Gangapurna, South Face. James Blench, Dwayne Congdon, Dave McNab and I had been climbing together for the past three years and were close friends. We had learned to resolve our problems effectively. Four individuals with differing expectations, different amounts of drive but the same vehicle for expression and exploration—on a new route on the south face of Gangapurna. At 21,000 feet we faced a painful decision. We had been on the mountain for 23 days. We had travelled in a moving siege style on the lower stretches, shuttling loads through gullies and icefalls to the base of the south face. From Camp III at 18,000 feet we had our first clear view of the rock band and decided to leave our fixing ropes and much of our hardware behind. After setting off from our bergschrund camp at 19,000 feet, we had been caught in a violent storm in the middle of the ice face. We four spent the night crammed into a two-man tent half-pitched on the 55° slope. The next day we moved up to a safer spot at 21,000 feet. That day Dave McNab began to come down with mountain sickness. We spent two days there, fixing ropes ahead, hoping against hope that we could continue as a foursome through the rock wall above. It became obvious that Dave would have to go down. After hours of agonizing “negotiations” James Blench and I were chosen to continue. We said goodbye to Dave and Dwayne as they rappelled off towards thicker air. Blench and I turned the rock band in three more days. The first took us up steep water ice to the top of a small sérac. Then we followed a ramp-and-gully system of tricky mixed climbing and brittle ice. On our fourth day, April 30, a short rock pitch (F6) led us out of our exit gully onto the summit snow slopes. We plodded, exhausted, up the final 1200 feet to the summit (7454 meters, 24,457 feet). Physically deteriorated, we descended the route of ascent in two days to the schrund. Dave and Dwayne came back up from Base Camp and met us at 18,500 feet to help us down.

John Lauchlan, Calgary Mountain Club, Canada