Everest | 1973 S Col-SE Ridge

A Japan expedition to Everest in 1973 via S Col-SE Ridge, led by Michio Yuasa. Summit reached on 26th October 1973. 50 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 2333
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID EVER73301
Peak ID EVER
Year 1973
Season 3
Host Country 1
Route 1 S Col-SE Ridge
Route 2 SW Face (to 8380m)
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Japan
Leaders Michio Yuasa
Sponsor Japanese Expedition to Mt Everest 1973
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 16th
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach Khumbu Valley
Basecamp Date 1973-08-25
Summit Date 1973-10-26
Summit Time 1630
Summit Days 62
Total Days 0
Termination Date -
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 8849
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 5
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 49
Summit Members 2
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 33
Summit Hired 0
Hired Deaths 1
No Hired False
O2 Used True
O2 None False
O2 Climb True
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep False
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits -
Campsites BC(25/08,5440m),C1(04/09,6100m),C2(09/09,6700m),C3A(18/10,7450m),C4A(25/10,8000m),Smt(26/10),Biv(26/10,8600m); SW-Face.C3B(18/09,7000m),C4B(26/09,7500m),C5B(07/10,8000m),xxx(26/10,8380m)
Route Notes SW Face: C3B - 18 Sept 7000m C4B - 26 Sept 7500m C5B - 07 Oct 8000m Highest point - 26 Oct 8380m SE Ridge: C3A - 18 Oct 7450m C4A - 25 Oct 8000m Highest point - 26 Oct Smt SE Ridge: Biv at 8600m just below South Summit, reached 8 pm (on descent); 4:30 pm at summit. Both were behind by no oxygen, finished at arrival on summit; no liquid, no food. Kato all toes frostbitten but will recover, but will lose little of right finger; Ishigawa no frostbite. Highest C4 on South Col Ranjan Bhattacharya - 21 Oct 71 Japanese paper says Rock Climbing Club received permission to climb Everest, but Japanese Mountain Council cancelled recommendation because in their party, leader Okuyama and another member Furukawa were professional climbers of Japanese Mt Association; so because professional climbers recommendation withdrawn. Will give their recommendation to Takahashi meeting held Sept 27th. Aattori to be member of RCC team; returns ex-Lukla 29 Oct. He brought half of royalty; he says team doesn't care whether do or don't have JMC backing. Yuasa - 3 Nov 73 8300m on SW Face; 2 climbers: Morita and Shigehiro. 26 Oct no camp made; then to point back to support South Col on 26 Oct; they could have gone higher, no more progress on face because of support. If had 5-7 days from 1st Oct could have reached top by face, but 24 days bad weather with avalanches, snow, strong wind. 2 summiters: Ishiguro at BC and Kato at Syangboche; toes frostbitten but Ok. Bonington, Everest SW Face "Right cocktail of planning, timing, determination, weather conditions and a dash of luck" = success on SW Face of Everest. "This does not mean that the face is impossible in the autumn. Given the night trick of circumstances, a few days of freakish, wind less weather at the night time, a party could climb the SW Face of Everest at this time of year." ND Shrestha, MFA - 23 Oct 73 C4 and C5 slightly damaged due to bad weather. Oct 16 same members set up to repair damage camps C4 and C5; also on 16 Oct some members sent to scale by normal SE Ridge route as well to put C3 on Lhotse face and C4 on Col. Mr Yuasa, exec leader Made all arrangements to scale Everest by end of Oct. Since Oct 16 weather had been good. Pandey, MFA - 16 Oct 73 Sherpa killed 12 Oct. 2 members and 4 Sherpas had gone to C3 (7000m) from C2 (6700m) carrying loads; on the way, fresh avalanche; 1 Sherpa, Zangbu of Namche lost life. Hashimoto - 14 Oct 3 days at base camp and left yesterday. Tomorrow return to Tokyo Some members reached above 8000m but not yet completed top part so camp not yet established. Site for C6 has been reached. Lost couple of days bad weather snow and so ordered members down and reassesing tactics. Wind not jet stream but spotty; this am from helicopter saw lot of snow danger to Pheriche. Decision to be made today about route and on this decision depends whether will originally through route to left would be easier; snowfall changed this; have lot of snow on SW Face. Going down to adv base camp with recent bad weather; supposed all in higher camps by now at ABC. No names, team effort. All members well, no accidents. Summit in 10 days but depends on weather visiting base camp and because very appreciative of British who selected its site but so many expeditions have visited base that there is a lot of trash now. Via mountain route difficulty in suppport but its possibility of descent via SE Ridge. Michio Yuasa - 9 Aug 73 (Yuasa flying to Lukla) "Right side of route of snow face could be easier to climb Everest." 2 camps above 8000m. Summit assault 3rd week Oct. Total camps 7 or 8. Haston, MacInnes and Scott asked if they could join Japanese, but not accepted because of communications difficulties.
Accidents Zangbu Sherpa killed by avalanche between C2 and C3
Achievement -
Agency -
Commercial Route True
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference -
Primary ID -
Checksum 2444045
Year 1973
Summit Success True
O2 Summary Used
Route (lowercase) s col-se ridge

