SWISS SISNE HIMAL EXPEDITION, 1980

RUEDI MEIER

ENCOURAGED BY the 'Foundation Louis and Marcel Kurz' established in Neuchatel in the year 1971 and in memory of these two famous mountaineers as well as to encourage the exploration of the Himalaya, the Neuchatel section of the Swiss Alpine Club had decided in the beginning of the year 1978 to organize an expedition in this enchanting range of mountains.

The preparation took a long time. First, the form of the expedition hud to be determined, thinking of material means and the available people, to form and to train the team, then the search for an objective in accordance with the dispositions of the Kurz Foundation, after that, the obtaining of the official authorization have taken more than a year. Lastly all the details had to be done, collecting information about the reigion chosen, studying the lists of equipment and food, estimating the budget.

Purpose and Object

Ascientific or mountaineering expedition ? Repetition of the ascent of well known mountain or the discovery of a region not well known or unknown ? What altitude ? What degree of difficulties? After having made inquiries with Himalayan experts and in accordance with the dispositions of the Kurz Foundation, the ideas of the Section Committee, the desires of the expedition members, the pecuniary circumstances, the following choice has been made; mountaineering expedition with scientific contributions of some of the members, the tentative first ascent of a not well-known summit below 7000 m, but not too easy either.

The realization of this choice was difficult. Very soon our ideal image conflicted with the administrative reality and political problems: authorized summits are generally well known, the unknown regions very often forbidden or have a too long access.

Finally, we obtained the authorization for the Sisne Himal, official altitude 6915 m but which is probably 6600 m situated in west Nepal in a still not well known region and not frequently visited.

The Development

In the beginning of February 1980, 500 kg of personal material and high-altitude food were sent to Kathmandu by airfreight. On 1 March 1980 three members left for Kathmandu in order to proceed with the last preparations: Daniel Chevallier (technical leader), Jean- Claude Chautems and Pierre Galland.

They sent ahead about two tons of material and food by truck towards Surkhet, driving through India because of the motor-fuel scarcity in Nepal. On 15 March the second team, consisting of Ruedi Meier (leader), Gilbert Villard (doctor), Andre Meillard and Andre Egger, flew from Geneva.

At Kathmandu they joined the first team and the Nepalese staff at Surkhet, after an adventurous trip by truck and plane. At Surkhet, situated at 700 m, the long approach march started on 23 March. The 85 loads of about 26 kg were distributed between 63 porters and 11 pack mules.

We crossed a first mountain ridge of about 1700 m following Katia Khola at 700 m in the collines, a region still marked by the influence of the hot winds coming from the Ganga plain. After two days we had difficulties with the porters: they refused to go on under conditions acceptable to us. Only 16 of them proved good and the others were dismissed. We needed two days to replace them. The Sirdar and most of all the liaison officer were making a lot of trouble. The march continued over the snow-covered Mabu Pass at 3300 m, which took 4 strenuous days. Another small mountain ridge and then we arrived in the Tila valley having a more distinctly alpine character, which we followed up to Jumla at 2300 m, country town with an aerodrome and a radio station. In Jumla we had to change the porters and this was the place through which we kept contact with the outside world.

Going through the very nice Chaudhabise valley we finally penetrated into the region of our choice and at the same time into the unknown.

According to John Tyson's sketch (the only one we can use) we have planned our base camp at 4800 m beyond a ridge of a mountain of about 5000 m. The details of the ridge being unknown to us and the snowline still being very low (about 3500 m), a recce party left before the rest of the team. Access to the mountain ridge was not very easy to find. It was too difficult for the porters, which obliged us to set up the base camp before reaching this ridge at 4050 m in the Chaudhabise valley. To reach the ridge, we had to do the last day's march in two trips with 30 porters, who had been equipped by us for the snow. The base camp was set up on 11 April 1980.

Next morning the first team left to set up the high camps. Then came the problem of setting up two more camps than expected and of replacing the local porters by a few porters for high altitudes.

Camp 1, which had been reached after the recce, was quickly consolidated. Camp 2 was to be near the place planned for the base camp in the Changda Khola valley, but we were surprised to find out that the depth of the valley is about 600 m lower than the sketch showed. Thus this camp was hardly 200 m higher than the base camp. However to get there we had to pass over a mountain ridge of 4960 m.

On the other hand it offered us water and wood for cooking, which allowed us to economize precious gas. In order to avoid a useless coming-and-going, this camp was equipped afterwards as advanced base camp and provisioned with bread, rice, potatoes and other food. Camp 1 thus became an intermediate storehouse only. Camp 3 was set up on 15 April at 5150 m not far from NW. ridge of Sisne.

The rest was less quick as we had to find the best route. The technical difficulties became important and we had to equip the route with fixed ropes. Camp 4, situated in a breach in the ridge at 5660 m, was ready on 23 April, whereas Camp 5 was ready on 29 April, on an ice- balcony at 6110 m, behind the rocky part. We had to fix a 1200 m fixed rope, the rock being very unstable and making the ridge too dangerous for the equipment and in case of bad weather. We had used practically all our material including the ropes and we were without anything for the end. The ridge was 400 m higher than the sketch showed and more difficult than the pictures suggested.

On 1 May, the team for the final attack ascended to Camp 5. Next day they equipped three rope lengths in order to pass the ice-wall dominating the camp. The ice was extremely hard, the slope very steep. We knew we had to move very quickly to reach the summit, as almost every day the weather was breaking up around 14.00 or 15.00 hrs and snow falling right down to the base camp almost every day in the late afternoon. The 3 May at last will be the great day: Daniel Chevallier and Pierre Galland reached, at 11.30 a.m., the summit of Sisne North at 6470 m as per Tyson's sketch which agreed approximately with our barometric measurements.

The official altitude of 6915 m is far too high: although relevant to the South summit which is about 150 m higher than the North summit.

We were anxious to examine by telescope the ridge connecting the two summits. It confirmed that the ridge is hardly possible as an access to South summit. It is so sharp that it would need an enormous quantity of material and time (just the two things not at our disposal). We left the South summit for the next expedition. It seems that it will be more accessible from the Jagdula basin, which does not mean that it will be easy.

The news of the success was transmitted by radio directly to the base camp and from there by messenger to Jumla and through the radio network of the police to the government in Kathmandu, who announced the news 4 days later. Although a second summit attack had been planned in case the first one was defeated, we started to pack up the camps even before the success was a fact. Thus on 6 May all were back at the Chaudhabise base camp. The porters arrived on 8 May and on 9 May we started the return march.

We brought back important photographic material and together with records on magnetic tape, we have the material for interesting conferences. A topographical sketch will complete Tyson's. Obviously 1 he season was not favourable to our botanist, nevertheless he was able to make some observations during the approach and above all on the way back. Moreover he has collected an enormous quantity of insects, in which several natural history museums are interested. The doctor has made observations concerning adaptation to altitude, mainly by rlcetro-cardiograms on all members of the team upto a height of 5150 m.

 

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