Shivling Ascent and Tragedy. Six Japanese climbers led by Koichi Minami all reached the summit of Shivling by the north ridge. They established Base Camp on September 12 at Tapovan. On October 9 Katsuhiko Takeuchi, Atsushi Yokoyama and Hiroshi Hanyu got to the top, followed on October 10 by Minami, Shinji Kamegome and Mikiko Katayama. During the descent on the 10th Takeuchi was hit by a falling rock in the abdomen and died a few hours later at Camp II at 5600 meters.