Kangchenjunga | 2018 SW Face

A Switzerland expedition to Kangchenjunga in 2018 via SW Face, led by Sophie Lavaud. Summit reached on 16th May 2018. 17 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 9895
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID KANG18101
Peak ID KANG
Year 2018
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 SW Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Switzerland
Leaders Sophie Lavaud
Sponsor Seven Summit Treks Kangchenjunga Expedition 2018
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 Germany, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Macedonia, Nepal, Russia, Singapore, USA/Canada
Approach Trekked to Ramche, heli to BC
Basecamp Date 2018-04-14
Summit Date 2018-05-16
Summit Time 1830
Summit Days 32
Total Days 35
Termination Date 2018-05-19
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 8586
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 4
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 13
Summit Members 2
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 4
Summit Hired 0
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired False
O2 Used True
O2 None False
O2 Climb True
O2 Descent True
O2 Sleep False
O2 Medical True
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits -
Campsites BC(14/04,5400m),C1(21/04,6100m),C2(22/04,6200m),C3(29/04,6830m),C4(15/05,7350m),Smt(16/05)
Route Notes Seven Summit Treks Kangchenjunga expedition was a combination of several independent individuals. Seven Summits provided transportation, base camp facilities and various levels of high altitude support (oxygen, high-altitude porters, tents, etc) as required and contracted for by each team. Their accounts are given below: Account by Hellmuth and Baranov: Hellmuth and Baranov set out from C4 at 9:45 pm on 15/05 slightly later than the rest of the SST team. They had two Sherpas with them (Phurba and Bire). The ropes had been fixed to 8100m by Asian Trekking Sherpas. When they reached the end of the fixed rope at 5 am, Lakpa (Expedition Base) and two Seven Summit Sherpas continued to fix the ropes to 8455m, which Hellmuth and Baranov reached at 4 pm. The rope fixing Sherpas had run out of rope and most of the climbers decided to turn back. Hellmuth and Baranov decided to carry on (they were behind Pemba Gyalzen from Expedition Base). The conditions were not very good – mixed conditions. Rockfall and a lot of lose snow. They continued without a rope and they say it was dangerous. Their Sherpas had both turned back from 8455m taking the oxygen with them. After a long and arduous climb, they finally reached the summit at 6:30 pm and stayed fpr about 15 minutes. They left the summit when Chris Burke and Lakpa (Expedition Base) arrived on the summit. They descended to C4, where they arrived at 2 am. They had been going for 29 hours. On 17/05, they left C4 at noon and descended to BC, where they arrived at 6 pm. Baranov carried his skis to 8500m and then decided to leave them there. He was climbing in skiing boots. He skied down from C4 to BC. He took about six hours to ski down. Account by Lavaud and Hanna: On 15/05, Lavaud and Confortola left C4 at 8 pm, Bowie left with Hellmuth and Baranov at 9:45 pm, Hanna and Dawa Sherpa left at 11:30 am. Hanna, Bowie and Khoo turned back at 8353 mat 12:30 pm. Hanna's Sherpa Dawa had run out of oxygen and they had been sitting in the same spot for about 1-1/2 hours. They got very cold and were convinced that they were too late and that they would not make it to the summit. Hanna descended all the way to BC, where he arrived at 1am on 16 May. Bowie, Khoo and Dawa Sherpa descended to C4, where they stayed the night. Khoo was exhausted and Bowie said that he had problems with his eye. It was twitching and when they stopped at 8353m he took some oxygen from Lavaud to relieve it, which it did. He used it for about 10 minutes. Confortola turned back at around 8000m due to cold feet and descended to BC. At 8455m Lavaud was with Hellmuth and Baranov. Her Sherpa Na Dorjee was very tired as he had been fixing rope. As everyone contributed to the rope fixing, Lavaud gave her ice axe to one of the Sherpas. When Hellmuth and Baranov decided to carry on, Lavaud went down to Na Dorje and asked him whether he could give her his ice axe. They discussed what to do and by the time they stopped discussing, Baranov and Hellmuth had left. At this point, Lavaud decided to turn back. It was about 4:30 pm. She descended with Na Dorjee to C4, where they arrived at 7:30 pm. Naoko Watanabe reached 8353m on summit push. Zdravko Dejanovic reached C3 on the summit push. He had lost motivation and was unsure about the summit and turned back. Varga from Hungary turned back at about 7800m. He was going without oxygen and was too cold. Maya Sherpa reached 8455m and quit due to lack of fixed ropes. Lavaud reache 8455m and quit due to lack of ice axe and when she was trying to get her ice axe back from the Sherpa she had given it to, Hellmuth and Baranov had left already. From Sophie Lavaud's FB Page: Learning about quitting... a story of piolet, rope and hypoxia... Why did you turn around 130 feet from the top? On May 15, when we went up to camp 4, we cross the fixing team that renonce to continue and which goes down to base camp... the only information we have is that they made a rope deposit to 8100 meters. What to do, give up or find a plan b? Chhepal, in charge of our logistics proposes, as plan B to dedicate 2 SHERPAS FROM OUR TEAM AND 2 from Expedition Base (the other experiment at camp 4 at the same time as we) to go. From our team only two Sherpas, Na Dorjee and Phurba know the way and are able to set the ropes and open the path. Phurba refusing to go, there is only Na Dorjee who is the Sherpa that always accompanies me. Not exactly the choice, it penalised me very much, but I accept that he will go in the lead and find me without a Sherpa. Finally, they leave around 17 pm and the rest of the team is headed towards the summit around 20 pm... The conditions in the night are difficult, lots of snow, far too much snow... it is not only necessary to trace but also set! We meet at sunrise right behind them. Everyone is motivated, but progress is very slow. This mountain is huge and difficult, the mixed technical part is the last 300 meters. Little by little people are starting to give up and turn around. This mountain is really a traitor, it has several "false" summits. Finally around 15 pm, on 16 May we reach the small ridge at 8455m from where we can finally see the last section. Everyone is exhausted, no one to set, two members of the other team will be encordent and heading towards the summit. Then there is some confusion, I propose to Herbert and Sergey to if all 3 but hypoxia does his job, I realize that I left my axe to one of the Sherpas to make an anchor... impossible to consider this last stiff section, which is difficult at this altitude without an axe and do after already 19 hours of ascension. Nadorjee is exhausted and the oxygen bottles how to miss... it's 50 feet below and I tell friends, I'll get the ax from Na Dorjee and a rope. Hypoxia, oxygen mask that makes communication very difficult, extreme fatigue, anyway, when I turn around I see my two companions who attacked the rise!! The distance already separating us is too important for me to imagine catching up with them... I'm staring at this pente slope that I find too exposed to venture out on my own. I have an axe but it's not enough... a picture, a half-turn... and at 20 am I'm falling down in my tent at camp 4... Herbert and Sergey are the only two of our team to reach the summit, bravo guys. The next day, Sergey's first question will be: "why did you abandon us?"... Sophie Maya Sherpa's Account on her FB page This time no summit Kanchenjunga. Wwe reached 8500m. So many bad and good things happened on the Mountain but we all are safely back home. But we never losse our hope. We will be back oneday. Many people summit but we didn't because we were the first group who try summit who break the route who fixed the rope up to the 8500m. We sent our personal Sherpa to fix the rope. Less oxygen, less support climb with very limited oxygen but still summit is summit because people only look at the success story not the unsuccessful stories. They don't even want to hear what really happened on the Mountain?. I really don't like politics on the Mountain we need to make some very effective ang good rules for fixing. Why people are fighting, arguing and depending on someone always in every Mountain? Why we are giving bad example to our forginers? Why we can't work together? Why we have too much ego? OMG I really hate this. Account for Nadav Ben Yehuda: Yehuda had joined the summit push of the other SST climbers, however, he and Don Bowie were the only ones not using supplemental oxygen. When he reached his high point it was already late, about 3 pm and he knew that it would be far too late to reach the summit without the use of oxygen, so he decided to turn back. [He was also very fatigued.] According to his description, he descended but started to feel a bit unwell and tired. He stopped for a while and just stood there. Some of the other climbers came to talk to him and even though he sounded tired they did not think that anything was wrong with him. He said that he did not want anybody to notice that he was not doing too well. He spent the night up above C4 and in the morning the climbers at C4 thought that he was dead. Some Sherpas ascended and found him. Don Bowie was involved in the rescue. According to Bowie, they wrapped up Ben Yehuda and dragged him down. Ben Yehuda claims that he was able to down climb the technical parts himself. He was picked up by helicopter on 17/05 and flown to Kathmandu. He was at CIWEC Clinic for about 5 days and has serious frostbite on both his feet. Oxygen: Taken and used from C4 to summit to 8000m by Baranov. From C3 to summit to 8000m by Hellmuth. The oxygen had run out. Both Sherpas had gone down and took the oxygen with them. From C3 to high point to C3 by Khoo. From C4 to high point to 8000m by Hanna. From C4 to high point to C4 by Lavaud, Watanabe and Dejanovic. Confortola and Bowie (apart from 10 minutes at 8353m from Lavaud) did NOT use oxygen.
Accidents Ben Yehuda evacuated from BC due to frostbite
Achievement -
Agency Seven Summit Treks
Commercial Route False
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2462343
Year 2018
Summit Success True
O2 Summary Used
Route (lowercase) sw face

