© Geoff Beatty
Catherine Moorhead, Doug Scott’s Biographer, writes about Pete, Joe and Doug on Kangchenjunga May 1979.
‘It was the best walk-in ever,’ opined Doug Scott. After Everest in 1975, Doug and Pete Boardman had settled on an Alpine-style ascent of Kangchenjunga (8586m), the ‘Five Treasuries of the Snows’. They invited Joe Tasker – none better after Pete and Joe’s ground-breaking ascent of Changabang’s West Wall in 1976; all three then invited the boisterous, volatile Georges Bettembourg. Ang Phurba bought theirsupplies in Kathmandu. Forty-eight porters were engaged and after a long jeep ride to Dharan, the long walk-in began.
Along the way, three big, highly literate egos needled each other about their choices of reading, particularly Doug’s selection of Carlos Castaneda. They continued to argue up to their highest snow-hole at around 8000m.
Georges’s big moment came when bouldering. He playfully pushed at Pete on top of a large boulder; Pete heard a crunch of broken ankle bone, his walk-in thereafter consisting mostly of being carted in a wicker basket by locals. Still, no shortage of magic mushrooms for pain relief…
Base Camp at Pangpema – at the junction of five large glaciers - was set up in early April. They were the first Westerners to camp there for fifty years.
With help from Ang Phurba and Nyima, well-stocked camps were set up in the shadow of The Twins (Gimmigela I & II, 7350m). They fixed ropes up the Kangchenjunga Glacier’s headwall, described by Joe as ‘Alpine TD, but somehow more than that’. Thanks to falling rocks, Pete injured his hand. Screaming winds met them at the North Col. Joe was not acclimatizing well and dropped back to Base Camp. The others forged on up the North Ridge, often unroped – they had had to borrow rope from a Czech expedition - to a snow-hole at about 7470m. Next day, they managed to reach a ledge at 7900m, where they pitched a tent. One of the worst storms in their experience blew up. The tent shifted towards the 2000m drop to the Zemu Glacier. A desperate night ensued. All three realized they had come close to destruction; they retreated to Base Camp.
A recovery enhanced by egg and chips encouraged all four to make a second attempt. The North Ridge route was laboriously retraced up to a couple of snowholes just on the 8000m contour. A high-altitude row then ensued but quickly blew over.
Thwarted again by violent winds, the party descended to their big snow-hole at around 7470m. Bettembourg believed himself to be played out and descended. The weather turned: on a starlit night, Pete, Joe and Doug reascended to 7900m and with only spare mitts, some fruit sweets, a bottle of water each and their cameras, set out for the summit.
Doug was wearing his old leather boots; high up, he had to take them off and thrust his feet inside Joe’s down suit to avoid frostbite. By late afternoon, they reached the point 100m below the summit where the ridges merged. They laboriously bypassed Joe Brown’s famous climb on the rock band just below the summit. At 5.30pm, they reached the top – although they remained 3m off it, out of respect for local religious sensibilities.
The descent to the upper snowhole was painfully slow: in the gloom, Doug stumbled twice and once tumbled down a small snow-covered outcrop. Pete’s sharper eyesight kept them on track.
The weather held. They lurched down the North Ridge, from brew to brew. Back at Pangpema, much rejoicing and fresh food. All that remained was a speedy return to home and the complications of domestic relationships…
This was one of the finest climbs in mountaineering history. It set new standards for ‘Alpine-style’ ascents. It is described in greater detail, with all of Doug’s other major climbs, in my biography of him, ‘Mountain Guru’, published last October by Birlinn and available from them or Amazon or Waterstones.
Catherine Moorehead