Gongga Shan Tragedy. An extraordinary tale comes from an attempt on Gongga Shan by Japanese from Hokkaido led by Akio Kawagoe. The 24 men and one woman established Base Camp on the Yan-Tsöko Glacier on April 4. Camp V was placed at 22,575 feet on the unclimbed northeast ridge on May 7. On the 10th twelve set out from that camp. Four soon gave up but the other eight continued upward unroped until the lead climber, Yuji Fujiwara, was only about 100 meters below the summit. He slipped and plunged down the north face. The other seven contacted Base Camp and were told to descend. They had only one 40-meter rope, the two ends of which two climbers anchored with ice axes. The remaining five descended, using the rope as a fixed line. On the second pitch, one of the climbers apparently slipped and pulled off all the other six, who fell down the north face. More details are found in Iwa To Yuki, N° 83, pages 106-7. Editor Tsunemichi Ikeda has been so kind as to send us further details, written by the photographer Mikio Abe, who stopped below with the four. Abe wrote: “After Fujiwara’s fall, I went up alone and met with the seven on their descent. I reached them when they had finished descending the first pitch and I merged with the seven. On the second pitch, my carabiner tangled on the rope and I removed it to adjust it. I was the last in line. While I was adjusting the sling and not looking at the others, the seven slipped. I could only then see them all slipping together and disappearing into the thick mist. They made no effort to stop with their axes; I wonder why they did not. I walked unroped down the slope 200 meters to the other three members, who had stayed below. At one point I fell up to my hips in a crevasse but I descended safely.”