Asia, Nepal, Pumori Post-Monsoon Ascents and Attempt

Publication Year: 1990.

Pumori Post-Monsoon Ascents and Attempt. Many climbers reached the summit of Pumori (7161 meters, 23,494 feet) in the post-monsoon period. All ascended the normal southeast face and ridge route. On September 18, Italian Marino Giacometti, leader, Oswald Santin and Giampietro Verza got to the top. West Germans Sigi Hupfauer and his wife Gaby made the ascent on October 12. A large international expedition led by South Tyrolean Josef Holzer put 14 climbers onto the summit: Swiss Heinz Bosshard, Austrian Bruno Gruber, Germans Helmut Buntrock, Fräulein Ottilie Dörrich, Horst Gimbel, Wolfgang Pauer and Horst- Wemer Riches on October 13; Austrians Gottfried Baier, Christian Haas, Frau Helga Heisler and Pemba Tharke Sherpa on October 15; and Germans Rolf Haas, Kurt Wildensinn and Ang Dawa Sherpa on October 15. Members of a four-person French group led by François Duthil joined with the previous party. On October 13, Etienne Bertrand, Michel Roy and Lhakpa Nuru Sherpa summited, followed on the 15th by Mlle Hélène Hardy. On October 16, Americans Randal Harrington, Evan Kaplan and Briton Callum MacKay got to the top. Canadian Jan Neuspiel, leader of a Canadian-Irish expedition, reached the summit solo. Michel Richard’s Swiss- French expedition reached only 6400 meters on November 1.

Elizabeth Hawley