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Makalu – the first 60 years
Makalu 8,468m, the fifth highest mountain in the world is located
in the Mahalangur Himal southeast of Everest. Like so
many of its big neighbours it straddles the border with China, the Makalu Barun
National Park in which the peak is situated is one of the more remote areas of
Nepal making Makalu, one of the elite group of ‘eight-thousanders’, an isolated
peak which remained hidden from the eyes of explorers for many years.
Makalu with
its north western - south eastern ridges literally fall along the border line,
but, these ridges also include several other summits, the most notable of which
is that of Kangchungtse, or Makalu II 7,678m to the north-west of
the main summit. ‘Makalu’ is the
official spelling for the peak in Nepali, however, in China it is Makaru, and in Limbu, the local ethnic
language, Makalungma.
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| Limbu girl and house |
In 1954, William Siri led a ten-man expedition to Makalu, this was
not only the first expedition the Americans sent to the Himalaya, but it was
also the first international expedition to Makalu. The California Himalayan
Expedition as it was called was to attempt the fierce south eastern ridge, the
weather was not good that year and the expedition had to finally abandon its
attempt at 7,100m.
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| Lionel Terry |
It is a reflection of the times that Terray, in his book
‘Conquistadors of the Useless’ states that, while considering future
mountaineering objectives, ‘two
possibilities remained, either the fourth highest mountain in the world,
Lhotse, or the fifth, Makalu. The first, Lhotse, is no more than a southern outlier
of Everest, and three-quarters of the route had already been done [by the Swiss
and British]. The element of exploration would therefore largely be lacking.
Makalu, by contrast, was a magnificent isolated peak in the heart of a wild
region.’[1]
What a contrast to the thinking behind the expeditions of today and the
commercial situation on Everest.
The French settled for Makalu and requested permission from the
Nepalese government for their 1954 expedition, however, this prompted a
response to the effect that the American expedition had already been granted a
permit for that year. The French, on reflection, felt that the American
expedition would have little success on their chosen route as it posed several
technically difficult sections, and not without considerable danger, they would
wait until 1955[2].
In October 1954, the French sent a reconnaissance expedition to
the Makalu area during the course of which
they made the first ascents of the subsidiary summit Kangchungtse with
the leading pair of climbers of Jean
Franco, Lionel Terray, being supported by Gyaltsen
Norbu and Pa Norbu, a few days later they then climbed Chomo Lonzo, this time
Jean Couzy accompanied Terry.[3]
The French were well prepared in terms of their improved equipment and level of
skill. At the height of the monsoon the long approach march presented them with
many obstacles and many detours had to be undertaken to enable the safe
crossing of swollen rivers. After nearly a month they reached the site intended
for Base Camp which was established at the foot of the west face, their proposed
route was to follow a subsidiary ridge on the west face to join with north-north
west ridge and then onto Makalu’s north face. After several acclimatization
climbs the expedition team quickly established three camps to 21,000ft. Terray,
Franco and two sherpas reached summit of Makalu II. It was then decided to
climb Chomo Lonzo so as to get a better view, of the so far unseen, north face
of Makalu. With sufficient knowledge of the complete route the expedition
returned to France.
In 1955, armed with the modified tried and tested equipment and
the details of their intended route the
expedition made rapid progress and with
surprisingly little difficulty reached the summit of Makalu on 15th
May with Terray and Jean Couzy were the lead climbers, Franco, G. Magnone and
Gyaltsen Norbu summitted the next day, followed by Bouvier, S. Coupe, Leroux
and A. Vialatte. The expedition accomplished its objectives so efficiently that
it led Terray to write ‘Victory must be
bought, the price of suffering and effort, and without the clemency of the
weather combined with the progress of technique had sold us this one too
cheaply. I had got their not only without having to fight but almost without
fatigue.’[4]
After the expedition Jean Franco prophetically announced that ‘As the Himalaya are yielding up their last
eight-thousanders, the Golden Age will only last a few more years. Ascents of
lesser known summits by routes of extreme difficulty, however, hazardous will
begin.’[5]
The French team climbed Makalu by the north face and northeast
ridge, via the saddle between Makalu and Kangchungtse (the Makalu-La),
establishing what is now considered to be the standard route.[6]
As I said earlier Makalu is in a very remote region of Nepal and
so it has received relatively little attention compared to those other more
accessible 8,000m peaks.
