Everest | 1994 N Rib-W Ridge

A Norway expedition to Everest in 1994 via N Rib-W Ridge, led by Jon Gangdal. Summit reached on 7th September 1994. 21 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 1468
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID EVER94303
Peak ID EVER
Year 1994
Season 3
Host Country 2
Route 1 N Rib-W Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Norway
Leaders Jon Gangdal
Sponsor Norweigian Everest Expedition 1994
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 1994-08-23
Summit Date 1994-09-07
Summit Time -
Summit Days 15
Total Days 0
Termination Date -
Termination Reason 6
Termination Notes Abandoned at 7060m due to dangerous avalanche conditions and Sherpa death
High Point (m) 7060
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 2
Fixed Rope (m) 2000
Total Members 20
Summit Members 0
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 11
Summit Hired 0
Hired Deaths 1
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(23/08),ABC(27/08,5600m),C1(30/08,5900m),C2(06/09,6700m),xxx(07/09,7060m)
Route Notes BC at road C1 at foot of North Rib C2 on North Rib. 1st heavy snowfall came on 8-9th Sept & all in C2 down; after snow stopped, on 12th Sept started up again (as did all other expeditions). 12th 6 Sherpas & 3 members from C1 reached C2 at 11:30 am, rested & stored gear; at 12 noon 4 Sherpas went up to fix rope above C2, pulling rope from snow & reached 50+ meters above C2 when 2m deep slab avalanche came down, burying Mingma Norbu, who apparently was not properly attached to fixed line; others were not buried. One hour after accident started snowing again & snowed for 3 days. This combined with loss of Mingma led to decision to abandon climb. Big avalanche from Changtse & another big one from N Col on 14th were expecially alarming. Body cremated at old Rongbuk 13th. LO said team could go to other route or some to join other teams, but no one wanted to continue & advice from sponsors was to stop in such dangerous conditions. Were very fit had came as a team & wanted to leave as a team. "As a climb this was a fiasco but as a human experience it was marvelous"; close knit group of Norweigians & Sherpas. But Everest was Stronger - by Jon Gangdal (Received from Gangal - 14 March 1995) "We have had an accident. A major avalanche has swept right over us. Four Sherpas were taken by the avalanche, and a fifth has lost one of his fingers." The message came clear and slowly over the radio from C2 at 6600m. It could not be mistaken. Everything had seemed so perfect, the expedition was experiencing great progress on the mountain, but everything had turned upside down within seconds and a major tragedy had happened. Mingma Norbu Sherpa was shortly found dead in the avalanche at the bottom of the mountain, 700m further down from C2. He left behind a pregnant women and two children, two years and five years old. We had set us a very ambitious goal. The West Ridge on Mount Everest (8848m) from Tibet. One of the by far hardest and toughest routes on the worlds highest mountain. The route had been attempted by a dozen earlier expeditions. Only one had succeeded. That was during the spring. We were going to try the route during the autumn, and thereby write another proud chapter in Norwegian Himalaya history. We knew very well that our attempt could be very dangerous, like all climbing in the Himalayas. For that reason we had gone through 3 years of very thorough preparations and taken as many precautions as humans can take. This had made the Norwegian Everest Expedition to Norway's largest climbing expedition ever, with 22 Norwegian climbers - 20 men and 2 women, 15 Sherpas and close to 10 tons of food and equipment. Ahead of Schedule When the accident and tragedy struck the expedition, the expedition had reached every goal up to that point. We were considerably ahead of schedule, thanks to two very strong teams who had during the course of less than one week, managed to fix ropes and carry equipment above the first magic point of 7000m. At the same time a dozen Norwegians and Sherpas were working on carrying food and equipment from Advance Base Camp (5600m) up to C1 at 5900m, which were located by the foot of the mountain. 24 hours of continous snowfall put a temporary stop on the record breaking progress. At that time all the climbers who were evaluated to be in good enough form had spent a least one night in C2 at 6600m. The few who were still fighting the after effects from high altitude sickness, flue and colds, were on their way to full recovery. The team was doing very well. After some discussion we had reached an agreement regarding progress on the mountain. The climbers literally queued up in order to help out on the mountain. Even the most pessimistic climbers started to believe that we would reach the summit. A Beautiful Day The third day after the snowfall, Monday Sept 12th was a cold beautiful day. Three Norwegians and six Sherpas were on the ropes before 8 am and made good progress towards C2, even though they had to plow their way at times in knee-deep snow. But even though the snow was deep in certain places, it appeared solid and not very likely to start any avalanches. The plan was to reach 7350m that afternoon and establish C3 on the top of the West Shoulder. The Norwegians and two Sherpas were to stay there overnight and to stretch climing ropes along the west ridge the following day. The four other Sherpas were going to return to C1. It were these four Sherpas who started climbing from C2 after a short break with juice and chocolate. Three of the Sherpas were tied to the ropes. The fourth was a short distance behind and was just about to tie himself on the to the ropes when a major roar suddenly interrupted the silence on the mountain and massive amounts of snow thundered towards the climber. The ones who were still in C2 saw that the avalanche had started far to the left of the Sherpas. For a moment they hoped that the snow would avoid the four Sherpas. This did not happen. They last they could see was a chaos of snow, arms and legs rushing past the point where they were staying. The avalanche also swept over the ones who were still in the C2. Luckily they managed to hold on to the ropes. Despiration The complete silence which always follows immediately after huge avalanches was very brief. The Sherpas very quickly became aware of what happened and cried and yelled in desperation over the fact that they had lost one of their closest friends and family member. We found Mingma under only 20 cm of snow. He was probably killed instantly during the fall down the 700m high mountain side. Thanks to his very strong Sherpa friends we were able to carry him all the way down to BC the following day. While the rescue work continued on the mountain, relatives, sponsors and media in Norway were informed through our satellite telephone. Mingma's relatives in Kathmandu were informed. The only ones who didn't get any information before one week after the avalanche were Mingma's pregnant wife and two children. This is the time it took Mingma's brother to travel from Base Camp to Mingma's hometown Rolwaling which is four days by foot from Kathmandu. At that time a husband and father to two beautiful daughters had been ashes for six days. The day after the avalanche Mingma was according to Buddhist customs cremated in a monastery a couple of kms below BC. Postpone or continue the expedition? Before our departure from Norway we had discussed what we should do in the situation where someone died on the mountain. Nobody had been able to give an unambiguous answer. The most important elements with such discussions is not to draw the most substantial conclusions but rather be able to think through unpleasant and frightening approaches. This is one of the critical elements in the mental preparations to risky projects. We decided to divide the discussions in two faces. First it was important to evaluate all sides with the accident. Then we waited for one day, in order to reach a conclusion of postponing or continuing the expedition. There were mixed reactions. Nobody wanted to continue on the West Ridge, but about 50% of the climbers wanted to explore the possibility of climbing other routes on Everest, or other adjacent mountains. The rest wanted to postpone the expedition and go home. As a climber I wanted to continue along another route. As the expeditions leader I concluded differently. "Our common goal was to climb Everest along the West Ridge. We can choose another route and in many ways reach our goal. But based on the worsening conditions we have concluded that this could above be very dangerous. We cannot afford yet another accident. To let someone climb another and lower mountain is too far away from our original goal, and will therefore not add any additional value to the expedition. In many ways it would be the opposite, it would split the expedition. We left Norway as a team, and should therefore return as a team. I have therefore decided to postpone the expedition at this time and go home. Four days later the whole Lhotse Face came down in one enormous avalanche. It happened in the middle of the night, at 00:30 am and the avalanche was so strong that people woke up in their tents because of the air pressure reaching Base Camp, 17 kilometers away. The day before one climber almost was hit by an avalanche coming down the West Face of Changtse. After this, we did not regret to much our decision fo postponing the expedition.
Accidents Ang Temba's finger end cut off by taut rope at time 4 others were hit by avalanche; Mingma Norbu killed by avalanche
Achievement -
Agency Rolwaling Excursion
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2451822
Year 1994
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) n rib-w ridge

