Nangpai Gosum I | 2002 SE Face

A USA expedition to Nangpai Gosum I in 2002 via SE Face, led by David Morton. Summit reached on 20th September 2002. 2 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 4217
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID NAG102301
Peak ID NAG1
Year 2002
Season 3
Host Country 1
Route 1 SE Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality USA
Leaders David Morton
Sponsor Nangpai Gosum American Expedition 2002
Success 1 False
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 -
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach -
Basecamp Date 2002-09-16
Summit Date 2002-09-20
Summit Time -
Summit Days 4
Total Days 4
Termination Date 2002-09-20
Termination Reason 14
Termination Notes Did no climbing above BC because of gunfire incident
High Point (m) 5100
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 0
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 2
Summit Members 0
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 -
Campsites BC(16/09),xxx(20/09,5100m)
Route Notes Did no climbing above BC. Did some recce up from east and west sides of Sumra Glacier and from these climbs saw that SE Face was feasible route. Then came around to Nangpa Glacier to have look at descent route via West Ridge. 20 Sept went up towards Nangpa La. Met Chinese soldier, chatted and gave food; he said he'd come from Cho Oyu ABC then left him and continued towards pass while he went on further into Nepal and US went above Lunag village to about 5100m, where saw their descent route but also saw a person dressed like 1st man, stopped to eat, then turned back (about an hour after encountering 1st man). Met 1st man again, this time at Lunag. Gave him more food. He suddenly got up, said "Ok bye" and "thank you very much" and went up towards pass. Hues walked 10 minutes down and then 1st shot. Think soldiers trying to frighten them, not to kill them. Both want to come back to mountain next year. Steven F. Brault - 24 Sept 2002 (Chief of Consular Section, USA Embassy, Kathmandu) Copy of incident report from expedition. To Murari Sharma of Parivar Trekking: Murari, We're in Namche. See the following message. We left basecamp early. This message was sent to the American Embassy. We will email you when we have plans for the next couple of weeks. Dave and Jeff To Whom It May Concern at the American Embassy: My name is David Morton and I am listed as the leader of the Nangpai Gosum American 2002 expedition. The only other member is my climbing partner, Jeff Lamoureux. We were attempting to climb Nangpai Gosum peak near the Nangpa La in Khumbu. We arrived at our BC on Sept 16th. Today is Sept 21st. We are giving you a fairly detailed account because we are not sure when we will be back in Kathmandu. We will be back and forth between Namche during the next few days where we will be checking email. The following is an account of the last 36 hours: Yesterday, Jeff and I left basecamp to go out to look around up near the pass to Tibet/Cho Oyu. We thought that our descent route would go down that way. We had been at BC for four or five days acclimatizing and checking out different possibilities. There are very few people in the area. We hadn't seen anyone since we arrived. Anyway, we left camp early am, going up towards the pass and saw a guy coming towards us. We stopped to talk and he told us he was Chinese military and had an automatic weapon on his shoulder. We gave him food and water. He seemed extremely nervous and asking where we were coming from, if there were others behind us, where our BC was, etc. We have him food and water. He seemed hungry, thirsty, shaky. He was wearing a black jacket and black or dark pants and a red ski hat/mask, but had a supposedly Chinese military uniform underneath. He showed us the uniform as he was explaining who he was. He looked like typical Han Chinese ethnicity. He didn't seem to speak much English at all and claimed not to speak Nepali when asked this in Nepali. The encounter was very uncomfortable but we left and kept walking. He descended apparently concerned about someone coming behind us. I looked back 20 minutes later and saw him on a moraine sitting watching us. We continued up and about an hour later I came around a corner, looking toward the Nangpa La pass, and saw a guy with same ski hat duck behind a rock when he saw me. He was about 200 yards ahead. We stopped and I yelled "hello" to try and make contact with him. We took a break and ate some food and decided to turn around because the whole thing was little strange. We knew he would probably be following, we turned around and went down and came up the first guy again at almost the same spot. We stopped and gave him food and water again and after a few minutes he stood up abruptly and said "bye" abruptly enough to seem awkward. We started walking down and about 10 minutes later heard a shot. I didn't think too much of it and thought they may be messing around or something. In another 2 or 3 minutes there was a shot which came at us and just missed us. We heard the bullet go right past our ears. We started running and there was another shot. We hid behind a rock and ditched our packs so we could go faster, then kept running. We ran across this flat "field" area stopping every now and then because it was so difficult (16,000 ft) and hiding behind something. It seemed clear they were actually shooting at us. I thought they may catch us so I hid all my money under a rock. There were about 5 shots total at us and we eventually got to a place where we thought we were safe. We looked back during all of this and they were continuing to come after us. We think they stopped for a while at our packs. We hid in this spot for the next three or four hours and then made our way back to our basecamp which was about 40 minutes from there. We got back to BC and our cook/sirdar and helper decided we should pack up everything and descend that evening back to Thame once it got dark. We left BC last night around 8 pm and got to Thame at 5 am. We're now in Namche. We don't know still who it was. At first we thought perhaps Maoists but this guy was clearly Chinese and claimed not to speak Nepali. Our sirdar and his Sherpa helper from that valley think that they were Chinese police. Jeff and I can't believe Chinese police or military would try something like that so we're thinking they were some kind of Chinese thieves which ambushed us because we were easy targets.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Everest Parivar
Commercial Route -
Standard Route -
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference -
Primary ID -
Checksum 2455800
Year 2002
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) se face

Members

2 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
David Charles (Dave) Morton M 1971 USA Leader Seattle, Washington Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Jeffrey R. (Jeff) Lamoureux M 1966 USA Climber Seattle, Washington Engineer Details Other expeditions

References

5 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
NAG102301 AAJ Morton, David - - 77:391-392 (2003) -
NAG102301 AAJ Hawley, Elizabeth - - 77:392-393 (2003) -
NAG102301 HIGH - - - 252:60 (Nov 2003) -
NAG102301 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12200339200/Mahalangur-Himal-Khumbu-Khumbu-Nagpai-Gosum-I-Background-on-the-Encounter-with-Chinese-Soldiers - - -
NAG102301 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12200339102/Mahalangur-Himal-Khumbu-Nagpai-Gosum-Chinese-Military-Encounter - - -