Kang Nagchugo | 2008 SSW Face (to 6400m)

A USA expedition to Kang Nagchugo in 2008 via SSW Face (to 6400m), led by Joseph Puryear. Summit reached on 17th October 2008. 2 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 6255
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID KNAG08301
Peak ID KNAG
Year 2008
Season 3
Host Country 1
Route 1 SSW Face (to 6400m)
Route 2 SSW Face-W Ridge (up); W Ridge-S Face (down)
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality USA
Leaders Joseph Puryear
Sponsor 2008 Kang Nachugo Expedition
Success 1 False
Success 2 True
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 -
Ascent 2 1st
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach -
Basecamp Date 2008-09-21
Summit Date 2008-10-17
Summit Time 1400
Summit Days 26
Total Days 28
Termination Date 2008-10-19
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 6737
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 Parchamo (22 Sept), Yalung Ri, Ramdung Go (1 Oct)
Campsites BC(21/09),Biv(16/10,6400m),Smt(17/10)
Route Notes BC at Na village. American Rolwaling Expedition 2008 - 5 Nov 2008 All the team's climbs were done in pure alpine style: no fixed ropes, no fixed camps, no Sherpas helpers, no bottled oxygen. Before attacking Kang Nachugo, the two Americans made a "good recce" in the area at acclimatize and to get good views of their goal. From there base in Na village, they did "a bit of exploration" in the area, spent some time waiting for better weather, for it to stop raining in Na's Rolwaling River valley and snowing higher up, and climbed a few nearby mountains. On 22 September, the day after arriving at Na, they went southeast and scaled Pachermo, 6187m high. They went south-southwest and up to the summit of 5630m Yalung Ri via the east side of its North Ridge. On 1 October they climbed the north side of Ramdung Go, a 5930m mountain south-southeast of Na and southeast of Yalung Ri. On Kang Nachugo, they made two bids to reach the summit. First, on 10 October, they left their BC at Na at 4183m, went northwest and bivouacked at 4800m at the base of their 6735m-high mountain's SSW Face. Next day they took their tent to 5900m on the face and camped there. On 12 October, they left the tent at 6:00 am and made an attempt to reach the summit. They climbed to 6400m at 1:00 pm, and then the mountain "socked in" with falling snow immediately forming small avalanches, which were "uncomfortable and mildly dangerous." They descended to BC at 6:00 pm. "We raced up the mountain and the storm chased us down," Puryear said. In their second summit bid they wanted to try something different and not to camp on the face. Snow fell every afternoon, which meant that a camp on the face was exposed to avalanching. At mid-morning of 14 October, they left BC and moved again to 4800m at the base of the face. At 11:00 pm they resumed their climb and traversed west on the face, climbed to the top of an icefall at the western edge of the face, and reached the West Ridge at 6000m, and camped on the ridge at 6200m. at 3:00 pm on the 15th. At 6:00 am on the 16th they climbed about one mile on snow along the crest of the saw-toothed ridge, which was heavily corniced on its northern side. The ridge became very narrow, and they came to a small overhang of soft snow on the ridge; they jumped over this, but they now realized they would not be able to return this way. They reached 6400m and camped at 3:00 pm. "We felt reasonably close to the summit." On 17 October they started up at 6:30 am. They left their tent, sleeping bags, stove: "We went really light" and climbed the ridge to the summit -- in fact, to two summits about 10 meters apart -- at 2:00 and 2:30 pm. The western summit, two or three meters higher than the eastern one, was covered by deep snow. They devoted a total of 45 minutes to the summits in fine weather: no clouds, not much wind. They returned to their tent at 6500m. On the following day, there were high clouds and high winds that blew their short ropes out horizontally from the mountain side. They retraced their steps westwards down the the ridge for about 300m to a point where they thought they could rappel down the South Face. But they had made a bad choice: at three rappels down they came to a vertical, sometimes overhanging, rock cliff about 300m high. But they found an alternative way and were able to continue down to deep snow and good ice below the cliff at about 5800m. The kept rappeling down to 5200m and then down climbed to 4600m. Here they found running water, and they then hiked all the way to Na village at 6:00 pm.
Accidents -
Achievement 1st ascent
Agency Climb High Himalaya
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2457350
Year 2008
Summit Success True
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) ssw face (to 6400m)

Members

2 recorded members.

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

References

5 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
KNAG08301 AAJ Puryear, Joe - - 83:328-329 (2009) -
KNAG08301 JAN Puryear, Joe Things Invisible to See - 11:84-92 (July 2010) -
KNAG08301 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12200932802/Kang-Nachugo - - -
KNAG08301 - - http://jac.or.jp/english/images/vol11/jan-vol11-84-92.pdf - - -
KNAG08301 ALP Puryear, Joe Things Visible to See - 28:50-59 (2009) -