Ripimo Shar | 1955 N Face

A UK expedition to Ripimo Shar in 1955 via N Face, led by Alfred Gregory. Summit reached on 18th May 1955. 3 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 6889
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID RIPI55101
Peak ID RIPI
Year 1955
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 N Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality UK
Leaders Alfred Gregory
Sponsor Merseyside Himalayan Expedition 1955
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 2nd
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach From Tibetan side
Basecamp Date -
Summit Date 1955-05-18
Summit Time -
Summit Days 0
Total Days 0
Termination Date -
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 6647
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 0
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 3
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 Panaio Toupa (PANT-551-01), Parchamo (PARC-551-01), Pimu (PAML-551-01), Ramdung (RAMD-551-01), Chekigo (CHEK-551-01), Dingjung Ri (DING-551-01), Dapladadangdio and Singkar; attempted Pangbuk Ri (PANG-551-01); recon Gaurishankar (GAUR-551-01)
Campsites Smt(18/05)
Route Notes Upon reviewing map provided by Dennis P. Davis, it appears that the 1952 Shipton expedition and this expedition on May 18 climbed an unnamed peak of 6705m south of Menlung La, not the true Pangbuk Ri which is much further north of Menlung La and Kangkuru (6320m). 4 days earlier on May 14, Boultbee and Davis climbed to the lower West Summit of the true Pangbuk Ri via the SW Ridge approaching from the Tibetan side. Letter to Salisbury from Dennis Davis - March 5, 2004 To answer your questions. I am amazed that the Japanese, Schneider and Finnish maps with all their latest technology cannot agree of heights, names and locations of peaks. It makes my map almost the most accurate. The Schneider map has been used by the Nepalese without reference to other maps. Under Menlungtse is a long glacier, always known as the Menlung Glacier, very logically, not the "Drogpa Nagtsang." This leads to the Menlung La crossed by Shipton and party in 1952. They ought to know where it is, and that Pangbuk was south of that on the Tibetan/Nepalese border. I do not believe the Pangbuk Ri north of Kangkuru, which you say is added to the Nepal government's list of peaks open for mountaineering, when it has not yet been climbed!! I think that would be dangerous to say the least, and remember we climbed it from inside Tibet. The reason we named Kangkuru was that we had to jump an enormous crevass which would have stopped us reaching us reaching the summit had we not done so. Kang is used on many names of peaks, also Kuru is used as in Dhankuru. It seemed apt to us to name the peak after such a big jump after the Australian Kangeroo, hence Kangkuru! Silly, but true. There seems to be some collusion between your three maps makers as in some cases the heights are identical particularly on Schneider & Japanese maps. I just do not believe these heights were arrived at independently. It would be very interesting to see the complete maps of the area to compare other details. I enclose a copy of our climb on the 14th May taken from my diary. I sometimes wish I had taken the trouble to attempt a book of my visits to Nepal. A bit late now! May 14th (taken from Dennis Davis diary of 1955) An unusually early start 6:55 am, before even the sun was up, saw us plodding crampon-shod up the snow slopes and winding our way through a maze of crevasses and seracs. At one stage we had to descend onto a doubtful snow bridge and cut our way up the other side on a quite vertical section. After this we made quite good time still hoping to cross over on the snow face before the summit. Alas after arriving at a snow shoulder our way was barred by a nearly vertical rock and ice face several hundred feet wide. We did not despair and hoped the ridge ahead of us would go. It went until we [were] at the summit of a snow peak on the ridge beyond. It started as a thin blade of frozen snow almost vertical on both sides, and continued horizontally over rock pinnacles and ice seracs. The rocks then stopped and we made many difficult traverses to avoid towers of rocks necessitating treading on very loose ground and sometimes extremely steep ice. After being thwarted by one traverese, I made up to the ridge and was then faced with a 30-foot section of rock which overhung slightly at the top, but had a weakness which might go. To avoid removing crampons, this was climbed with difficulty, but there was still more to come and after several more snow ridges and avoiding cornices, we came to more rock. This time crampons came off and at the next to final tower we were forced to traverse out again on the right. This was out of the sun and took us aross very steep ground indeed, finishing with a vertical chimney to get back onto the ridge again. Another 30 feet took us to the final tower. Dismayed and disappointed, I turned to Peter and said "We've had it." It towered some 200 feet above us, parts of which could be climbed I'm sure, but we had no pitons and would have taken at least 2 hours, and it was already 3:30 pm. (We had taken 4-1/2 hours to traverse the 400-foot long horizontal ridge and climb a mere 400 feet higher than the snow peak at the end of the ridge.) We returned forlornly, all our gains were now losses as we had to climb down all the difficulties we had recently won. Forunately it was perhaps the finest day of the expedition, little wind, and we descended to yet another glorious sunset, only wishing the hills & mountains we could see in Tibet were ascessible to us. The two Sherpas had come out from the tents to look for us, but we soon reassured them. The last rays of the sun struck higher peaks with an orange tinge and we retired into our tents at 7:30 pm. Just 12-1/2 hours since we left them.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency -
Commercial Route False
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member True
Primary Reference True
Primary ID RAMD55101
Checksum 2438731
Year 1955
Summit Success True
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) n face

Members

3 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Alfred John (Alf) Gregory M 1913 UK Leader Blackpool, Lancashire, England - Details Other expeditions
Peter Boultbee M - UK Climber Liverpool, Merseyside, England - Details Other expeditions
Dennis P. Davis M 1927 UK Climber Anglesey, Wales - Details Other expeditions

References

0 recorded references.