Pumori | 2023 SE Face-E Ridge

A France expedition to Pumori in 2023 via SE Face-E Ridge, led by Lucien Boucansaud. Summit reached on 28th October 2023. 1 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 11295
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID PUMO23303
Peak ID PUMO
Year 2023
Season 3
Host Country 1
Route 1 SE Face-E Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality France
Leaders Lucien Boucansaud
Sponsor Himalaya Vision Pumori Expedition 2023
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 -
Approach Lukla->EBC Trail
Basecamp Date 2023-09-21
Summit Date 2023-10-28
Summit Time 0930
Summit Days 37
Total Days 44
Termination Date 2023-11-04
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 7138
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 1
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 1
Summit Members 1
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(21/09,4700m),C1(20/10,5700m),Smt(29/10)
Route Notes Approach: Lukla->EBC trail. BC 21/09 4700m (Chhukung, for the whole expedition, including Island Peak and Cho Polu) C1 20/10 5700m Smt 28/10 by Lucien Boucansaud at 9:30 am. • Acclimatization, Island Peak Lucien Boucansaud, David Goettler and Guillaume Pierrel arrived in the Khumbu Valley on the 20 Sept, first reaching Chhukung on the 21 Sept. First had daily trails on the surrounding cols for acclimatizing softly. 29/09: from Lhotse Glacier, trio went up in alpine-style to Island Peak via its North Ridge. Prior reaching the Imjatse La, trio had to break trail throughout ascending ledges going up rightwards. Trio chose to bivouac 5m down to the top on a ledge for achieving its acclimatization. First night above 6000m for Boucansaud went well. 30/09: trio went back down to Chhukung. Then 4 days of bad weather occurred, the team resting eventually in Chhukung for a week. • Cho Polu: repeat in alpine style of the Corominas/Tosas route on the West Face 07/10: trio bivouacked afoot of Cho Polu’s West Face. 08/10: trio climbed the face to the top in a 10 hr push. From the top, trio went back to the col lying atop of the West Face (at circa 6400m). Here the trio dug a cave in the soft snow, but after a meter it touched the ice! Trio then had to sleep in half a hole, making it not a pleasant night, but a rather survival one by minus 25°. This knowing that climbing fast and light, they hadn’t had any sleeping bags. Why staying a night up there? The West Face itself sizes circa 800-900m high, generally consisting in 60-70° snow-ice slopes. Here Boucansaud first met with the specific snow conditions never experienced in the Alps. From dry conditions down the face, then the trio had 400m of quick perfect snow; but in the last upper 200m before touching the ridge, trio faced inconsistent sugar-snow conditions, sometimes forcing them to dig a meter to be able to put an ice screw. “More committed than any steep rock face, the latter in which one can put good protections”. So after the summit, the trio decided not to down-climb the face at night. It also had thought after the option to climb down towards Makalu eastwards. But that option would have been not that dangerous, it would have been a very long one instead, involving 5 to 6 days to trek back to Chhukung (via the classic “3 cols”). 09/10: Trio down-climbed to face from early in the morning, joining back Chhukung lodge on the same day in the afternoon. End of the expedition? All 3 members were now tired, and Goettler and Pierrel would walk back down to Lukla 2 days later. Boucansaud instead chose to stay for climbing on his own in the Khumbu Valley. He first went down to Namche, resting there 4 days from 11 to 15 of October (“not too high in altitude, better variety of food there”). From there, he went up to stay 2 days in Chhukung, from 15 to 17 of Oct. • Pumori: solo alpine-style ascent by the normal route. 17/10: Chhukung to Lobuche (Pyramid Lodge) via Kongma Pass. 18/10: Lobuche to Gorakshep to the footstep of the route (camped there). 19/10: took a day rest in his tent after his two-days trek. In addition, for observing the mountain conditions since it had snowed on the 17 Oct, wanted to wait for a maximum of stabilization of the slopes. 20/10: went up to C1 at 5700m with all his gear. 21/10: made a first summit attempt, stopped at 6700m because of the avalanche risk. Went back down to C1, tired after a 16 hr roundtrip breaking trail. Had also faced cold conditions during the day, with minus 20°C. First considered to definitely abandon. 22/10: would prove to be another long day. After a late bed, “my best night during the whole expedition”, as he was woken up by the ray of lights at circa 10 am, his motivation came back: he had still time left (2 weeks), he knew the route up to 6700m already, so why not giving it another try? Boucansaud dismantled his C1. Down the mountain, he left all his climbing gear in a big black bag locked with a padlock, hiding it under a big rock. From there, he directly walked back to Chhukung in trail mode (2500m positive, 25kms in length, this usually requiring 2 days). Reached Chhukung at 6 pm. 23-26/10: rested at Chhukung. 26/10: Chhukung to Lobuche (Pyramid Lodge) via Kongma Pass. 27/10: Lobuche to C1. 28/10: Had first planned to wake up at 1 am, but with a full moon and cold night, he couldn’t sleep still at midnight. So he started from C1 at circa 1:20-1:30 am, with almost no wind (20 km/h maximum) and less cold conditions than during his first attempt (minus 10°C). Reached the top at circa 9:30 am, staying there for 10 min. Was back at C1 at 14:57, where he stayed for the night, feeling very tired. Knew that below C1, all objective risks were gone so he could rest at this place safely after the summit descent. Boucansaud considers the ascent as quite complex for a normal route. Lots of left and right bypassing of ice walls and convex ice sections, prone to avalanche, all-in-all a complex ground to negotiate. “Even 10 days after a snow fall, the wind is still able to form ice slabs!”. “The last 500 meters on the NE Ridge are comparable to the Aiguille Verte’s snow-ice cap in Chamonix. 29/10: from C1 to Lobuche (Pyramid Lodge). When he thought to be the last expedition attempting the route, here Boucansaud surprisingly discovered another expedition’s tents lying afoot of the mountain: British Simon Yates had arrived there with a Sherpa team intending for the normal route. Both talked together about the current conditions, Yates looking very motivated to summit a nice mountain after his latest misadventures with Mick Fowler. 30/10: Lobuche to Chhukung, where he stayed four days for rest. Left it on 4 Nov for Lukla. It was the second expedition in Nepal for Boucansaud, after his participation to Marc Batard’s project of the alternative route on Everest in November 2021. Sherpas above BC: 0 Route: SE Face to NE Ridge (normal route) Oxygen: not taken, not used Records: 1st alpine-style solo ascent of the normal route?
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Himalaya Vision
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2464114
Year 2023
Summit Success True
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) se face-e ridge

Members

1 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Lucien Maurice Boucansaud M 1995 France Leader Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France Alpine guide Details Other expeditions

References

2 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
PUMO23303 - - https://endorfeen.com/solo-triumph-on-pumori-lucien-boucansauds-daring-ascent/ - - -
PUMO23303 - - https://explorersweb.com/pumori-solo/ - - -