Gaurishankar Attempt. Rosa Fernández, Javier Alonso, Juan José San Sebastián, Ignacio Miró and I established Base Camp on September 25 at 15,900 feet, at the site of previous expeditions’ bases. We immediately climbed the intervening ridge to 17,000 feet and descended to the foot of Gaurishankar’s west face, where we placed Advanced Base at 15,700 feet. We hoped to make a new route on the west face left of the American route up a series of ice spurs cut by rock walls. We established Camp I at 17,500 feet protected by a rock spur on October 2. The difficulties became much greater and from 18,375 feet on, we fixed the whole wall with rope. We climbed the entire face to 20,675 feet, where we had to traverse to reach the summit ridge. Three of the five members fell sick and we had to give up, 650 feet from the summit, with the major difficulties overcome.

Antonio Trabado, Club Alpino Malicioso de Madrid, Spain