Expeditions • Xixabangma

Xixabangma (8030m) is one of the easiest on the fourteen 8000m peaks with ascents often ending at a lower summit. Its south side is a 2000 meter high steep mixed face. In 1994, Catherine Destivelle and Erik Decamp repeated the Loretan/Troillet/Kurtyka route as far as the col between the two main summits. The two carried less than 15 pounds between them in one pack - no sleeping bags, no ropes, no tent. Partway up the 2000m face, at about 7150m, a storm trapped them in a snow cave. It snowed ferociously for a day. The storm stopped, but snow-laden slopes were poised to avalanche below them. They decided to go up, hoping the weather and snow would stabilize while they were climbing. They reached the top of the route at the 7950 meter col between Shishapangma's central and main summits that evening.