Mount Grosvenor

In the Spring of 2003, Neil NcAdie, Andy Cave, Simon Nadin and Mick Fowler travelled to Sichuan province, Western China, to attempt the first ascent of Mount Grosvenor in the Daxu Shan mountains. It was over 20 years since climbers had visited these mountains and the team planned to explore the steep N.W. face, aiming to make the first ascent in pure alpine style.

 
 


Neil McAdie posts the following report from the route.

NW Face/West Ridge of Mount Grosvenor, Western China "On a minimalist expedition with Mick Fowler and Andy Cave, we had our sights set on achieving summit success on Mt. Grosvenor an impressive unclimbed peak of 6356m in Sichuan province. Our route was a 600m twisting line of ice runnels with another 500m to the summit, through typical Alpine north wall terrain. Three hours of post-holing through knee deep snow gained the 'shrund at 11am under a sharp blue sky. Tooled up and ready for battle Simon led off through a convenient ramp in the 'shrund to gain the gully, running out the full 60m to a rock belay. After another four pitches the weather had started to turn - dark clouds rolled in to replace the crystal clear blue sky. Snow flakes started to fall and soon the first waves of spindrift enveloped us making communication difficult. Whooosh! Another and much heavier spindrift wave attacked our position as the light snow continued to fall. I belayed to an Abolokov to save as many screws as possible for the steeper ice above. The gully had narrowed and Simon began what looked like a testing pitch, more like a Point 5 type slot filled with excellent steep ice. Whooooosh! Another great dump of snow attacked us again but this time it was worse - channelled through the jaws of the restricting gully above. Visibility was reduced to inches and communication became impossible as wave after wave of spindrift swept in from the ridge above. With nowhere to hide we beat a retreat and abseiled down the face back to the relative safety of our high camp. Unlucky? Yes I think so, this is a great line to the summit of a great looking unclimbed peak. Maybe a different day or different team would see success."

 


Neil McAdie on the N.W. face
of Mt. Grosvenor


Simon Nadin on the North West

Andy and Mick tried the central couloir falling direct from the summit down the N.W. face, and turned back after 2 days climbing due to spindrift and overhanging, loose and badly protected ice free rock. "Even Mick Fowler said it was too loose!". Typical Fowler hard core bivi action was endured during the attempt and the face (and mountain) remains unclimbed.


Simon Nadin and Neil McAdie struggled to pitch their bivi tent in wild weather.


Neil McAdie at High Camp, Mt. Grosvenor.


Julie-Anne Clyma on the west ridge Mt Grosvenor

 Grosvenor climbed

Using information supplied from the Fowler/Cave/McAdie/Nadin team after their attempt in May 2003, Roger Payne and Julie-Anne Clyma travelled to the Daxue Shan range in Nov 2003 and made the first ascent of Mount Grosvenor by the NW Face and West ridge. The Payne/Clyma team found colder conditions at this time of year and experienced snowfall on every day of the trip. In common with the May '03 attempt they found that the NW face of the mountain developed strong winds, especially at night, even when other areas round the peak were still. After acclimatising they picked a line to the right of the McAdie/Nadin attempt on the far right side of the NW face and climbed 15 pitches, the last 3 in darkness, to each the col on the west ridge.
The climbing was on thin ice and mixed ground with much Scottish grade 4 and 5 with occasional grade 6 mixed steps, with poor anchors due to the bad rock quality and thin ice. Serious stuff! On reaching the ridge there was no obvious bivi site and they continued along the loose gendarmed ridge for several pitches before camping at 5850m in strong winds. A second bivi on the ridge at 6100 m was made before reaching the summit on the 3rd day at 6376m. Due to the poor protection on the climb and the damaged ropes they opted to descend the unknown East ridge of the Grosvenor to the Grosvenor / Jiazi col and then by the north face of the col to regain the glacier leading to base camp. Two more bivis and many raps from Abalakov threads were needed on the descent.


Julie-Anne Clyma wearing the Rab Latok suit on the summit of Mt Grosvenor

April 2003

A = attempt by Andy Cave and Mick Fowler

B = attempt by Neil McAdie and Simon Nadin

Nov 2003

C = successful attempt by Roger Payne and Julie-Anne Clyma

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RAB gear used by Neil McAdie and Simon Nadin:

Base layer:
Vapour-rise Trail Smock
Vapour-rise Trail Pants

Insulation:
Photon Smock
Neutrino Endurance Jacket

Shell:
Latok Jacket
Latok Pants

Sleeping Bag:
Quantum 800

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RAB gear used by Roger Payne and Julie-Anne Clyma

Julie-Anne used the new RAB Latok Suit as her outer shell on the climb, combined with the Neutrino Endurance Jacket for colder conditions and belays. Roger also used the Neutrino Endurance Jacket and both used Summit 800 sleeping bags.