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1The Gasherbrum Expedition 1996
0th July this year is the 20th Anniversary of the JS Expedition to on Gasherbrum permitted advance planning at a level of detail Gasherbrum I (8047m) in 1996, itself exactly 20 years after the that defined the exact route and location of every campsite, the ascent of Everest by the AMA in 1976, and the first success on contents of every load required for each camp, and the movement
an 8,000m peak by the British Forces since that landmark climb. In recognition of this, a short summary of the Gasherbrum Expedition follows.
Gasherbrum I is the 11th highest mountain in the world, and it was chosen because it is a fine individual peak, offering a challenging route which involves some quite technical climbing at altitude, and also because it provided an opportunity to visit in the legendary Karakoram. The route selected was that via the Japanese Couloir, and a team of twelve climbers; 6 Army, 2 RN, 2 RM, and 2 RAF, without supporting Sherpas/ HA porters, and without supplementary oxygen, climbed it in 33 days, of which 6 were completely lost to bad weather.
There was also a junior team of ten, consisting of a leader (RAF) and deputy leader (Army, RE) and 8 novice climbers, 2 Army, 2 RN, 2 RAF and 2 Civilians. They ascended the Biafo Glacier to the Snow Lake, an extremely remote and little explored area, where they climbed several peaks and returned independently.
One striking feature of this expedition was that, while earlier AMA expeditions to the Himalayas had in part been voyages of discovery, with decisions on details of the route and how to climb it being made as the picture unfolded, the amount of information available
Porters approaching Concordia, West face of Gasherbrum I Gasherbrum IV beyond
of personnel up and down the mountain, before ever leaving UK. While small variations were introduced on the day, this meant that, barring the weather, there were no real surprises, and this significantly detracted from the sense of adventure and challenge in the experience. I believe that this should be a consideration in the choosing of objectives for AMA expeditions, pushing leaders and members into reacting to circumstance and thinking on their feet.
That said, the performance of the team was outstanding, and the expedition ran like clockwork. In the final 36 hours of the climb, the summit party of 4, with 2 in support, started from Camp 2 at 6,400m, completed the ascent of the Japanese Couloir, established and occupied Camp 3 at 7,100m, continued to the summit at 8047m overnight arriving at 09.10, (having made a trail for Al Hinkes and 2 Spanish climbers to follow them up). They were back down in Camp 3 by 15.00, and carried on down to Camp 2 where they arrived at 20.00. Job done! Really, quite remarkable. Theses successful heroes were: John Doyle, Dan Carroll, Andy Hughes and Steve Hunt. Their supporters were Steve Wilson and John Watson. The expedition was led by Meryon Bridges, and the deputy leader was Steve Jackson, who went on to lead the successful JS expedition to Kanchenjunga, (8,586m) four years later (in which John Doyle again summited without use of supplementary oxygen).
Entering the Japanese Couloir
John, Andy, Dan and Steve on the summit of Gasherbrum I
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