The search has been called off for the remaining missing American climber who disappeared below E Gongga (Mt Edgar, 6,618m) in the Minya Konka Group of Sichuan's Daxue Shan.
Since our report on the 7th June, the following information has emerged. On the 5th June, Li Zong Li and Guo Jie from the Sichuan Mountaineering Association discovered a body at c4,000m on the route between base camp and advanced base. Two days later Ci Luo and Li Fu Qing, climbers from the Chinese Mountaineering Association, Beijing, discovered a second body some 300m distant.
The Chinese were able positively to identify the first body as that of 35-year-old Jonny Copp and the second as 24-year-old Wade Johnson. There was no sign of Micah Dash, though rescue workers later found some of his gear in the vicinity.
In the meantime, four experienced American mountaineers, Eric DeCaria, Nick Martino, Steve Su and Pete Takeda, who are close friends of the three climbers, had been busy arranging flights and obtaining visas in order to assist with the search. On the 11th June they were able to help the Chinese removed both bodies from avalanche debris in a wide couloir leading towards the victims' target, the magnificent, virgin, South East Face of Edgar (seen in the accompanying photo).
The search for Dash, who is presumed to have died in the same incident, has now been abandoned for the season: after a week's work the rescue team concluded that continuing to search the vast area of debris, which was still frequently affected by rockfall and avalanche, was simply too dangerous and unlikely to prove fruitful.
The South East Face of Edgar was the original target for the two Russians,Mikhail Mikhailov and Alexander Ruchkin, but two weeks of bad weather prevented them even seeing the face.They were eventually forced onto another objective, which they felt they could complete in a rather shorter weather window.
The impressive South East Face of Edgar has been brought to the attention of climbers in recent times by the widely published photographs of Japanese explorer, Tamotsu 'Tom' Nakamura.
The mountain was reconnoitred by the British military expedition that tried Jiazi in 1981, and then attempted the following year by Stuart Hepburn's British team. Expedition members made attempts on both the West and South faces, before bad weather and poor snow conditions shut them down.
In 1996, '98 and 2000, the highest peak in the range, Minya Konka (aka Gongga Shan, 7,556m), was attempted by a Korean team from Mokpo University Alpine Club. Though unsuccessful on each occasion, they were attracted by the nearby virgin Edgar, and returned in 2001.
Led by Kim Jae-myung, the expedition established three camps on a predominately snow/ice spur on the West Face. From the top camp at 5,900m, the summit party was able to cross a foresummit to reach the corniced main top. This is the only ascent of the peak to date, though this area of the Daxue Shan, which has already received three foreign expeditions this year, is certain to become more popular in the future.
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