Jobo Rinjang | 2009 SW Face

A USA expedition to Jobo Rinjang in 2009 via SW Face, led by Joe Puryear. Summit reached on 22nd April 2009. 2 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 6449
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID JOBO09101
Peak ID JOBO
Year 2009
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 SW Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality USA
Leaders Joe Puryear
Sponsor American Jobo Rinjang Expedition
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 1st
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach -
Basecamp Date 2009-04-12
Summit Date 2009-04-22
Summit Time 1530
Summit Days 10
Total Days 16
Termination Date 2009-04-28
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 6778
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 0
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 2
Summit Members 2
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 Climbed Kyojo Ri and several other minor peaks
Campsites BC(12/04,5050m),Biv1(20/04,5100m),Biv2(21/04),Smt(22/04)
Route Notes BC at Lunag village (deserted) High point at East Summit. American Jobo Rinjang Expedition, led by Joseph Puryear - 1 May 2009 The two-member team with no Sherpa helpers and no bottled oxygen made a pure alpine ascent of Jobo Rinjang's East Summit in the first ascent of either of the mountain's two summits. First they spent a week rapidly trekking around Khumbu. They landed at Lukla on 22 March and were in Namche Bazaar the next day. On the 24th they trekked to Thami. From there they moved west-northwest to Sundar, a hill southwest of Thamiteng, then north along the Bhote Kosi River to Lungden/Landen/Lungare village, north-northeast across the Renjo Pass to Gokyo Ri's north summit (5483m), east to Tso La/Cho La (5368m), south and southeast to a place on the maps called Thokla/Durglha/Dukla, which is just one lodge and one tea house, where they arrived on 30 March and from where they left the same day to climb Kala Patar and return to Thokla. On the 31st they went down to Namche Bazaar, spent a day resting there, and on 2 April they moved north to climb the so-called trekking peak named Kyajo Ri/Kyazo Ri (actually 6186m) and summited it on 6 April via its southwest arete. Back to Namche Bazar. Their trekking excursion was now over. On 11 April, they left Namche Bazar for their mountain, Jobo Rinjang, which Puryear described as "a beautiful pyramid that dominates the whole region" and hides a series peaks on a ridge west and northwest of it along the border. (These peaks and Jobo Rinjang should be known as the Lunag Massif, he thinks.) The two climbers made their BC at 5050m just below the tiny deserted village of Lunag on the east side of the Lunag Glacier. During the next seven days they explored the mountain's southern, southwestern and eastern sides to find a feasible climbing route (the western and northern sides are out of bounds in Tibet). They concluded that the SW Face offered the best possible line, and after a day's rest at BC, they set out on the 20th to make their alpine-style ascent. On the first day, 20 April, they bivouacked at 5100m at the bottom of the face. The next morning at two o'clock they started up the steep ice face -- the southern sides the mountains they climbed had no snow cover but were all blue ice -- and then had difficulty finding a spot where they could bivouac that night. They climbed and climbed on technical terrain at altitude, up two ice couloirs, one of which zigged and the other zagged up between two huge hanging glaciers, and over two rock bands, from which rocks were falling off (none hit the climbers but some came close). Finally at about 9:00 pm in the dark using headlamps in a snowstorm at the top of one of the hanging glaciers. Said Puryear, "We were cooked!" (really exhausted). On 22 April, they started at 9:00 am for the East Summit up steep unconsolidated snow and snow fluting; now there was no more ice cover, and the drop-off was "scary". They were on the top at 3:30 pm. The top is actually flat, so they bivouacked there (6777m) for their third bivouac. They could now see that west of where they stood was a higher summit (6895m) connected to the East Summit by a very sharp two-kms long ridge. On the 23rd they ventured along this ridge for about 500m and then decided it was too risky for them to continue: too many objective dangers with too many cornices. They retreated to their bivouac site at 6777m and spent a second night there. Finally, on the 24th, they descended with difficulty the SW Face they had ascended. They needed to make 20 six-meter rappels in one section amidst huge falling rocks, but reached their first bivouac site at the bottom of the face unscathed. On the 25th they were back in BC, and left it on the 28th to fly from Lukla to Kathmandu.
Accidents -
Achievement 1st ascent of East Summit
Agency Climb High Himalaya
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2457403
Year 2009
Summit Success True
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) sw face

Members

2 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
David Alfred Gottlieb M 1967 USA Climber Carlton, Washington Park ranger Details Other expeditions
Joseph N. (Joe) Puryear M 1973 USA Leader Leavenworth, Washington Alpinist Details Other expeditions

References

7 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
JOBO09101 - - http://climbnepal.blogspot.com - - -
JOBO09101 JAN Puryear, Joe Things Invisible to See - 11:84-92 (July 2010) -
JOBO09101 AAJ Puryear, Joe Jobo Rinjang - 84:52-57 (2010) -
JOBO09101 CLIM - - - 65:62-63 (July 2010) -
JOBO09101 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12201005200/Jobo-Rinjang - - -
JOBO09101 - - http://jac.or.jp/english/images/vol11/jan-vol11-84-92.pdf - - -
JOBO09101 ALP Puryear, Joe Things Visible to See - 28:50-59 (2009) -