Finally, a team is willing to attempt a new route on an 8,000’er: Italian Gian Luca Cavalli and Peruvian-born Cesar Rosales of the Italian Alpine Club (CAI) of Biella will attempt to open a new partial line on Annapurna, up the Northwest Spur.
The team, which is already in Kathmandu, includes Donatella Barbera as expedition doctor. The three of them attempted K2 last year, and Cavalli and Rosales climbed Broad Peak.
Left to right, Rosales, Barbera, and Cavalli in Kathmandu on Sunday. Photo: Limix Project X Annapurna
Tragic previous attempt
The expedition hopes the new route will pay tribute to Biella climber Guido Machetto, who also attempted Annapurna’s Northwest Spur in 1973, alpinist Enrico Rosso told ExplorersWeb.
That ill-fated expedition of 11 members followed the original 1950 French route until Camp 2 and then started on new terrain up the Northwest Spur. Tragedy struck when an avalanche buried Camp 2 and two climbers who were there at the moment. The rest of the team, back in Base Camp, called the attempt off.
A Polish expedition led by Michal Kochanczyk finally climbed Annapurna’s Northwest Spur in the fall of 1996, according to the Gogna blog.
“Although they considered it more difficult than the West Ridge of Everest, the Poles went so far as to state that this route should be considered, for safety reasons, the true normal route to the summit,” the mountaineering site reported.
The Polish climbers followed the spur from bottom to top, including the so-called Cauliflower Ridge, which the French had already attempted in 1950. They reportedly encountered the greatest difficulties on a rocky outcrop above 7,400m, which took them four days to pass.
That expedition fixed 2,000m of ropes and pitched five camps. Andrzej Marciniak and Vladyslav Terzyul (Ukrainian) summited without oxygen on October 20, 1996, starting from Camp 5 at 7,100m.
The northwest side of Annapurna, as seen by the Italian 1973 expedition. Photo: Gogna blog
What will the Italians do?
The current Italian team intends to climb a variation of the Polish route. There are no details on their specific line, but the Italians will likely share Base Camp and the ropes up the normal route until Camp 2.
The expedition is outfitted by Seven Summit Treks, which already has 40 climbers on the mountain. Annapurna is typically the first 8,000’er that commercial teams climb in the spring. Sherpa climbers are fixing the ropes to Camp 3 today.
At some point, they will abandon the ropes and start up the Northwest Spur, located to the right of the normal route. The climbers will have to put their ice climbing skills to the test: Unless conditions change, the mountain is extremely dry and bare of snow this year.
This topo made by a Canadian expedition that attempted Nameless Peak to the right of Annapurna’s main summit in 1984, also marked the NW Spur that the Italians intend to climb. Topo: The Himalayan Journal
