Kinichi Yamamori

DATA FILE OF THE HIMALAYAN ASSOCIATION OF JAPANNotable Japanese Climbing Activities 2000 in Himalayas

CHINA – TIBET & XINJIANG
123 climbers of 21 parties visited 15 peaks in 2000. It is noted that in the last
decade more than 35 % of the expeditions from Japan to the greater range of theHimalayas have concentrated to the Chinese territory.
Qomolangma (8848m) - Tibet
31 climbers of 4 parties challenged North Ridge and 13 climbers reached thesummit in succession for three days on May 17, 18 and 19. Toshio Yamamoto brokea record of the oldest aged summiter. He established a new record of 63 years and312 days old.
Qogir (8611m) - Xinjiang
4 members headed by Shoji Sakamoto (40) attempted North Ridge, but they wereforced to resign at 7600m due to heavy snowfall.
Cho Oyu (8201m) - Tibet
13 members led by Takashi Koizumi (64) followed the normal climbing route and 9members reached the summit on May 12, 14 and 16. One of the summiters, Tsuneo
Hirata was 65 years and 100 days old.
Ningqin Kangsha (Noijin(Noijin Kangsang 7206m) - Tibet
Tadakiyo Sakahara (56) made the first ascent of East Ridge in solo climb andalpine style. He set up BC at Anyang Pu in the eastern side on the 1st of August.
On the 3rd an advance camp was set up in the northern side of East Ridge. He
began an assault on the 7th and camped in the saddle of P-3( 5754m) on East Ridgeon the same day, and on the following day he camped on the top of P-2(6347m) ofEast Ridge. At 11:57 on the 9th he stood on the summit after 5 hours climbing infog and thunder. On the way back he had a narrow escape from a hidden crevasse
into which he had fallen down and could return to the saddle of P-3. On the next
day he came back to the advance camp where a liaison officer was waiting.

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Kula Kangri I (7538m) - Tibet
4 members of the Himalayan Association of Japan (HAJ) led Kinichi Yamamori (56)entered to the northern side with a view to open a new route of the unclimbed
North Ridge in an alpine style. Hiroshi Iwasaki and other 2 members except for K.
Yamamori tackled with the new line and got to an altitude of 6750m. However adanger of avalanches did allow them no further push beyond that point.
Kongur Tiubie (7530m) - Xinjiang
14 members of Tochigi Prefecture led by Yoshibumi Ishizawa (48) attempted an
ascent from the southern side. However, they gave up at the 6880m because of ashortage of time.
Thala Ri (6777m) - Tibet
K. Yamamori and other 5 members of HAJ visited the western side of the mountain.
After a reconnaissance they moved to the north as the glacier conditions wereworse in the western side. Ayumi Nozawai (35) and Yasuo Ota (47) first climbed
Zhemazhenyong (6480m)
Qong Muztag (6962m) - Xinjiang
The Waseda University Alpine Club of Tokyo unveiled this least known mountainin the remote Kunlun and made the first ascent. The details are reported in theforegoing chapter.
Kashitashi (6691) - Xinjiang
13 members of Nagano Prefecture led by Toshiyuki Izawa (62) headed toward anuntrodden mountain in Kunlun that locates to the south-east-south of Yutian.
Although some of the party reached 6405m on August 15, they were forced toretreat from that point because a shortage of time. They will come back again in
the fall of 2001.
Unnamed Peak (6540m) - Xinjiang
13 members of Kyoto led by Osamu Takahashi visited an unnamed peak of Kunlunin the south of Yecheng, of which an elevation above sea level is laid down as
6510m in Russian Topographical Map. 4 members of Shojiro Tanaka (59), Kiyoshi
Nakamura (67), Seitaro Kamei and Kyuzo Kawai succeeded in the first ascent of
the said peak on August 13.

2NEPAL112 climbers of 20 parties visited 16 peaks.
Baruntse (7129m)
4 members of Kyoto led by Masaki Hayashi (37) entered to BC site having crossed
Shipton La and all the members reached the top via South Ridge on October 17. On
their return caravan they crossed Mela La from West Col.
Ganesh II (7111m)
6 members of Shinshu University (Nagano Pref.) led by Hideki Yoshida (46)entered to Yara Khola in the western side via Buri Gandaki on April 9 andestablished BC at 4200m. They targeted Southeast Ridge as a route to be taken.
They negotiated difficult 3 pitches of Class VI A1 to breakthrough a rock wall belt
at 6600m of the south face of Peak VI (6908m). After overcoming the rock wall belt
they set up C3 (6700m) in snow plateau. They traced the ridge sometimes
traversing deep snow slope to by-pass rock spurs standing on the ridge. Hardsnowplowing work exhausted them. They could reach the saddle between Peak IIand Peak VI, but there remained no energy to forward. On April 21 Osamu Tanabe(39) and Yasuhiro Hanatani (23) made the second ascent of Peak VI.
Nalakankar (6062m)
12 members of the Osaka Alpine Club led by Tamotsu Ohnishi (58) visited
Nalakankar mountain massif in West Nepal, which is adjacent to the Nepal-Chinaborder. One member and a sherpa made the first ascent of the main peak.

PAKISTAN
51 climbers of 10 parties visited 8 peaks.
K 2 (8611m)
The world-reputed climber, Yasushi Yamanoi paired up with Wojciech Kurtyka
aiming at the first ascent of East Face. However their plan was abandoned as thewall conditions were worst. Y. Yamanoi turned to South-east-south Rib and climbed
it in solo and no oxygen on July 30.
Broad Peak (8051)
10 members of Tokyo headed by Kazuyoshi Kondo (58) followed a normal route. In3bad weather 2 members reached summit on August 26 and the other 2 members onAugust 30 as well. Hideji Nazuka (45) of the 3 members party from Gunma
Prefecture had also stood on the top on July 29.
Spantik (7027m)
6 members of HAJ led by Hiroshi Iwasaki entered to Chogo Lungma Glacier and all
the members reached the summit via Southeast Ridge on August 14 to 15.

OTHER AREAS
38 climbers of 5 parties went to Indian Himalayas and 5 climbers of 3 parties
climbed the mountains of Tian Shan Range.
-In memoriamOn August 7, 2000 Tateshi Sudo (50) of Kyoto Karakorum Club passed away at
4620m on Southwest Spur of Rakaposhi (7788m) in Pakistan. His head was
directly hit by a falling stone. T. Sudo insisted in and practiced, by himself, analpine style climb in Himalayas. His philosophy in this regard gave an influence tomany climbers. He made the first ascent of North Ridge of Kongur (7719m) in 1989.
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