Pumori | 2005 SE Face-E Ridge

A USA expedition to Pumori in 2005 via SE Face-E Ridge, led by Dan Mazur. Summit reached on 25th March 2005. 27 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 5003
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID PUMO05104
Peak ID PUMO
Year 2005
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 SE Face-E Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality USA
Leaders Dan Mazur
Sponsor SummitClimb Pumori Expedition 2004
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 150
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries Australia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Turkey, UK
Approach -
Basecamp Date 2005-03-11
Summit Date 2005-03-25
Summit Time 1330
Summit Days 14
Total Days 16
Termination Date 2005-03-27
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 7138
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 2
Fixed Rope (m) 2300
Total Members 23
Summit Members 5
Member Deaths 1
Total Hired 9
Summit Hired 4
Hired Deaths 1
No Hired False
O2 Used False
O2 None True
O2 Climb False
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep False
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken True
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits -
Campsites BC(11/03,5300m),ABC(14/03,5800m),C1(16/03,6200m),C2(19/03,6500m),Smt(25/03)
Route Notes BC near lake above Gorak Shep ABC at bottom of SE Face C1 at top of rock rib C2 just below East Col. After 19th March storm (wind and snow) and very cold. On 15th Phuri Sherpa left C1 at 8:00 am for top while all other summiters left C2 at 6:40 am; Phuri caught up with others at 6900m. Latvia and Panamanian climbed slowly, so summit reached by them only at 3:10 pm with Mazur and Phurba Tamang escorting them. All summiters to C2 to sleep; on C2 at 4:00 pm except Mazur and Hartmane who returned at 7:00 pm and 6:00 pm, respectively. Mazur returned later because searching with Sherpas for the Panamian and Phurba Tamang who fell in in descent. No more summit attempts because no more time. Where bodies went, no idea, search turned up no clue. Members who left early: Dougherty left 21 March - bad pulmonary edema (recovered later) Duncan left 17 March - had no interest in climb and never went above BC Joll left 13 March - had previous back injury and when getting out of tent at BC, it was hurt again - never went above BC Loos left 25 March - went to C1, then had enough Te Hennepe left 23 March - went to 6000m, then had enough Wuoble-Stenberg left 17 March - went to 6000m then had enough. Asleep on the Summit, by Dan Mazur (given to Elizabeth Hawley by Mazur) We are very shocked and saddened to have to tell this tale. Alex Chen and Phurba Tamang were very kind people, good friends, and they will be sorely missed. On the sunny, warm and calm morning of Friday the 25th of March, Alex unzipped his tent and popped out, nearly ready to go. He had put his boots and crampons on in the tent. We left camp at 6:40 am on a sunny, warm, wind-free morning, and Jangbu Sherpa, Tenzing Sherpa, Tunc Findik and Mark Merwin rapidly pulled ahead. By the time of the 9 am radio call, they were well out in the distance, and had become the "lead team" and in the back were Dan, Liga, Alex and Phurba, the "final four." The group moved slowly and steadily upward, following the lead team who were finding the way. Phuri Sherpa climbed all they way up from C1 to join the lead team aorund midday, as well. By about 2 pm, the last four were cresting onto the summit itself. They watched the lead team coming down off the summit pyramimd, and the two groups passed in front of a small crevasse-field just under the pyramid. Pleasantries were exchanged. The weather was sunny with light winds. It was not very cold. Jangbu asked Dan if it was all right if he went down with the lead team, or should he stay and help? Everything seemed to be working smoothly, and the weather looked stable and even warm, so it seemed best if the teams went their separate ways. On the Summit: In a few minutes, the final four crossed the last little crevasse field and were on the summit. It was thrilling and exciting to be there. Alex was wearing a huge grin and his yellow down suit, laughing with joy and holding up a meter-wide Panamanian flag while Liga photographed it. The group stood there across Liga-Dan-Alex, with Everest in the background. The sun shone on the scene and the wind blew lightly. It was pleasant. After a few minutes, our photos were taken and it was time to go down. Alex finished packing away a few items into his day sack, and Phurba was sorting out the ropes. Dan and Liga were ready and began to head down. They retraced their steps, following the trail down. They re-crossed the little crevasse fields and made their way down the steepening slopes. Just before they crossed the brow of the mountain, Dan looked over his shoulder and saw that Phurba and Alex had made it through the small crevasse-field, and were coming down. Dan noticed that Alex was sitting on the snow, apparently resting. The snow was approximately ankle deep and the slope was about 45 degrees (not icy). Liga was going down first, with Dan behind (upslope). Liga lost her step and slipped. She was able to catch herself. Dan slipped a few times too on the un-consolidated snow, but these were small stumbles, not major falls, easily stopped by putting one's ice axe and/or hand into the snow. They continued on down, slowly making their way down the trail. As they were going down, Dan looked up the slope and saw the two helmets of Phurba Tamang and Alex Chen bobbing up and down through the increasing ground blizzard. Dan recalls thinking that everything was going well; Alex and Phurba were steadily coming down. Satisfied that the other rope team was coming down. Dan looked downhill and focused on watching Liga place one foot in front of another and descend. She was stepping precisely and seemed to be managing the task well. A minute or so elapsed, and the team was still descending, around the the 7100m mark. It was becoming windier, and a small ground blizzard was scouring this part of the mountain. The wind was making a scrating noise as it tore along the ground. The Accident: Over the consistent blanket of background noise, Dan heard a "shooshing" sound seeming to emanate from a point somewhere behind