Himalaya, Nepal, Cho Oyu

Publication Year: 1959.

Cho Oyu. The Indian expedition led by Keki F. Bunshaw made the second ascent of Cho Oyu on May 15 when Sherpas Pasang Dawa Lama and Sonam Gyalzen reached the 26,867-foot summit. This was the second time that Pasang Dawa, now in his late forties, had climbed the peak, as he was on the first ascent on October 19, 1954 with Dr. Herbert Tichy and Sepp Jöchler. Major Narendra Dhar Jayal, Principal of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, died of pneumonia at base camp on April 28. Other members of the expedition were Capt. J. Dias, Capt. Jagjit Singh, Dr. R. M. Boal, R. S. Rao, and A. Duttra.

Dhaulagiri. A Swiss expedition made the sixth unsuccessful attempt on Dhaulagiri (26,795 feet) the world’s seventh highest peak and the highest yet unreached summit. The expedition, led by Walter Stäuble, was composed of Eugen Reiser, Dr. Kaspar Winterhalter, Max and Rudolf Eiselin, and Alfred Hächler, Swiss; Detlef Hecker, German; and Dr. Jerzy Hajdukiewicz, Pole. They followed the route of all but the first of the expeditions to and on the mountain, leaving Pokhara on March 26 and ascending the Mayangdi Khola to Base Camp (15,000 feet) on April 10. Camp I (17,000 feet) was established on April 14, Camp II (18,350 feet) on April 15, Camp III (19,500 feet) on April 17, Camp IV (21,500 feet) on May 1, and Camp V (23,500 feet) on May 7. The weather, never favorable, broke for the worse the next day, even carrying away a tent at Camp III. Although they persisted in nearly continuous storm, they never got higher than Camp VI (24,750 feet), pitched beside the shreds of tents from the second Argentine expedition. There they abandoned the attempt in late May. There was heavy snow and on May 27 about half of the expedition members were involved in various different avalanches.