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2005
Mugs Stump Award Winners:
Anderson/House—Rupal
Face of Nanga Parbat
The
Central Pillar of the Rupal Face M5/5.9, WI4
(4,100m)
Sept. 1-8, 2005, Vince Anderson & Steve
House
On 6 September, at 17:45 Vince Anderson and I stood on the
windless summit of Nanga Parbat after six days of climbing.
We had climbed a new, direct route on the Rupal Face. Famous
for being one of the biggest, if not the biggest, wall in
the world and because it saw its first ascent in 1970 by
Reinhold and Gunther Messner.
Vince and I started at 4:00 a.m. on September 1 carrying
16kg of equipment each. We had pared the equipment to the
minimum we thought was necessary. We carried a 1kg tent and
one synthetic sleeping bag that I sewed especially for this
route. We had the minimum of food and fuel. Our rack consisted
of 3 cams, 10 nuts, 9 titanium pitons, 5 ice screws, and
10 runners. We climbed on a 8mm rope and carried a 5mm static
rope to use for the many rappels back down the face. Each
was cut to 50 meters long.
August 31
4 a.m. We left basecamp to start the route. The weather forecast
is good for 7 days. At about 6:30 a.m. we arrived at the
Bazhin glacier (the start of the face). Numerous snow avalanches
were releasing on the face after receiving sun for the
first time in many weeks. After watching for a bit, we
decided to allow the face to clean itself for a day. We
returned to basecamp and the weather was hot, dry, and
clear all day.
September 1
4:00 a.m. We again left basecamp, this time for real. Around
6 a.m. we picked up our gear we cached at the glacier and
started up the lower slopes of the face. It was much quieter
now, it seemed that most of the snow avalanches had run
the previous day.
The warmth came on quickly as another hot and dry day was
upon us. We worked through some crevasses at the bottom of
the face while trying to avoid exposure from the large ice
avalanched from the seracs above (the guillotine). After
one hour on the glacier we were on a prominent rocky rib
that provides safety. We followed the rib for several hundred
meters before being forced out left and back into a large
couloir. Now avalanches were running frequently down the
couloir, but were restricted in their course by a deep channel
in the snow. We were able to stay to the side of the channel
for a few hundred meters more, then were forced to cross
it between sloughs. It only took a few moments to cross,
but it proved to be exciting nonetheless as avalanches came
rushing down the flume with increasing frequency as the day
progressed. Now we continued cramponing up 40-degree snow
for several hundred meters more until we had to recross the
channels (now there were two of them). We did so quickly,
and again were back on the rocky buttress. At the top of
the buttress we were at about 5,100 meters and even with
the bottom of the next rocky step, which is the crux of the
route. We traversed a snow slope to the base of the slope
and found a good bivy in the bergschrund there. This is the
same bivy site Bruce and Steve used in 2004. It was hot and
there was plenty of melt- water running so we could fill
up without melting snow on the stove.
September 2
We left the bivy at 3:00 a.m. in the dark to avoid exposure
to rockfall. There was ice in the section immediately above
the bergschrund that required us to belay several hundred
feet where Steve and Bruce had soloed in 2004. By the time
we arrived at the crux, it was in full sunlight and rocks
were beginning to fall. The pitch consisted of a snow-filled
steep corner and the rock was covered with a new glazing
of ice. The ice was not thick enough, or solid enough,
for screws and often picks would shear through it. Snow
covered the underlying rock and made it difficult to dry-tool
and find protection. Protection was very inadequate on
this pitch and the climbing was tedious. After spending
much time climbing and protecting it to half-height Vince
needed a break and lowered off a good piece to let Steve
finish the pitch.
Steve opted to lead without a pack (and haul). This made
things a bit easier for him, but still the protection was
scarce and the climbing serious. He dry-tooled a section
of loose and slopey rock (5.9). This pitch took us several
hours to complete and all the while volleys of stones and
ice would periodically rain down upon the belay. After the
crux there were several more mostly easy pitches to the top
of the rock buttress. We simul-climbed much of this section.
It was now 1:00 p.m. and we had been out for 10 hours. We
elected to bivy here, as it was safe, despite having gained
only 300 meters from the last bivy. This is also the same
place Steve and Bruce bivied in 2004 on their second night.
Again we reaped the benefit of the warm weather and filled
our pot with melt-water.
September
3—The eighteen-hour day
At 5 a.m. we left camp. We ascended a short snow ramp above
camp and traversed across an avalanche runnel that ran
big several times during the previous night due to serac-avalanches.
From here we continued climbing 45-degree snow below another
rock buttress and traversed another avalanche runnel. At
this point we diverged from the 2004 route. We decided
to do that because the 2004 route seemed dangerous due
to high snow levels in 2005 and direct pillar is a more
aesthetic and difficult line. The excitement of trying
a new line that had some serious question marks about it
won out.
Several hundred more meters of steep snow brought us to
the base of a rock buttress and safety from avalanches. A
few moderate mixed pitches got us onto ice runnels above.