them, uphill. Before he had a chance to spin around to see where the noise was originating from, a very unexpected spectacle came shooting down alongside of him, perhaps 15 meters distant, out to his right. The other rope team of Alex and Phurba were sliding quickly down the powdery-sugary 45-degree slope. Alex was in the lead, lying down on his stomach, arms at his side, face turned toward Dan and Liga. His read helmeted face wore the beautific expressing of sleep (Dan recalls thinking that it looked as if Alex was accepting his fate, or snoozing calmly like a baby). In retrospect, it seems that Alex was indeed sleep. Phurba Tamang was a different story however. He was roaring down the hill tied behind Alex on his back in a sitting position on his backside, feet down hill, one hand pulling on the rope, the other arm flailing against the snow wildly, clawing it and kicking it, trying to slow their speed, to no avail. Now on his back, legs down; now on his side, legs kicking like scissors. Phurba was almost crying, his face in a horrible grimace of fear, looking directly at Dan and shouting and screaming: "Help Me! Help Me!" Dan instantly recognized the situation and shouted to Phurba to "Put in your axe!" Phurba struggled and kicked to no avail, but unable to slow them, he and Alex accelerated through the steep powder, quickly passing Dan and Liga, who stood and watched in shock. In a split second, they rocketed down the slope and over the edge of the steeply tilted plateau, suddenly disappearing from view. And then they were gone, and there was only silence. Dan noticed an ice axe lying in the snow where Alex and Phurba had passed. He was not sure whose axe this was, Alex or Phurba's. The Search: Dan radioed the Sherpas from the first rope team, who were already back in the high camp, having quickly descended, and asked them to return to the scene of the accident for a rescue, bringing ropes, snow bars and ice screws. The short rope limited Dan and Liga as they searched the area as they descended. After about an hour, the Sherpas arrived and one of them, Lhakpa Kongle, took Liga down to Camp 2, very slowly and carefully. Dan remained while the other two Sherpas climbed back up the mountain to see if they could find anything. After another hour or so, it was nearly dark and the Sherpas radioed down to Dan that they had not seen anything but steep cliffs and jagged seracs, and were coming down. Upon their return to where Dan had been waiting and listening on the radio, they announced that Alex and Phurba were dead. It was very cold and windy and dark at that point. Then the three of them, Dan and the two Sherpas, dejectedly climbed back down slowly and carefully to the high camp, saddened at the loss of their two friends. The following day, the entire team climbed back down the mountain and cleaned up all of the camps as they came down. The government authorities and family members were notified. In conclusions, it seems Alex suddenly, "fell-asleep," coming down from the summit (this is why he looked so peaceful and sleepy as he and Phurba slid past). Alex had surely collapsed with no warning and Phurba could not hold him in the steep soft snow. Alex suddenly went unconscious and collapsed, and came rocketing down the slope catching Phurba by surprise, and knocking Phurba off of his feet. What a horrible feeling it must have been for Phurba to be tied to the sleeping Alex. Phurba would have been like Alex's captive victim. Unable to quickly unclip himself from the rope, Phurba was dragged kicking and screaming over the precipice. Alex and Phurba's fall ended in broken up ice fields below, and they died a quick and rapid death. This is specially true for Alex, who would have been asleep. An interview with Ms. Liga Hartmane Liga Hartmane was on the summit at the same time as Alex, on Dan's rope team, and she has this to say: Liga Hartmane - "[ On the way up] I didn't notice any difference about Alex. He always had an expression of pain, but was always in a good mood. I was moving much slower than usual but Alex was moving at his usual pace. He was behind us together with Phurba, but not too far. Each time we stopped, he caught up. When the fixed line finished, Phurba Sherpa appeared with a rope and cut it in two and Dan said we should rope up. Me with Dan and Alex with Phurba. We reached the summit together. I think it was 15:10 when we were on the summit, because I checked my watch. Dan said no more than 15 minutes on the summit, because it was already so late. We took a lot of photos and Alex looked all the same. He was very happy and making a lot of photos with his flag. He didn't really want to go down it seemed, but I was cold and wanted to go down as fast as possible. We started to descend. I was going first and Dan behind me and after a while, Dan said we should stop and see how Alex is doing. They were not very far away - about 200m behind and were descending much slower than us. We had stopped for about 3 minutes and then kept descending. I think we were maybe halfway back to the fixed lines which finished about 100m distance meters away from the crevasse at 6900m, when I heard Dan screaming "Phurba ice axe!" I stopped and looked and saw them falling about 100m away from us. Alex was falling first and doing nothing that I saw to try to try to stop himself. He seemed to be rolling. He didn't act as a normal person should act on a snow slope. It was like he was unconscious. Phurba was trying to do something to stop them. I only saw them for about 5 seconds before they disappeared over an edge. I didn't hear anything except Dan yelling "Phurba ice axe!" Dan then called on the radio that we need 3 Sherpas up because Alex has fallen down. We then moved down slowly looking for any signs. At some point below we saw an ice axe, probably Phurba's. We continued to move down slowly trying to find any traces of them. We found a place that was sheltered from the wind and waited for the Sherpas to come. I was so cold, I could barely move because we waited for such a long time, so when the Sherpas arrived, I went down to C2 with one of them."
Accidents Only fatal falls
Achievement -
Agency Everest Parivar
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2456855
Year 2005
Summit Success True
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) se face-e ridge

