Annapurna Ascent and Tragedy. An expedition of Austrians, Swiss and one Czechoslovakian was led by Hanns Schell. They were on the mountain at the same time as the West German expedition described below. After abandoning the Dutch route because of avalanche danger, they turned to the Spanish route of 1975, which they climbed up to a ramp which let them traverse back westwards toward the main summit. On May 4 Austrian Wastl Worgötter, Swiss Werner Bürkli and Thomas Hägler and Sherpa Dawa Tenzing climbed to the summit. On their return to the high camp, Bürkli suddenly collapsed and died, apparently from a heart attack. A high-altitude porter, Shanti Rai, was lost on May 12 while clearing the mountain. He left Camp III for Camp II but never arrived. He must have slipped on the descent.

Michael J. Cheney, Himalayan Club, and Elizabeth Hawley