carrying supplies. This was in the end of Sept and they had some good weather to keep them company. Base Camp was set up at the foot of the mountain at 5000m and the spot was reached across steep slopes and after a rocky traverse. C2 was established three days later at 5300m and to reach it called for dangerous rock climbing with fixed ropes to negotiate a steep ridge and heavy ice. But with the first days of October came bad weather and the storm winds and avalanches in their wake held them up for nearly ten days. "It was a bad time psychologically," said Schreckenbach who was stranded at C2 with two of his teammates. They read paperbacks, wrote their diaries and penned letters and all that time there was a heavy snowfall and screaming winds outside their flimsy tent. With the first let in the snow storms, the party moved on to set up C3 at 5850m after a hard climb across a one km - long traverse made even more dangerous because of the threat of avalanches. Another party of climbers went on to set up C4 at 7000m. They kept changing parties and the rule really was to send up anyone who was needed at a certain place. There were no star climbers and they worked it out as a team. It was very stormy at C4 and the climbers there had no food either because their stove had gone out of business. So they decided to think only of reaching the summit and set out in Oct 20 to make for the peak that was a hard 700 metres ahead. At around 12:30 pm of the same day, the three climbers.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency -
Commercial Route -
Standard Route -
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference -
Primary ID -
Checksum 2447909
Year 1973
Summit Success True
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) sw face-w ridge

Members

8 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Klaus Schreckenbach M 1943 W Germany Leader Munich, Bavaria, W Germany Physicist Details Other expeditions
Gerhard Haberl M 1946 W Germany Climber Munich, Bavaria, W Germany Engineer Details Other expeditions
Konrad Hiller M 1945 W Germany Climber Munich, Bavaria, W Germany Geologist Details Other expeditions
Hans Saler M 1947 W Germany Climber Munich, Bavaria, W Germany Precision tool maker Details Other expeditions
Bernd Schreckenbach M 1941 W Germany Climber Munich, Bavaria, W Germany Druggist & photographer Details Other expeditions
Klaus Suessmilch M 1939 W Germany Climber Munich, Bavaria, W Germany Engineer Details Other expeditions
Peter Von Gizycki M 1946 W Germany Climber Munich, Bavaria, W Germany Geologist Details Other expeditions
Dawa Norbu Chaumaka Sherpa M - Nepal Sirdar - - Details Other expeditions

References

10 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
DHA373301 AAJ Schreckenback, Klaus - - 48:208 (1974) -
DHA373301 HJ Schreckenback, Klaus Dhaulagiri III, 1973 - 33:202-203 (1973-74) -
DHA373301 AJ Schreckenbach, Klaus & Von Gizycki, Peter Dhaulagiri III - 80:198-202 (1975) -
DHA373301 MM - - - 31:9 (Jan 1974) -
DHA373301 DAV Schreckenbach, Klaus Dhaulagiri III - 100:79-88 (1975) -
DHA373301 - Deutsche Himalaya Expedition 1973 Besteigung des Dhaulagiri III 7715m The expedition, Munich - D184
DHA373301 DAV - - - 100:129 (1975) -
DHA373301 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12197420801/Asia-Nepal-Dhaulagiri-III - - -
DHA373301 - - https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/33/33/expeditions-and-notes-33/ - - -
DHA373301 - - https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1975_files/AJ%201975%20198-201%20Schreckenbach%20Dhaul3.pdf - - -