Siguang Ri. We had as members I. Sato, S. Fukuyama, Hideo Takebe, Nobuo Yagi, Dr. H. Tanaka, Hideo Oka, Y. Nishizawa (f), H. Ogura, Takashi Okuda, M. Yagura (f), M. Komatsu, K. Shimoda, Tatsuya Ogata, Takashi Miki and me as leader. Siguang Ri lies 5.5 kilometers northeast of Cho Oyu. We left Lhasa, which was under martial law, on March 8 and approached via the Gyabrag Glacier. Our caravan was stopped by snow before we got to Base Camp and we had to use 50 yaks to go on. On March 24, we placed Base Camp at 5480 meters on the moraine of the Gyabrag Glacier and on the 27th, Advance Base at 5800 meters at the junction of the Siguang Ri and Palung Glaciers. On April 3, Camp I was established at the beginning of the route at 6100 meters. There were two steep pitches to reach the crest of the west ridge, nine more pitches to a 6600-meter dome and four more pitches with fixed rope before we could pitch Camp II at 6800 meters on April 9. It took four more days to fix eight pitches to the junction peak (7010 meters) with the southwest ridge. After two unsuccessful tries on April 19 and 20, on April 21 Okuda and Miki set the first footprints on the top (7308 meters, 23,977 feet). The next day, Takabe, Yagi, Oka and Ogata also made the summit. The most difficult parts were a 200-meter-long knife-edge at 7000 meters and the rocks just below the summit. A full report in Japanese and a photograph appear in Iwa To Yuki N° 135, page 28.

Koichiro Hirotani, Osaka University Alpine Club