Members

27 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Alexander Ivan Chen Arrocha M 1969 Panama Climber Panama City & Yiwa, Zhejang, China Executive of pearl cultivating business Details Other expeditions
Rexford G. (Rex) Dougherty M 1945 USA Climber Park City, Utah Software engineer Details Other expeditions
Michael Duncan M 1959 USA Climber Davis, California Electrician Details Other expeditions
John Christopher Fawcett M 1950 UK Climber Birmingham, England Driver Details Other expeditions
Tunc Findik M 1972 Turkey Climber Bilkent, Ankara, Turkey Alpine guide & alpinist Details Other expeditions
Viesturs Garda M 1976 Latvia Climber Riga, Latvia Managing director of window manufacturing company Details Other expeditions
Ulroy (Roy) Hansen M 1968 Norway Climber Lakseuag, Norway Nurse and helicopter rescue expert Details Other expeditions
Liga Hartmane F 1977 Latvia Climber Riga, Latvia Attorney Details Other expeditions
Steven Russell Joll M 1954 USA Climber Coburg, Oregon Tile setter Details Other expeditions
Frazier Schorr Keck M 1961 USA Climber Chapel Hill, North Carolina Dentist Details Other expeditions
Philip K. Ling M 1968 Australia Climber Bowral, NSW, Australia Inspector in Australian govt quarantine service & alpine ski guide Details Other expeditions
Reinhold Loos M 1946 Germany Climber Frankfurt-am-Main, Hesse, Germany Gynaecologist Details Other expeditions
Edwin Ludlow M 1946 UK Climber Solihull, W Midlands, England Retired civil engineer Details Other expeditions
Roland A. Marx M 1928 USA Climber Westhampton, New York Markets a wide variety of products Details Other expeditions
Daniel Lee (Dan) Mazur M 1960 USA Leader Longbranch, Washington House worker Details Other expeditions
Mark Christopher Merwin M 1976 USA Climber Olympia, Washington Contruction worker Details Other expeditions
Gregory Mills M 1960 USA Climber Modesto, California Computer graphics artist Details Other expeditions
Kirk Morley M 1971 Australia Climber Cairns, QLD, Australia Chef and outdoor activities leader Details Other expeditions
Karlis Reihmanis M 1974 Latvia Climber Riga, Latvia Attorney Details Other expeditions
Jay Mark Reilly M 1972 Australia Deputy Leader Kewara Beach, QLD, Australia Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Cornelsien (Elselien) Te Hennepe F 1975 Netherlands Climber Rotterdam, Netherlands Social worker Details Other expeditions
Matthew L. (Matt) Vulk M 1963 USA Climber Napa, California Home builder Details Other expeditions
Daniel Wuoble-Stenberg M 1952 Finland Climber Huddinge, Sweden Meat company executive Details Other expeditions
Jangbu Sherpa M 1967 Nepal H-A Worker Patle-4, Okhaldhunga - Details Other expeditions
Tenji/Tenzing Sherpa M 1982 Nepal H-A Worker Patle-6, Okhaldhunga - Details Other expeditions
Phuri (Ang Phuri) Sherpa M 1969 Nepal H-A Worker Patle, Okhaldhunga - Details Other expeditions
Phurba Tamang M - Nepal H-A Worker Lapcha, Salleri, Solukhumbu - Details Other expeditions

References

2 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
PUMO05104 - - http://www.everestnews.com/Summitclimb2005/pumori2005.htm - - -
PUMO05104 - Findik, Tunc Altitude 8000 Tunc Findik Publications, Istanbul - -