Dhaulagiri Attempt. A 15-man Japanese expedition led by Tsuneo Has- egawa failed to climb Dhaulagiri by the normal northeast-ridge route. Hasegawa and Shinishi Ishi made a bid for the summit on November 3 from Camp III at 24,600 feet and reached 25,250 feet before strong winds drove them back. Two days later Hasegawa set out solo from Advance Base (Camp I) at 18,700 feet on the northeast col on another summit attempt. However Chin Chikahiro, a Chinese national living in Japan, who was supposed to descend from Camp II to Advance Base the previous day, had not turned up. Hasegawa turned from his summit try to search for him, found him in a bivouac and brought him down. By then the one-week extension of their climbing permit was about to expire and they made no further attempt. Chin died, apparently from altitude illness, on the second day of the trek out from Base Camp on November 7. He had been very slow all during the climb and on the first day away from Base he fell behind the others, who left him to move at his own slow pace. The next day a Japanese and a Sherpa went back to look for him, found him very ill and helped him to move to a lower altitude, but he died early that afternoon.

Michael J. Cheney, Himalayan Club, and Elizabeth Hawley