Members

50 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Takeyoshi Akamatsu M 1936 Japan Cameraman Saitama, Japan Cameraman Details Other expeditions
Hiroshi Aoki M 1938 Japan Climbing Leader Tokyo, Japan Manager of firm Details Other expeditions
Jiro Endo M 1938 Japan Climber Toyotama-naka, Nerima-ku, Japan Office worker Details Other expeditions
Takane Fujiki M 1926 Japan Reporter Hyogo-shi, Hyogo, Japan Journalist Details Other expeditions
Ryoichi Fukada M 1942 Japan Climber Tokyo, Japan Engineer Details Other expeditions
Hironori Fukushima M 1940 Japan Climber Osaka, Japan Staff of the company Details Other expeditions
Toshio Aida M 1947 Japan Climber Kyoto, Japan Landscape gardener Details Other expeditions
Tsuneo Hasegawa M 1947 Japan Climber Yokohama, Japan Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Riyutaro Hashimoto M 1937 Japan Commander General Tokyo, Japan Member of the House of Representatives of Japan Details Other expeditions
Mitsuyoshi Hongo M 1951 Japan Climber Owariasahi, Aichi, Japan University student Details Other expeditions
Seiichi Iizuka M 1941 Japan Climber Honjo, Saitama, Japan Office worker Details Other expeditions
Mikio Imai M 1939 Japan Reporter Kohto-ku, Tokyo, Japan Journalist Details Other expeditions
Seiichi Inugi M 1945 Japan Climber Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan Engineer Details Other expeditions
Hisashi Ishiguro M 1945 Japan Climber Tokyo, Japan Office worker Details Other expeditions
Masaki Kaneda M 1946 Japan Climber Morioka, Iwate, Japan Physician Details Other expeditions
Katsuhiko Kano M 1942 Japan General Manager Tokyo, Japan Graduate student at Tokyo University Details Other expeditions
Yasuo Kato M 1949 Japan Climber Omiya, Saitama, Japan Student of university Details Other expeditions
Katsuyoshi Kogure M 1943 Japan Climber Sawa-gun, Gunma, Japan Landscape gardener Details Other expeditions
Kunihiko Kondo M 1945 Japan Climber Tokyo, Japan Artist Details Other expeditions
Osamu Kunii M 1944 Japan Climber Tokyo, Japan Office worker Details Other expeditions
Sakio Maetani M 1949 Japan Climber Nagakute, Aichi, Japan Graduate student Details Other expeditions
Akira Matsuda M 1944 Japan Climber Tokyo, Japan Employee Details Other expeditions
Ichiro Mitoda M 1942 Japan Climber Kobe, Hyogo, Japan Office worker Details Other expeditions
Shotaro Mizuno M 1907 Japan Leader (Honorable) Mikage-cho, Higashinada-ku, Japan Professor of University of Osaka Details Other expeditions
Masaru Morita M 1937 Japan Climber Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan Engineer Details Other expeditions
Kazuo Nakamura M 1929 Japan Reporter Tokyo, Japan TV producer Details Other expeditions
Satoru Negishi M 1947 Japan Climber Fujioka, Gunma, Japan Employee Details Other expeditions
Masaru Okabe M 1946 Japan Climber Tokyo, Japan Employee Details Other expeditions
