Avancerad bestigning i Tibet

Nyheter ifrån Tibet...
"On 27th September 2004, the four Mammut Pro Team climbers Stephan Siegrist, Denis Burdet, Thomas Senf and Ralph Weber reached the summit of 6904m Thalay Sagar

At the beginning of September 2004 the four experienced swiss climbers took off for a new adventure in the northern indian Himalaya: Their goal was to conquer the north-east ridge of Thalay Sagar for the first time ever.

Starting point of the expedition was the village Gangotri, which the mountaineers reached after a 2-day bus ride from Delhi. The sacred village lays on an altitude of 3100m in the Garwhal Himalaya, northern India. Thanks to good weather conditions the athletes reached Camp ABC, Camp 1 and an altitude of 5800m within the first 8 days . Weather changes and snow forced them to take a two-day break. A few clear days were announced from Meteo Suisse as of September 13th. They advanced in teams of two. The first pillar was conquered from all four climbers together - and at the same day they reached the bottom of the "Purgatory Pillar". After a few days of bad weather the Mammut Pro Team climbers established camp 2 on 6350m altitude. The first fix ropes  were attached on the second pillar. The very steep pillar did not show any cracks, which made climbing strenous and difficult. With artif-climbing Ralph, Thomas, Denis and Stephan advanced only very slowly but steady. Over 60cms of fresh snow on 5400m were a frustrating discovery for the mountaineers and because of acute avalanche danger the climbers had to stop advancing. But 3 days later, on September 26th 2004, they reached the highest point again and attached the fix ropes to the pillar.

At 5am of the next day they started from Camp 2 to their final ascent to the summit. 150m steep and brittle climbing meters lay ahead of them (the famous "black band"). Relieved and happy Stephan, Thomas, Denis and Palph reached the summit of Thalay Sagar at 1pm.