The 1998 International Annapurna
I South Face Expedition has been granted permission
by His Majesty's Government, Kingdom of Nepal,
to attempt the South Face of 8091-meter high
Annapurna I during the autumn of 1998.
Annapurna is significant in that
it was the first 8000-meter peak ever climbed.
The 1950 first ascent via the North Face was
immortalized in Maurice Herzog's book "Annapurna",
the sine qua non of mountaineering literature.
It took 20 years for another team to succeed
on the mountain. The 1970 ascent of the South
Face of Annapurna by Chris Bonington's team
was a landmark in the history of mountaineering.
This is a mountain that is among the most familiar
of mountains, yet one that is very rarely climbed.
The South Face of Annapurna is
one of the largest and steepest faces in the
world. The face is awesome in size and difficulty.
The South Face is 3000 feet higher than the
southwest face of Mt. Everest. To our knowledge
the only larger objective is the Diamir Face
of Nanga Parbat, which is much less technical,
having been soloed by Messner on its first ascent
in 1970. Due to appalling avalanche hazards,
fatality rates on Annapurna are nearly three
times greater than for expeditions to other
8000-meter peaks, including Mt. Everest and
K2. Annapurna claimed the lives of two women
during the 1978 American Women's Annapurna Expedition.
Anatoli Boukreev, whose participation in the
heroic rescues on Mt. Everest in May of 1996,
was documented in the popular books The Climb
and Into Thin Air, was tragically killed by
an avalanche on a satellite peak of Annapurna
last Christmas day. The South Face is relatively
free of the terrible avalanche hazards that
plague the standard routes on the North Face
of the mountain, despite the great difficulty;
the South Face is a logical route to the summit.
We are an American-Canadian team of non-professional,
but skilled climbers who have the goal of climbing
this 12,000-foot face by a new route. This new
route is a direct finish to the Bonington route,
through a 700 meter-high sheer rock face situated
at an altitude of more than 7,000-meters. It
is unprecedented for Americans to make a climb
of this magnitude. In this era of wealthy socialites
paying world famous climbers to guide them up
well trodden routes on renowned peaks, it is
a rare thing to see a group of highly motivated
amateurs attempt a new route on one of the highest
peaks on the planet.
