Asia, Nepal, Annapurna, Middle Summit, South Face

Publication Year: 1985.

Annapurna, Middle Summit, South Face. Our expedition was made up of only Nil Bohigas and me, though we had two friends in Base Camp. We intended to climb the route attempted by Alex MacIntyre and René Ghilini in 1982, but from the beginning it was our plan to descend the face while they would have gone down the north face if they had succeeded. Our ascent of the 2300-meter (7500-foot) face was made without fixed rope, camps, or any previous load-carries. After five weeks of acclimatization between our 4200-meter Base Camp and 6000 meters to various points in the Annapurna Sanctuary, we set out with 55-pound packs that had food and fuel for seven days, tent, an 8mm rope, a 7mm rope and enough hardware to rig rappels on the 2000-meter descent. We actually used only the 8mm rope doubled on the ascent at difficult points. We took nine days on the climb; one approaching the foot of the face, seven ascending the face and one on the descent. We left a bivouac at the very foot of the wall at 5800 meters at ten P.M., climbed all night and all the next day (19 hours) to reach 7100 meters, where we placed the second bivouac. All this part, similar in difficulty to the north face of the Droites, was climbed unroped in the interest of speed. The next day we had to climb the most difficult part of the climb, the place where MacIntyre and Ghilini had to quit in 1982 for want of gear. It took us all day to climb the 50 meters from 7150 to 7200 meters with UIAA Grade V+, A2. Our third bivouac was just above this. We then climbed for two days on ice and mixed terrain to get to the final rock band at 7650 meters, at the top of which we joined the Polish route. The 160 meters of rock band between bivouacs 5 and 6 was of V to V+ difficulty. From our bivouac at 7800 meters to the middle summit of Annapurna (8061 meters, 26,447 feet) took us until 12:30 on October 3. We returned to 7800 meters for our seventh bivouac. We settled on reaching the middle summit since the main summit is only 30 meters higher and at some distance. On October 4 we descended first along the Polish route and then by the great couloir between our route and the Polish one. From 7800 to 5900 meters we descended on 80-meter rappels, almost always anchored by a single point.

Enric Lucas, Unió Excusionista de Catalunya