Gurja Himal | 2018 S Face

A S Korea expedition to Gurja Himal in 2018 via S Face, led by Kim Chang-Ho. Summit reached on 6th October 2018. 9 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 10059
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID GURJ18301
Peak ID GURJ
Year 2018
Season 3
Host Country 1
Route 1 S Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality S Korea
Leaders Kim Chang-Ho
Sponsor Korean-Way Gurja Himal Expedition 2018
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 Beni->Gurja Khani->BC
Basecamp Date -
Summit Date 2018-10-06
Summit Time -
Summit Days 0
Total Days 0
Termination Date -
Termination Reason 6
Termination Notes Abandoned due to fatal serac avalanche blast at base camp
High Point (m) 3800
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 0
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 5
Summit Members 0
Member Deaths 5
Total Hired 4
Summit Hired 0
Hired Deaths 4
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(06/10,3800m),xxx
Route Notes Sep 28 Arrival in KTM Oct 01 From KTM to Beni by Jeep Oct 02 From Beni to Phole by Jeep Oct 06 Reached BC at 3800m from Gurja Khani (3061m) Oct 10 In the evening, avalanche occurred, killing all members and hired sleeping at BC. Oct 11 Agency was expecting one trekking member (Jeong Joon-Mo) to come back down to the village of Gurja Khani at noon but he didn't. Agency tried to contact BC without success, so sent one of their guides (looking after an other sick trekking member at Gurja Khani) who went until a very few kms down to the BC. Saw already 1 body and that something happened... Oct 12 Agency sent 16 villagers with staff plus sent a helicopter. All reached BC and discovered the whole tragedy. 9 dead bodies, clothes and tents remnants were scattered 200m to 500m below the BC, bodies still in their sleeping bags. Rescue team noticed the bodies were wet, even the money inside the clothes was wet. There was no remnants of any kind of snow avalanche around the BC, but the grass was completely flattened downwards. Agency planned in that evening during 6h how to repatriate the bodies. Helicopters were sent in that evening to Pokhara. Oct 13 Evacuation big mission was completed in a short time due to delicate weather conditions. Rescue team and villagers also helping at BC site. Oct 16 Bodies were sent back to South Korea. Cause of the disaster : At first many hypothesis were spread into the world press: landslide, avalanche, storm, lake flood, severe cyclonic storm "Titli"... https://www.facebook.com/karna.lama.54/posts/10156635349099705 The villagers below hadn't heard nor seen anything during the October 10 to 11 night: not any sound, not any river sudden flood (=> lake flood). Saw trees breaking on their way up when reaching nearby BC. Most likely cause of the disaster seems to be an avalanche blast following the fall of a serac. Spanish source of Desnivel and Korean sources (agency told) both agree it must be a serac blast phenomenon. https://www.desnivel.com/expediciones/que-les-sucedio-realmente-a-los-9-muertos-del-gurja/ Sadly helicopters couldn't fly over the area above the BC. One of the helicopters camera was shooting images downwards from the front of the heli to assist the rescue; it was cloudy weather on the 13th of October. There was no helicopter flight done afterwards to seek for the origin of the disaster above BC, since it was already very expensive to organize the rescue itself. So there were no image gathered from the zone from where might have originated the phenomenon. Accident even more surprising since in 2017, Kim Chang-Ho had made a recce of the area to decide for the safest place to establish BC. BC was established north-northeastwards in the valley straight above Gurja Khani, the large water basin catchment lying immediately southwestwards of Gurja Himal large South Face (there are two large water basin catchments collecting the waters of the south face of Gurja Himal, an eastern and a western one). Access from Gurja Khani consists in walking up via that valley talweg towards the very footstep of the SE Face (c.3345m on Googlearth), then go up a 5 hundred meters NNE via grass slopes to the BC site located on a small ledge. The upper part of that valley is a steep wall forming the left part of Gurja South Face. From 3345m to 4500m are grassy slopes, then from it to the summit is a steep 2600m high wall. Northeastwards to the BC is a couloir showing a narrow steep section from helicopter, and above which lies the 4500m high footstep of the proper SE Face where seracs seem to have landed. Heli survey of that upper zone may have allowed to identify the exact location of the serac(s) fall and likely found the remnants at the aforementionned 4500m high place.
Accidents Death of 4 members, 4 hired and 1 trekking member on 10-11 Oct in the night
Achievement -
Agency Trekking Camp Nepal
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2461946
Year 2018
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) s face

Members

9 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Chang-Ho Kim M 1969 S Korea Leader Seoul, S Korea Outdoor company consultant & alpinist Details Other expeditions
Joon-Mo Jeong M 1964 S Korea Trekker Kyeongsan, Gyeongsangbuk, S Korea Student, commerce Details Other expeditions
Jae-Hun Lee M 1994 S Korea Climber Busan (Pusan), S Korea University student Details Other expeditions
Il-Jin Rim M 1969 S Korea Climber - Cameraman Details Other expeditions
Young-Jik Yoo M 1973 S Korea Climber Daegu (Taegu), S Korea Furniture engineer Details Other expeditions
Chhiring Bhote M - Nepal BC-Worker Hatiya-2, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Lakpa Sangbu Bhote M - Nepal BC-Worker Hatiya-6, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Phurbu Bhote M - Nepal BC-Worker Hatiya-6, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Natra Bahadur Chantel M - Nepal Porter Gurja, Dhaulagiri Gaupalika-1, Mgyadi - Details Other expeditions

References

3 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
GURJ18301 - - https://7mmrope.blogspot.com/2018/11/remembering-deceased-koreans-and.html - - -
GURJ18301 AAJ Griffin,Lindays Gurja Himal, Base Camp Tragedy - 93:312 (2019) -
GURJ18301 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13201215054 - - -