Toshitaka Sakano M 1944 Japan Climber Tokyo, Japan Physician Details Other expeditions
Masami Sakurai M 1943 Japan Climber Tokyo, Japan Office worker Details Other expeditions
Yosuke Sakurai M 1949 Japan Climber Iwakura, Aicihi, Japan Student of university Details Other expeditions
Masaru Miwa M 1942 Japan Climber Tokyo, Japan Employee Details Other expeditions
Shunzo Sato M 1943 Japan Climber Tokyo, Japan Proprietor of a firm Details Other expeditions
Tsuneo Shigehiro M 1947 Japan Climber Kobe, Hyogo, Japan Staff member, Onitsuka Co. Details Other expeditions
Tatsuji Shigeno M 1943 Japan Climber Tochigi-shi, Tochigi, Japan Employee Details Other expeditions
Seiji Shimizu M 1945 Japan Climber Saitama, Japan Office worker Details Other expeditions
Nobuo Shitasaka M 1948 Japan Climber Kyoto, Japan Engineer Details Other expeditions
Yoshinobu Suda M 1945 Japan Climber Chofu, Tokyo, Japan Employee Details Other expeditions
Senya Sumiyoshi M 1926 Japan 2nd Deputy Leader Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan Physician Details Other expeditions
Kazushige Takami M 1945 Japan Climber Hiroshima, Japan Engineer Details Other expeditions
Sokichi Tanaka M 1940 Japan Exp Doctor Maebashi, Gunma, Japan Physician Details Other expeditions
Hiroshi Niwa M 1947 Japan Climber Tokyo, Japan Cameraman Details Other expeditions
Katsuya Toyoda M 1940 Japan Climber Tokyo, Japan Cameraman Details Other expeditions
Tomio Ueda M 1939 Japan Climber Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Japan Teacher of junior high school Details Other expeditions
Uno Kohei M 1939 Japan Business Manager Takase, Miyagi, Japan Cook Details Other expeditions
Takane Watanabe M 1947 Japan Climber Kawasaki, Takatsu, Japan Graduate student at Tokyo University Details Other expeditions
Kazuo Yamada M 1946 Japan Climber Saitama, Japan Student of university Details Other expeditions
Michio Yuasa M 1937 Japan Climbing Leader Inotaka, Nagoya, Japan Assistant law professor of the University of Aichi-Gakuin Details Other expeditions
Sutemi Terada M 1939 Japan Cameraman Tokyo, Japan Cameraman Details Other expeditions
Jangbu Sherpa M - Nepal H-A Worker Namche Bazar, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions

References

7 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
EVER73301 AAJ - - - 48:204 (1974) -
EVER73301 JAC Yuasa, Michio The Southwest Face of Everest: 1973 - 69:21-27 (1974) -
EVER73301 MM - - - 30:10 (Nov 1973) -
EVER73301 JAC Yuasa, Michio The Southwest Face of Everest: 1973 - 69:34-50 (1974) -
EVER73301 - Kato, Yasuo To the Plume of the Mountains Chuokoron, Tokyo - jK69
EVER73301 - Fujiki, Takane Ah! The South Wall Asahi, Tokyo - jH130
EVER73301 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12197420401/Asia-Nepal-Mount-Everest-Japanese-Post-Monsoon-Expedition - - -