Members

17 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Sophie Marie-Therese Jeanne Lavaud F 1968 Switzerland Leader Meinier, Geneva, Switzerland External affairs consultant Details Other expeditions
Sergei Baranov M 1969 Russia Climber Moscow, Russia Banker Details Other expeditions
Nadav Ben Yehuda M 1988 Israel Climber Rehovot, Israel Athlete, photographer, S&R Specialist Details Other expeditions
Donald Allen (Don) Bowie M 1969 USA/Canada Climber Bishop, California Athlete Details Other expeditions
Marco Confortola M 1971 Italy Climber Valfurva, Sondrio, Italy Alpine guide & rescuer Details Other expeditions
Varga Csaba M 1982 Hungary Climber Nagyvarad, Transylvania, Romania Architect Details Other expeditions
Zdravko Dejanovic M 1965 Macedonia Climber Skopje, Macedonia Physicist Details Other expeditions
Medhi Gholipour M 1982 Iran Climber Tabriz, Iran Alpinist Details Other expeditions
Noel Richmond Hanna M 1967 Ireland Climber Johannesburg, S Africa Close protection officer Details Other expeditions
Herbert Diethelm Hellmuth M 1969 Germany Climber Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany Trader Details Other expeditions
Swee Chiow Khoo M 1964 Singapore Climber Singapore Adventurer Details Other expeditions
Maya Sherpa F 1978 Nepal Climber Patle-5, Okhaldhunga Alpinist Details Other expeditions
Naoko Watanabe F 1981 Japan Climber Onojo, Fukaoka, Japan Nurse Details Other expeditions
Bire Sherpa M - Nepal H-A Worker - - Details Other expeditions
Dawa Sherpa M - Nepal H-A Worker - - Details Other expeditions
Nga Dorje (Nga Dorchi) Sherpa M 1975 Nepal H-A Worker Makalu-9, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Phurba Sherpa M - Nepal H-A Worker - - Details Other expeditions

References

0 recorded references.