Gaurishankar | 2009 E Face

A Japan expedition to Gaurishankar in 2009 via E Face, led by Kazuya Hiraide. Summit reached on 10th November 2009. 2 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 6653
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID GAUR09301
Peak ID GAUR
Year 2009
Season 3
Host Country 2
Route 1 E Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Japan
Leaders Kazuya Hiraide
Sponsor Gaurishankar 7134m Expedition 2009
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 By road via Tingri to police and army posts at Thumphug
Basecamp Date 2009-10-22
Summit Date 2009-11-10
Summit Time -
Summit Days 19
Total Days 23
Termination Date 2009-11-14
Termination Reason 10
Termination Notes Abandoned at 6850m due to impassible 500m rock wall
High Point (m) 6850
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 4
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 2
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(22/10,4300m),ABC(05/11,4600m),C1(06/11,5500m),C2(07/11,5900m),C3(08/11,6300m),C4(09/11,6600),xxx(10/11,6850m)
Route Notes C1 on East Face C2 on East Face High point at East Face bottom of rock band. The team reached their BC in Tibet by road from Kathmandu to Zhangmu to Tingri and on east to Thumphug, where there are police and army posts. From Thumphug, they trekked south-southwest to the confluence of two small rivers flowing north from Menlung Glacier and Menlung Chhu respectively, and here they pitched their BC at 4300m on 22 October northeast of the mountain. Their original plan had been to scale Gaurishankar via its East Face and descend via its NW Ridge. But as they trekked from Thumphug, they saw that the ridge was not suitable because of a lot of loose rock, so they decided to make their descent route on the NE Face to the North Ridge instead. To prepare this route, they went to the NE Face and made a camp there on 27 October at 4800m. The next day they moved up to another camp on the North Ridge at 6800m. But now they discovered that it would not be possible to continue this line because of the large number of seracs above. They returned to BC on the 30th and concluded that they would have to descend by the same line as their ascent route on the East Face. They left BC for the east face on 5 November and pitched ABC at 4600m at the junction of the same small river from Menlung Glacier that BC was on, plus another one west of that from the same glacier. They made C1 the next day at 5500m on the face. They now climbed up the East Face by a line that was leading towards the East Summit. As they moved up the face, they took their entire camp with them, leaving nothing behind at the previous campsite. They moved their camp up on three more successive days, making their fourth high camp on 9 November at 6600m. On 10 November they went for the summit and left the fourth camp at 8:00 am. But at 2:00 pm at 6850m, they were confronted by a 500m high vertical rock band, which was entirely bare rock with no snow or ice covering any part of it. They are snow and ice climbers, not rock climbers; they had no equipment or great talent with which to scale the rock band. They turned around here, went back to the fourth camp at 4:00 pm, and their climb was finished. On the 11th they descended to C1 in light snowfall, and on the 12th got back to BC in heavy snowfall. They left BC on November 14th, trekked to Thumphug, and took the jeep provided by the CTMA to Zhangmu. They were in Kathmandu the next day.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Cosmo Treks
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2457470
Year 2009
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) e face

Members

2 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Kazuya Hiraide M 1979 Japan Leader Tokyo, Japan Sports equipment salesman Details Other expeditions
Kei Taniguchi F 1972 Japan Climber Tokyo, Japan Teacher & human resources facilitator Details Other expeditions

References

4 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
GAUR09301 JAC Hiraide, Kazuya An Attempt on the East Face of Gaurishankar - 105:41-49 (2010) -
GAUR09301 JAC Ikeda, Tsunemichi Gaurishankar - 105:A23 (2010) -
GAUR09301 AAJ Taniguchi, Kei - - 84:355-356 (2010) -
GAUR09301 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12201035500/Gaurishankar-7135m-South-Summit-Northeast-Face-Attempt - - -