Kangchenjunga | 2014 SW Face

A India expedition to Kangchenjunga in 2014 via SW Face, led by Chhanda Gayen. Summit reached on 18th May 2014. 3 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 8494
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID KANG14108
Peak ID KANG
Year 2014
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 SW Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality India
Leaders Chhanda Gayen
Sponsor First Indian Lady's Expedition
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 -
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach Ktm to Phiktal by bus, Taplejung->Kebang->Yamphudin->Ramche
Basecamp Date 2014-04-21
Summit Date 2014-05-18
Summit Time 1100
Summit Days 27
Total Days 0
Termination Date -
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 8586
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 4
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 1
Summit Members 1
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 2
Summit Hired 2
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired False
O2 Used True
O2 None False
O2 Climb True
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep False
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits Attempted Yalung Kang (YALU-141-01) on southeast side (died on Yalung Kang normal route)
Campsites BC(21/04,5700m),C1(25/04,6300m),C2(29/04,6700m),C3(15/05,7000m),C4(17/05,7500m),Smt(18/05)
Route Notes There were 4 Indians climbing on Kangchenjunga this season: Rajib Bhattarcharya and Chhanda Gayen (both with Seven Summit Treks), Tusi Das and Dipankar Ghosh (both with Loben Sherpas). Chhanda Gayen climbed the entire expedition with Rajib Bhattacharya. The duo did their acclimatization without ever sleeping at C1, this year the location not allowing all members to sleep there. So they always went to sleep at C2 instead. From beginning of May, teams were stuck at BC waiting for a favourable weather forecast window and the route to be opened. After two weeks of false starts, weather forecasts eventually announced a good weather window for the 16 to 18 May. Sherpas fixing the ropes would start on 13 May, and the BC members would start on 14 May. On 15 May Chhanda and Rajib slept at C3, the day after as well, the forecast not being good enough. On 17 May both rested at C4 and started at 7:30 pm for the summit. On 18 May the pair reached the summit at 11 am, coming back at 8 pm to C4. Rajib had a problem on the left eye due to wind. He considers Kangchenjunga to be more difficult than Everest and Lhotse. On 19 May Rajib decided to stay again at C4 in the evening, his eye problem had increased, besides his eyes he could see that his right big toe had frozen again. Meanwhile Chhanda started at 10:30 pm to ascend Yalung Kang with 3 Sherpas, Tashi Sherpa, Temba Sherpa and Dawa [Wangchhu] Sherpa. On 20 May Furtemba Sherpa, climbed up to C4 to join Rajib and accompany him down. They started at 10 am and reached BC at 5:30 pm. Rajib reports he could see all 4 climbers on Yalung Kang at 1:30 pm from C3, little up in the final couloir of Yalung Kang. Fur Temba having a very huge bag left some of his luggage in C2. On 21 May Furtemba went up to C2 with another Sherpa to pick up the luggage he left there the previous day. Same day, Tashi Sherpa, the main Sherpa of Chhanda arrived at BC around 12:30 pm announcing that his 3 teammates had probably fallen to their death from Yalung Kang normal route couloir. The accident occured the previous day around 1:30 pm. After they decided to stop 200m below the summit because of much deteriorating weather (blizzard, strong winds) the Sherpas decided to come down; the accident happened at 8200m on the way down. Being exhausted, Chhanda Gayen fell on the soft snow, Pemba Sherpa who was leading then Dawa Sherpa who couldn't prevent their fall. In fact, as there were no fixed ropes on this normal route, the Sherpas chose to send Tashi Sherpa ahead and unroped to break the trail on the way up, whereas Chhanda Gayen would be roped between Temba Sherpa (up) and Dawa Sherpa (down). Thus on descent Tashi was walking 10m above the trio and could directly watch all the scene and escape the accident. The fall of the 3 unfortunate created a little avalanche in the soft snow which led them inevitably to jump into the South Face of Yalung Kang. Tashi Sherpa went 40m down just above the cliff, but couldn't see nor hear anything else than clouds and wind. Having spent many days in altitude and cold, Tashi didn't have any more battery left in his walkie-talkie, being impossible for him to warn BC about the accident. On the same day he went back to C4 to sleep and the day after started at 4 am down, reaching BC at 12:30 pm and announcing the bad news. The same day, the helicopter went at BC and tried searching on the spot, but weather did not allow. Meanwhile an Indian searching team was formed with members of the West Bengal Mountaineering Adventure Sports Foundation (Youth Service Department Gov't of West Bengal) in cooperation with the Indian embassy. These were Vijal Ray (advisor) Prasanta Mondal (Deputy Director), Debdas Nandy (governing local member) and Tusor. On 23 May Rajib Bhattacharya left BC for Tseram. On 24 May the helicopter rescue conducted by Maurizio from Fishtail could eventually fly 6 times to the spot of the accident, all flights during 3 hours clicking many pictures of the area from the 8200m beginning of the fall down to the footstep of the South Face of Yalung Kang. From 11 am the weather deteriorated, so they went back to Kathmandu, picking up Rajib from Tseram to Kathmandu. After analyzng the pictures, the search team saw nothing but some avalanched rocks at the footstep of the South Face (which seem only as screes remaining from natural rock fall due to erosion). They believe the bodies fell on the South Face of Yalung Kang and finished in a crevasse of the very crevassed glacier at the footstep of it, marking the busy notch between the hump and upper icefall. In a deteriorated weather since 1 week after the accident, the search team abandoned the idea even to see anything new as the fresh new snow covered everything. Fixed rope: 6000m for all teams Sherpas: Dawa Wangchhu Sherpa, Tamku-5, Sankhuwasabha (2042/6/15) Ngatashi Sherpa, Yaphu-9, Sankhuwasabha, (2037/06/18)
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Seven Summit Treks
Commercial Route False
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2459350
Year 2014
Summit Success True
O2 Summary Used
Route (lowercase) sw face

Members

3 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Chhanda Gayen F 1979 India Leader Howrah, West Bengal, India - Details Other expeditions
Nga Tashi Sherpa M 1980 Nepal H-A Worker Yaphu-9, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Mingma Temba Sherpa M - Nepal H-A Worker Tamku-5, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions

References

0 recorded references.