We did many 150-meter simul-pitches just left of the ridge
crest and eventually the day ended. We continued climbing
in to the night, now pitch by pitch. We encountered one difficult
mixed pitch of snow and steep loose rock. Steve led this
pitch and puked at the belay afterwards. From here we could
traverse right onto the hanging glacier that is one of the
keys to this route. We found a wild, but safe, bivy under
a serac. It was 11:00 p.m. and we were both very tired from
the effort. We were at approximately 6,200 meters.
September
4—Key Passage
After sleeping in, we left camp around 10:30 a.m. We ascended
easy snow slopes above the bivy that eventually yielded
to 45-degree snow and ice. The rock headwall above was
steep and we needed to find an easy passage through it.
A little ways up, we found a nice WI 3 ramp leading through
to the left. This was a key section that looked possibly
impassable from photos, so it was a relief to find this
section of water ice. As we climbed this, the day came
to an end and we began looking for a place to bivy. Steve
led up snow and ice to the ridge on our left in hopes of
finding a good snow to make a tent platform. As he mounted
his steed, a large piece of it fell out beneath him. A
single tool placement in snow saved him from a huge whipper
and large chunks of snow hammered Vince. A bit further
on, we found a spot on the ridge that could be leveled
to the width of the tent, barely. The ledge was tiny and
precarious, so we stayed tied in for the night should the
snow underneath cut loose. We were at approximately 7,000
meters.
September 5
Again a 10:30 a.m. start due to the length of the previous
days effort. We rapped from our perch back to the snow
slopes below. From here, we began heading up easy ice to
the upper snow slopes of the ramp system we were on. The
altitude effect was obvious here and we were moving slow.
We plodded away up these slopes and gained the crest of
the ridge just below a short mixed passage leading to the
upper snow slopes very near to where Steve and Bruce had
turned back the previous year. We were also right above
the Merkl Icefield. We made our high camp here at 7,400
meters.
September
6—Summit Day
At 3:30 a.m. we set off for our summit attempt with one light
pack between the two of us with 3 liters of water, 2 liters
of Spiz (energy mix), several packs of GU each and 50 meters
of 5mm cord.
After two pitches of mixed climbing, we began plodding up
deep, steep, unconsolidated, faceted snow. This process was
extremely slow, difficult, and discouraging. After 100 meters
of this, the snow surface had strengthened enough to allow
us to travel on top.
We continued up moderately steep snow and ice until we were
able to gain a rocky ridge crest to our left. It was slow
moving up the easy mixed terrain on the ridge. The weather
was superb, it was even slightly hot.
By mid-day, we joined the upper Messner route at around
7,900 meters. We could see faint hints of the Korean climbers'
tracks from July. This eventually brought us to easy snow
and by 4:00 p.m. we arrived at the false summit. There, at
8,000 meters, Steve took off his boots to dry off his socks
in the sun and Vince took a 5-minute nap.
At 5:45 p.m. we arrived at the summit. We savored a few
minutes together, took in the marvelous views in all directions,
shot some photographs and at 6:00 p.m. descended from the
summit. We made it down the easy summit snowfields before
darkness caught us. We continued descending our route of
ascent, rappelling many sections with our 50 meters of rope
until we reached the top of the two mixed pitches above camp
where we had another rope. Two rappels from here and a short
walk had us both back to camp at 3:00 a.m., 24 hours after
starting. We made some water and promptly went to sleep.
September 7
After a light night's sleep we left camp around 8:00 a.m.
We began by doing 6 steep rappels down to the Merkl Icefield
to join the 1970 Messner route. Upon reaching the Merkl,
we found a tent abandoned by the Koreans.
We continued down-climbing the Merkl Icefield and eventually
began rappelling. We reached the approximate height of camp
2 (ca. 6,000 m.) by nightfall and continued descending. By
11:00 p.m. we reached what we thought to be the site of camp
1 (ca. 5,500 m.) and bivied under a serac. Steve's headlamp
batteries were failing and Vince inadvertently dropped his
lamp forcing us to sleep here.
We could see many large bonfires awaiting us below and hear
the local villagers drumming in celebration.
September 8
After a coughing-fit filled night, we woke around 7:00 a.m.
and continued our slow descent to base camp. Exhausted
from 8 days on the go and precious little sleep, we arrived
in camp around 2:00 in the afternoon to the great excitement
of our Liaison Officer and other locals.
Afterwards:
We have been overwhelmed by the local response to our ascent.
All the way out to the road head locals stopped us and
congratulated us. In Tarshing (the road head), about 200
schoolchildren turned out to greet us with bouquets of
flowers, posters commemorating our climb, and flower leis.
The town had a ceremony and the mayor and school headmasters
all made speeches. Wild! It turns out the whole valley
was watching our progress by seeing our headlamps each
night. And the summit day was so clear, many people watched
us summit through binoculars.
Summary:
Nanga Parbat. The Central Pillar of the Rupal Face. Sept
1-8, 2005. Anderson/House. (4,100m, M5/5.9, WI4)
A note from Steve and Vince: Note that if you measure the
face from the Bazhin Glacier right where the face starts,
it is 4,125 meters. Some people measure the face as 5,000
meters, but to get 5,000 meters you have to measure from
the village of Tarshing where you start the trek to basecamp.
4,100 meters seems to us like an honest measurement of the
amount of climbing on the face.
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