Gaurishankar | 2008 SW Face

A S Korea expedition to Gaurishankar in 2008 via SW Face, led by Kang Sung-Woo. Summit reached on 8th January 2009. 6 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 6246
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID GAUR08401
Peak ID GAUR
Year 2008
Season 4
Host Country 1
Route 1 SW Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality S Korea
Leaders Kang Sung-Woo
Sponsor Corean Alpine Club Gaurishankar West Face 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 USA
Approach -
Basecamp Date 2008-12-23
Summit Date 2009-01-08
Summit Time -
Summit Days 16
Total Days 16
Termination Date 2009-01-08
Termination Reason 8
Termination Notes Abandoned at 5400m due to lack of rope to fix and time running out
High Point (m) 5400
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 0
Fixed Rope (m) 850
Total Members 6
Summit Members 0
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 2
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 -
Campsites BC(23/12,4080m),Deposit(04/01,4800m),xxx(08/01,5400m)
Route Notes Corean Alpine Club Gaurishankar West Face Exped - 25 Jan 2009 The team planned to climb Gaurishankar via the SW Face, partly by the Americans' route in spring 1979 and partly by a new line they would pioneer themselves. But they never got really close to the face because they had great difficulty to find the normal BC site for the face. Road construction work from Lamabagar village had obscured the trail. They had a guide who said he knew the way, but it turned out he hadn't been there for 20 years, and he was now confused about where to go. They spent two days hacking their way through a forest of bamboo trees and other foliage, and the porters were running out of food. They had arrived at Lamabagar on the Bhote Kosi River on 13 December. They trekked for two days north up the river, and then south of Hom village they turned southeast along a small river valley to a spot north of Pt. 4087m and west of Tangapo on the Schneider Rolwaling map. There they camped a day while the guide went off to find the route; he returned to say it was impossible to proceed. He went on a search again while the team's Sherpas searched in a different direction. All to no avail. They were still a long way west as well as south of Gaurishankar. They returned to Lamabagar on the 17th and left on the 18th to move south to Simigaon just east of the Bhote Kosi. They had found on their map that there was a bridge they should cross over the Rolwaling River north of Demdem Kharka and nearly due south of their mountain. On the 20th they went east to a tiny three-house village named Dongwang on the Rolwaling River. They found the bridge, crossed over to the river's north bank, and went north along the west side of a ridge to a spot near Pt 4654m east of Tsermalung valley. They pitched their BC here at 4080m on 23 December. They had not yet seen Gaurishankar's SW Face. So they spent the next five or six days trying to gain enough altitude to be able to see where they should place their permanent BC and find access to the face. But fog kept obscuring any view. Also they had been waiting for porters, who were hindered by fresh snowfall, to reach them. Finally on the 29th they decided not to move BC. On the next day they started to climb a steep, slippery, grassy rock wall of a "hump" (it did not qualify as a ridge) onto a plateau. They fixed 450m of rope on the wall on the 30th and 31st; on 1 January they reached the altitude of 4600m on the southern slope of the plateau, and returned to BC the same day. On the 2nd they were kept in BC by new snowfall but on the 3rd they -- with their two Sherpas, for their first trip above BC, carrying loads -- went up onto the plateau and found a place on the plateau suitable for a camp; here on 4 January they established their deposit camp. Ahn, Jensen-Choi and Lee stayed here that night and the next night acclimatizing. On the 6th the three members climbed and fixed rope 300m up a couloir on the south face of a small ridge north of the plateau. On the 7th they rested at deposit camp, and on the 8th they reached the top of a couloir up the ridge to 5400m. It was only here that they finally got a full view of the SW Face. They went down its north side, and walked around in a deep bowl at the bottom of the ridge's north side, and then returned to BC the same day, the 8th. Now on the 9th they took stock of their situation. They still had not gotten very close to the SW Face, their supply of rope was considerably depleted (they had brought 1100m), and they were running out of time. They decided to abandon the climb. They spent a few days reconnoitring the area and removing their deposit camp and fixed ropes. They were back in BC on the 15th, and as soon as their porters had arrived, they left BC on 19 January. Ahn, Jensen-Choi and Lee were the only active climbing members. Hwang had left the team on 18th December; apparently he had lost interest in the trip. Leader Kang went to the deposit camp three times, but went no higher. Deputy leader Shin also went only to deposit camp.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Universal Trekking Network
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2457163
Year 2008
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) sw face

Members

6 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Chi-Young An M 1977 S Korea Climber Seoul, S Korea Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
In-Sun Hwang M 1975 S Korea Climber Gangreung, Gangwon, S Korea Window washer & alpinist Details Other expeditions
Peter Alan Jensen-Choi M 1969 USA Climber Daejeong, S Korea Teacher of English as a second language Details Other expeditions
Sung-Woo Kang M 1962 S Korea Leader Seoul, S Korea Alpine instructor Details Other expeditions
Young-Jun (Albert) Lee M 1977 S Korea Climber Seoul, S Korea Journalist for alpine magazine Details Other expeditions
Dong-Woo Shin M 1962 S Korea Deputy Leader Seoul, S Korea Alpine school instructor Details Other expeditions

References

2 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
GAUR08401 AAJ Jensen-Choi, Peter - - 84:309 (2010) -
GAUR08401 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12201030901/Gaurishankar-7135m-Southwest-Face-Attempt - - -