Himalchuli. Our members were Toshikazu Sugai, Yasuhiro Takiguchi, Masayuki Saito, Hideaki Okamoto, Ms. Yuko Yoshida and I as leader. On August 30 we made Base Camp at 4900 meters. Camp I was established on September 9 on the first rock face at 5700 meters. We placed Camp II on September 15 on the steep, narrow snow ridge at 6200 meters. On September 27 we reached the southeast ridge and made Camp III at 6700 meters. The southeast face is made up of three rock faces divided by snow ridges with few campsites. There is a 4-kilometer-long deep-snow plateau between Camp III and the peak. This gave us much more pain than the route between Base Camp and Camp III. We all returned to Base Camp and set out again on October 6. The bad weather continued for about a week and pinned us down. The new snow gave us much trouble. At Camp III we lost a tent and equipment under the snow. After we made Camp IV at 7400 meters, we began the attack on October 16. At eleven A.M. Okamoto, porter Motilal Gurung and I reached the summit (7893 meters, 25,895 feet). After that, two big typhoons attacked us. Okamoto and I were forced to bivouac for two days. Takiguchi and Motilal had to bivouac for three days at 7600 meters without any food or drink.

Nobuyuki Takeda, Yamagata Climbing Craft, Japan