Page 17 - 2018 AMA Winter

They were not commenting about the size of their tent but the South Face of Nuptse, a 7861m monster which at that time had only been summited once before. Little did they know that only six weeks later four of their comrades from the Nepal and British Army combined expedition would have passed away in the most unfortunate of circumstances. Following this tragedy, the team built a stone memorial at Base Camp (BC) in memory of their four friends lost on the mountain: Maj Gerry Owens (Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Reg); Capt Richard Summerton (Royal Engineers); Lt David Brister (Intelligence Corps) & Rfn Passang Tamang (7th Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Gurkha Rifles).
Fast forward to 2018 through the Falklands, two Gulf Wars and 9/11 and you will find two small unassuming British Army camps in the foothills of Nepal. Most of you reading this article will never have heard of my unit, British Gurkhas Nepal (BGN). Small compared to any other regular unit, BGN’s main purpose is the enormous task of recruiting our fearsome Gurkha Soldiers and looking after the welfare of those still serving and those who have retired.
The aim of Expedition Samjhana (Remembrance in Nepali) was to rebuild the 1975 Base Camp memorial. We knew it would be an enormous task to do this properly, especially at 5200m in an area most of our team had no experience operating in. Only a few of us have been above this height prior to this expedition. We also thought it would be the perfect opportunity to summit our own mountain, Island Peak (6186m), which sits just to the east of the Base Camp Location. Although its height sounds impressive, its neighbour, the Lhotse massive, made Island Peak look like a hill.
Nepal Army MI17
The team was diverse and included in addition to the eight participants from the British Army another seven from the Nepal army who would assist and look after us during the expedition. The Nepal Army had also very generously offered us the use of their MI17 Helicopter.
After the normal chaos of pre-deployment preparation, we finally stood on the line of departure with our 900kgs of stores to build the memorial. Morale was running high and eight months of graft finally over. The eternal lure of the Himalayas that has been experienced by man for millennia sat deep in our hearts; the mountains of Nepal awaited us.
If I may quote Moltke: “No plan survives contact with the enemy”. Throughout the whole deployment our enemy remained the unpredictable weather (and greedy Yak Herders). We flew into Syangboche on the 18 May, but annoyingly had to wait the next 8 days for our stores to arrive due to bad weather and other commitments. We went the traditional acclimatisa- tion route of Namche Bazaar, Khunde, Tengboche, DIngboche and Chukkung.
Improvised Shoes
As we turned the corner to go up the Khumbu Valley from Namche Bazaar, we glimpsed the Nuptse/Lhotse Wall for the first time. Finally, we could see where it happened. The peak, the couloir, it all brought to life the accounts that we had read of the tragedy. We could not help but wonder what it must have looked like when the Nuptse Expedition experienced it 43 years ago. They would have found the glacier stretching all the way to Chukkung in its fearsome glory. Today it has retreated to the base of the mountain leaving only a desolate scar of boulders where not even grass will grow.
On 25 May, whilst we were sitting tight in anticipation, 70 km south in Phaplu our two porters were waiting in a tea house sipping some chiya. Like a Valkyrie, the MI17 descended through the thick cloud cover and rain. The proverbial cavalry had arrived, albeit slightly late, to save the poor infantryman from his fate. The expedition was back on track and we were only one day behind schedule. Off we went to Nuptse BC with a renewed vigour. We set up camp and were promptly off to work to catch up on lost time. Building a
Nuptse South Face, little have changed from 1975
ARMY MOUNTAINEER / 17