Members

21 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Kjell Eugen Anderson M 1946 Norway Climber Bodo, Norway Electrician Details Other expeditions
Leslie Ayres M 1944 Norway Climber Fagernes, Valdres, Norway Artist Details Other expeditions
Thorbjorn Enevold M 1958 Norway Climber Narvik, Norway Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Nils Engelstad M 1944 Norway Climber Kolsaas, Norway Oil explorer Details Other expeditions
Tommy Engvik M 1965 Norway BC Manager Oslo, Norway Buyer for climbing equipment shop Details Other expeditions
Jon Gangdal M 1954 Norway Leader Kolsaas, Norway Television journalist Details Other expeditions
Sven Hougen Gangdal M 1954 Norway Climber Flisa, Norway Social worker Details Other expeditions
Torild Hage F 1955 Norway Climber Trondheim, Norway Environmental management Details Other expeditions
Erik Hanko M 1957 Norway Exp Doctor Oslo, Norway Physician Details Other expeditions
Ulf Geir Hansen M 1945 Norway Climber Oslo, Norway Research & development engineer Details Other expeditions
Eystein Hanssen M 1965 Norway Climber Osteraas, Norway Television technician Details Other expeditions
Are Herrem M 1962 Norway Climber Oslo, Norway Attorney Details Other expeditions
Arne Holm M 1956 Norway Climber Oslo, Norway Editor of daily paper Details Other expeditions
Tore Johan Klokk M 1965 Norway Climber Isfjorden, Norway Offshore engineer Details Other expeditions
Oyvind Martinsen M 1965 Norway Climber Dilling, Norway Business student Details Other expeditions
Ingun Raastad F 1957 Norway Climber Molde, Norway Outdoor recreation consultant Details Other expeditions
Otto Sandsdalen Romfo M 1953 Norway Climber Hosle, Norway Physician Details Other expeditions
Jo Stokkebryn M 1959 Norway Climber Asker, Norway Carpenter Details Other expeditions
Olav Storli Ulvund M 1960 Norway Climber Oslo, Norway Computer engineer Details Other expeditions
Keith Woods M 1960 Norway Climber Oslo, Norway Marketing consultant Details Other expeditions
Mingma Norbu/Nuru Sherpa M - Nepal H-A Worker Beding, Dolakha - Details Other expeditions

References

3 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
EVER94303 AAJ Hawley, Elizabeth - - 69:304 (1995) -
EVER94303 - Gangdal, Jon & Holm, Arne O. Everest, Den Tunge Veien Adventura Forlag, Oslo - -
EVER94303 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12199530402/Asia-Tibet-Everest-Attempts-and-Tragedy-in-the-Post-Monsoon - - -