Saturday 13th May 2000 - Kangchenjunga Summit
John Doyle's team left Camp 4 this morning at 0200 whilst at Base Camp the expedition leader kept a very cold vigil by the radio. Pema, the Sirdar was burning juniper on the chorten (altar) and was chanting prayers to bring good luck to the summit team. The chanting woke Ian Venables who got up and joined the expedition leader. The day had dawned crystal clear, very cold and with virtually no wind - ideal summit day conditions. However, there was still a great deal of deep soft snow on the mountain which would make the going very tough for anyone on the mountain. With the exception of Alan Hinkes, we were the only expedition on the mountain as the remainder had retreated in the face of the snow conditions and were intent on fixing the route from Camp 4 to the summit, starting tomorrow.
Andy Hughes reported in at 0600 that he was about to move up to Camp 3 and that he could see John's team making good progress and that they were about halfway up the "Gangway". At 0637 John, Ady Cole, Nima Dhorje and Pemba Norbu became visible from Base Camp and the rest of the team gathered to watch their slow but remorseless upward progress. All of the other expeditions also became aware that there was a summit bid on and the Base Camp area was soon alive with people watching the progress of our four climbers and the Koreans rushed out their camera crew who recorded the ascent. The other teams also rushed climbers back up the hill a day earlier than planned to take advantage of the track we were putting in. Streams of tiny figures appeared with big loads on their backs heading back up to Camp 1.
By 1000 the four had reached the top of the "Gangway" and turned right towards the summit. A little while later they radioed Base Camp to report that they had reached an altitude of 8250 metres and had been wading through waist deep snow for most of the way and that there was a lot more to come. They very tired and were about to start descending back down the mountain. However, after a couple of minutes they had a rethink and decided to give it another final push and off they went again.
By 1200 they had made excellent progress and were on the summit slopes and at 1403 we received the call we had been waiting for from John Doyle "Base Camp this is Kangchenjunga Summit". The Indians and Koreans were whooping with delight and the Swiss radioed to give us their congratulations. Not to be left out Andy Hughes called up from Camp 3. The whole mountain seemed to be alive with people jumping for joy. Being British we celebrated with a cup of tea.
This is the first ascent of the mountain this year and the first since this time last year. We are the first British expedition to summit on Kangchenjunga via the South West Face since the first ascent on 24th May 1955 by George Band and Joe Brown. The summit was achieved without oxygen and without fixed ropes from the Gangway. John and Ady are the first British Servicemen to climb Kangchenjunga and (we think) are the 10th and 11th Britons to summit on the mountain by any route.
Ady replaced the incapacitated Dave Bunting on the first summit team and may be the first ascentionist of Kangchenjunga who won his place because he correctly guessed which hand a 'midget gem' was in.
John and Co are now all safely down at Camp 4 and having a well earned rest stop after a gruelling 20 hour day.
Tomorrow Andy Hughes, Colin Scott and Dave Pearce will move up to Camp 4 to try and follow in their footsteps whilst Dan Carroll, Ian Venables, James Raitt, Larry Foden, Roddy McArthur and Aleck Burrell move up to Camp 1 for a summit bid on Wednesday / Thursday.
Today's pictures show our 4 Sherpas (again). Nima Dhorje and Pemba Norbu are in the centre; and the second picture shows the mountain from the Great Shelf with the Gangway leading up to the summit ridge.
