Asia, Tibet, Mount Everest Winter Attempt, 1987-1988

Publication Year: 1989.

Mount Everest Winter Attempt, 1987-1988. Our expedition consisted of Masayoshi Utsumi, Kiyotaka Hoshino, my wife Masami Hasegawa and me. As reported in AAJ, 1988 on page 272, we were prevented from getting to the mountain earlier by the big snowstorm in October. We were given permission to continue during the winter. The route we attempted was a new one, which began east of the North Col. We climbed the northeast couloir and would have joined the northeast ridge below the northeast shoulder at about 7800 meters. We established Advance Base (Camp II) at 6450 meters on November 24, 1987. From there we climbed to 7000, 7200, 7450 and 7500 meters on December 11, 19, 24 and 27, 1987 respectively. We established Camp III at 7350 meters on January 20 and occupied it on February 7. On February 9, we climbed to 7700 meters. We removed Advance Base on February 23 and Base Camp on the 26th. During the mountaineering activity, the wind blew steadily from 150 to 200 kph. The tent at Camp III was damaged by falling rock and ice many times, since there was no safe tent site in the couloir.

Tsuneo Hasegawa, Japanese Alpine Club