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| Aleš Kunaver |
In May 1970 the South-east
Ridge, the ridge previously attempted by the Americans in 1954, was climbed
by the Japanese pair Y. Ozaki and A. Tanaka. The following year the West
Pillar, a very technical route, was climbed by B. Mellet and Y. Seigneur from
France. The South Face was climbed in 1975 by Aleš Kunaver, a great friend of the NMA, thus becoming the first Slovenians to
summit an eight-thousand metre peak. This was the third ascent of an
eight-thousand metre peak by a huge Himalayan face, and the catalyst that
encouraged Aleš Kunaver to support the NMA in establishing
their Mountain Training Centre in Manang. Part of Franco’s prophecy in 1955 was becoming reality,
however, what Franco did not see was that ‘routes of extreme difficulty, however, hazardous will begin’ would
apply to the giant faces of the Himalaya, not only just on the lesser ones.
This new era with the new ethics and
techniques had taken hold and in 1980 the second ascent of the West Pillar was completed by John Roskelley who reached the
summit solo, Chris Kopczynski, James States and Kim Momb supported Roskelley,
they had no Sherpa support or bottled oxygen.[7]
The next ascent went to the next level. In October 1981 the Polish climber Jerzy
Kukuczka reached the summit of Makalu via a new route up the north-western side
and north crest, climbing solo, alpine style and without supplementary oxygen.
The Poles were back on Makalu the following year when in October Andrzej Czok
ascended via West face up to 8,000m before linking into the north-western ridge
for the summit. When their first attempt failed Janusz Skorek and Andrzej
Machnik descended while Czok summated alone.
Speed records were now being sought and in 1988 Marc
Batard (France) climbed to the summit in one day, after camps were set up, via
the West Buttress on April 27.[8]
Then in ’89 Pierre Beghin soloed a new direct start to the Yugoslav South Face
route.[9]
After seven failed attempts on the West Face between 1977 and 1996, a Russian
expedition led by Sergey Efimov arrived at Makalu Base Camp and Alexei Bolotov,
Yuri Ermachek, Dmitri Pavlenko, Igor Bugachevski and Nikolai Jiline reached the
summit. This ascent won the 1997 Piolet d'Or, in Chamonix, France.
In January 2006 Jean-Christophe Lafaille (France) disappeared on Makalu while trying to make
the first winter ascent.[10]
However Simone Moro and Kazakh Denis Urubko succeed in this mission in February
2009[11]
and with this ascent all of the 8000m peaks had been climbed in winter.
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| Dave Morton - Climbing Makalu |
In 2010 a Ukrainian expedition linked together the
1975 Slovenian and the 1971 French route on the West Pillar at approximately
7,500m.Matt Parkes was on Makalu in 2010 attempting a
new route on the Southeast Ridge in extremely severe weather which ultimately
put an end to their efforts. Ron
Rutland’s (UK) expedition, was also on Makalu at the same time as Matt but stayed
a little longer and had a go for the summit in conditions that were far from
good. One member died on descent, another returned with severe frostbite and
another, Adele Pennington, one of Britain’s top female high altitude
mountaineers suffered damage to a lung which required removal of a rib in order
to operate on it.
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| Pennington followed the line marked in 2011 |
On the 30 May, 2011 Adele Pennington finally
reached the summit of Makalu along with Robert Anderson and James (?). A Polish team led by Artur Hajzer, summated Makalu on the 30th
September 2011 however, the weather was atrocious resulting in various members
of the team having forced bivouacs high on the mountain. Another expedition on
the mountain at that time was led by Marko Prezelj which included Steve House
and Rok Blagus, Luka Lindic, Boris Lorencic and Dr Scott Boughton.
In the spring of 2013 Azim Gheichisaz from
Iran reached the summit of Makalu without supplementary oxygen or sherpa
support.
On the 17th May 2014, South
African explorer Mike Horn and Swiss mountain guide/alpinist Fred Roux
reach the summit of Makalu without the use of additional oxygen or
high altitude porters. The two men took on their own rhythm during the
ascent, eventually separating and but continuing on their
own. Fred Roux reached the summit first at 10:30 local Nepalese
time, some hours before Mike, who arrived at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Also
a British tri-Service team attempted the difficult SE Ridge, unfortunately the
weather was not helpful and time restrictions forced them to retreat.
We are now well into the era of ‘commercial expeditions’.
Thank goodness we don’t see the stress placed on many other of the 8000m peaks
that we see on Everest and its locality. However, commercial expeditions are
being run on all the big peaks now and Makalu is no exception. There are
regularly groups reaching the summit of this mountain but there is little
activity in the way of expeditions exploring new, unclimbed and difficult
lines.
[7] John Roskelley, Stories Off The Wall.
The Mountaineers, Seattle 1993
[8] Marc Batard; Makalu West Buttress, One-Day
Solo Ascent, American Alpine Journal,
1989
[9] Pierre Beghin; Cold Sweat on Makalu, American Alpine Journal, 1990
[10] Jean-Christophe
Lafaille obituary; The Independent February
2006.
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