Asia, Nepal, Chobutse Tragedy

Publication Year: 1984.

Chobutse Tragedy. On October 10 Austrians Ernst Gritzner, leader, his brother Karl, Karl Pfeifer and Udo Ertl climbed from Camp I at 16,650 feet to establish Camp II at 19,200 feet. The Gritzner brothers descended to Base Camp. When Manfred Ehrengruber, Oswald Pletschko and Siegfried Varch ascended, they found that Camp II had been buried by a powder-snow avalanche apparently on the night of October 11, killing Pfeifer and Ertl as they slept. They were attempting the unclimbed northeast face and ridge of Chobutse (less properly Chobuje, 6685 meters, 21,932 feet).