This has been achieved once, by a Japanese team back in 1993.
Arriving at Base Camp on 13 November 1993, the Japanese team set about reaching the summit of Everest via the treacherous Southwest Face. Porters and yaks had lugged 13 tons of equipment to Base camp to support 50 people. The team was composed of:
- 7 Japanese climbers
- 2 Japanese support staff at Base Camp
- 28 high altitude Sherpas
- 2 head Sherpas (1 BC, 1 C2)
- 3 cooks (2 BC, 1 C2)
- 5 kitchen boys at BC
- 3 mail runners
A team of Sherpas helped lay a route through the Icefall, deploying 50 ladders and 2,000m of rope. They then carried equipment, supplies and oxygen tanks up to the Cwm Valley. As the Japanese and Sherpas climbed higher, they established two camps up on the Face. They followed the Bonnington Route (as pioneered by Chris Bonnington’s UK team in 1975).
The highest Japanese camp (Camp 4) was pitched at 8,350m on December 13, one month after their arrival at Base Camp. The team was able to make such quick progress as they had pre-acclimatised on Cho Oyu and Pokalde, and they also knew the route, having failed on a previous attempt in the winter of 1991.
Photo: The steep Southwest Face of Everest (photo credit: R Devany)
Ten Sherpas carried necessary equipment up to Camp 4. Temperatures as low as -36C were recorded at that camp. The Sherpas then descended, fearing the biting cold and extreme risk of a fall. From there, the Japanese fixed 24 x 50m fixed rope to the South Summit at 8,750m. It was in that section that the climbers had to overcome the most technical climbing pitches. Above that point, they re-used old rope from previous expeditions along the Kangshung Ridge to the summit.
Ordinarily, winter winds on Everest are calamitous. But surprisingly, the team experienced relatively benign winds and almost no snowfall on the Face in mid-December. In the team notes they wrote:
… we had good weather on the face almost every day, which is convex and not exposed to stronger winds of West Ridge, N Ridge and SE Ridge. In winter, face is very easy after route making, although summit parties had strong winds above South Summit.
By “very easy,” I suspect that could be translated for most of us as meaning “barely survivable.”
Photo: The 1975 Bonnington Route up the Southwest Face, which the Japanese followed (diagram credit: Thincat via Wikimedia Commons).
While climbing, the team used 65 oxygen bottles, switching them on at 7,600m. Six of the Japanese (aged 26 – 45) reached the summit, in three two-man teams on Dec 18, 20, and 22. The men who reached the top were:
- Fumiaki Goto and Hideji Nazuka
- Shinsuki Ezuka and Osamu Tanabe
- Ryushi Hoshino and Yoshio Ogata
They observed:
… we could not climb Everest in winter without oxygen because of cold; would lose all fingers and toes.
Their achievement has never been repeated.