Makalu | 2001 Makalu La-NW Ridge

A New Zealand expedition to Makalu in 2001 via Makalu La-NW Ridge, led by Guy Cotter. Summit reached on 12th May 2001. 11 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 3846
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID MAKA01105
Peak ID MAKA
Year 2001
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 Makalu La-NW Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality New Zealand
Leaders Guy Cotter
Sponsor Adventure Consultants Makalu Expedition 2001
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 66th
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries Japan, UK, USA
Approach -
Basecamp Date 2001-04-12
Summit Date 2001-05-12
Summit Time 1350
Summit Days 30
Total Days 36
Termination Date 2001-05-18
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 8485
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 4
Fixed Rope (m) 80
Total Members 9
Summit Members 2
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 4
Summit Hired 1
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired False
O2 Used True
O2 None False
O2 Climb True
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep True
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits -
Campsites BC(12/04,5600m),C1(16/04,6300m),C2(18/04,6600m),C3(23/04,7400m),C4(11/05,7600m),Smt(12/05)
Route Notes BC at Chago glacier higher than most BCs C1 at Chago glacier C2 at Chago glacier bottom of steepest part C3 at Makalu La C4 well to west of NW Ridge (same others). 12 May from C4 at 4:00 am were Cotter, Ozaki, Lhakpa Dorje, Hasler, Stevens, Williams and Tenzing (no 8000ers); last 4 people turned around 7800m (Hasler and Tenzing), Stevens at 7:00 am at 7900m and Williams 11:00 am at 8090m. Williams saw difficulty above; others down because cold. Ozaki slid down with slab avalanche while climbing alone and stopped himself 50m down with no injury and continued up. Ozaki, Cotter and Lhakpa Dorje together at 1:50 pm (Chileans joined them on top after 2 minutes and met 1 more on way down). 12 May slept in C3; arrived 5:30 pm by Cotter and stayed one day C3 while others down to BC. This team broke trails for all others, doing the hard work they benefited by. Iranians were in New Zealand C2 tent and had to be kicked out and moved into Austrian empty tent. Guy Cotter - May 12, 2001 The AC team left C4 (7700m) for the summit at 4 am this morning in moderately windy conditions and reached the summit at 1:50 pm time. The climbers reported conditions on the summit to be windy with cloud covering their views of Everest, Ama Dablam and Baruntse. Their plan was to spend 10 minutes on the summit then return to C3. Other AC team members Bruce Hasler, Mark Williams and Robert Stevens, turned around yesterday before C4. It has taken the team 6 weeks since leaving home to get to this stage of the climb, slowly letting their bodies adjust to the altitude and moving their camps and equipment into position to make their summit attempt. The expedition followed the first ascent route, the "Classic" Route, which was first climbed on the 15th of May 1955 by a French team lead by Jean Franco. Makalu has had fewer than 190 ascents and has never had a repeat summit (two successful summits by the same person). Rob Hall climbed Makalu in 1995 and is the only other New Zealander to have summited. Makalu at 8463m is the fifth highest mountain in the world standing close to the Everest group at the head of the Barun valley. The summit ridge is the demarcation point indicating the border between Nepal on the Southern side and Tibet to the North. Update 11th May: The latest news in from Base Camp is that the AC team have all arrived safely at C4. They will rest up and review the weather at 1 am. Conditions permitting they will leave for the summit at 2:30 am. Update Thursday 10th May: The AC team is heading up to Makalu La today, the weather is good, clear blue skies and not much wind. We have just had the weather forecast in for the next five days which shows good summit conditions, around 18 knots on the summit for Saturday. Guy and Bryan arrived at C2 to find there tent full of water from the pre-season melt. Takashi opened up his tent to find two sleeping Iranian team members, he kicked them out and moved in with Rob and Guy, and Bryan took over Takashi's tent. Everyone slet well last night and started to head up to C3 around C3 around 8:30 am. It should take them about 6 hours, but due to the other teams there may be quite a few people on the ropes. Guy, Rob and Takashi will be using oxygen, Bruce, Mark and Bryan will not. They will sleep with oxygen at C4 and leave around 4am for the summit and should be on top around 10'ish. We will lose radio contact after C3 until they reach the summit ridge. Other teams on the move up to C3 today are the Chilean and Iranian teams. The two Austrian members going for the summit yesterday had to turn around due to bad weather.
Accidents Kerr torn knee ligament (left BC 22 April from KTM and home)
Achievement -
Agency Wilderness Experience
Commercial Route -
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference -
Primary ID -
Checksum 2454943
Year 2001
Summit Success True
O2 Summary Used
Route (lowercase) makalu la-nw ridge

Members

11 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Edmund Guy Cotter M 1962 New Zealand Leader Wanaka, New Zealand Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Bruce Graeme Hasler M 1976 New Zealand Climber Queenstown, New Zealand Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Keith Graham Kerr M 1952 UK Climber Hong Kong Construction company executive Details Other expeditions
Jean-Claude Latombe M 1947 USA Climber Palo Alto, California Computer technology professor Details Other expeditions
James S. (Jim) Milne M 1942 New Zealand Climber Washington, DC Mathematics professor Details Other expeditions
Bryan John Moore M 1966 New Zealand Climber Wanaka, New Zealand Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Takashi Ozaki M 1952 Japan Climber Hong Kong Professional alpinist Details Other expeditions
Robert Lewis Stevens M 1955 USA Climber Turlock, California Restauranteur Details Other expeditions
Mark Derek Williams M 1973 UK Climber Queenstown, New Zealand Sales manager Details Other expeditions
Lhakpa Dorje Sherpa M 1961 Nepal H-A Worker Sanam, Gudel-4, Solukhumbu - Details Other expeditions
Tenzing Gyaltsen Sherpa M - Nepal H-A Worker - - Details Other expeditions

References

2 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
MAKA01105 - - http://www.adventureconsultants.com/adventure/Dispatches_Archived/ - - -
MAKA01105 NZAJ Cotter, Guy Makalu Dreaming - 55:72-76 (2003) -