The 1992 Annapurna Disaster

[Music] onap Perna is an imposing Peak located in the heart of the nepes Himalayas standing at a height of 8,091 M at its Summit on aera is the 10th highest mountain in the world and is one of the 14 8000ers Peaks exceeding a height of 8,000 M all of which I've featured in their own separate videos on the channel at least once I might add as my longtime viewers as well as many others watching this video are likely aware within the mountaineering Community Ana Perna has garnered a fearsome reputation throughout the decades as one of the most difficult if not the most difficult of the 8000ers to successfully Ascend due to the difficult and unrelentingly harsh climbing conditions encountered on its slopes on a Perna's Infamous reputation much like fellow 8000 K2 also stems from its high mortality rate particularly amongst the 8,000 meter Peaks as onera and K2 have traded the title of the most deadly of the 8000ers to attempt to ascend although anap Perna is frequently referenced as the clear winner between the two now the following should come as little surprise to Dedicated viewers of my other mountaineering content but I find it necessary to clarify that despite the asserts of a bunch of low effort clickbait top 10 lists on a Perna while it is certainly deadly is not the most deadly mountain in the world by any measurement as the Peak Sports a casualty to successful Summit ratio of 16% which means for every 100 clim that reached the summit successfully 16 Summit hopefuls will have perished in that time frame which is rather tame when compared to mount gonga a peak I detailed in another video a few weeks back which sports a successful Summit to casualty ratio of 120% meaning that for every 100 successful climbers that reach its Summit 120 climbers will have died in that same time frame and more climbers have died on its slopes that have reached its Summit however while anap Perna's actual lethality has perhaps grown to slightly exaggerated proportions the challenging climbing conditions on anap Perna slopes have largely lived up to the reputation they've garnered over the years and while an Ascent of Ana Perna is certainly not of the caliber of difficulty nor danger of many of the world's most difficult and dangerous Peaks that I've previous ly covered in other videos on the channel such as K1 Janu or lady finger Peak on a Perna's steep slopes have proven to be an alluring local for mountaineering's upper echelon to test their metal and Forge their legacies even more so than the infamous K2 as the southern face of anaero was a highly coveted first descent for decades before it was finally accomplished by ulish in 2011 in the fall climbing season of 1992 a five member French Expedition team consisting of team leader Pierre Bean a man named gy sharu a man named Christian shauvin a man named Kristoff deese and a man named Jean Kristoff lefal would make their way to the foot of Anna's sheer Southern face for their planned upcoming attempt M to become the first team to successfully Ascend the peak via the South face the Expedition team would establish their base camp at an elevation of 4,300 M on September 15th and would set to work further establishing their Advanced base camp 1,000 M higher up the mountain above its looming crass riddled Glacier at an elevation of 5,330 M which they would successfully accomplish 3 days later on September 18th however following the establishment of their Advanced base camp on September 18th the team would then prioritize acclimatizing to the High Altitude as they awaited a favorable weather window to attempt their Ascent as the team planned to attempt the rest of their Ascent from Advanced base camp onwards Alpine style viving overnight as needed on one of the many narrow Ledges that line their route by early October the team was set to finally make an Earnest bid for the summit as a forecasted weather window of a few days of good weather was predicted to finally arise over the next few days on October 4th the team would make their way up to an elevation of 6,200 M where they would opt to bivy for the night however as they slept a foul another system would engulf on AA and the men found themselves trapped in their bivvies for the next 2 Days by October 6th the weather had cleared up enough for the team to retreat from their bivy site back to their base camp to wait out this unexpected spell of bad weather the following morning on October 7th upon receiving an updated weather forecast that predicted the storm would clear in the near future the team would make their way back to their Advanced base camp in preparation for another push for the summit this weather forecast would indeed prove to be accurate as the storm would clear just mere hours after they had arrived at their Advanced base camp on the evening of October 7th this sudden shift in the weather would present new issues to the team as the group had been afforded little time to recuperate after their failed first push for the summit and most of the team's members were still exhausted from their previous efforts however as this stretch of good weather was only forecasted for the next few upcoming days the team were well aware that this might be their best and only opportunity to complete their Ambitions of reaching the summit successfully as the team had already spent nearly a month preparing for such a push after after the team deliberated on the issue for a while only two of the team's five climbers would opt to seize this afforded weather window to make their bids for the summit Expedition team leader Pierre bean and Jean Kristoff Le fall who would begin their Ascent of Ana Perna's South face on the morning of October 8th and the duo would reach their previous bivy site at an elevation of 6,200 M on the evening of October 8th however they would not bivy at this sight and instead would opt to push further up the face overnight due to concerns of being struck by large chunks of Falling Rock and ice with the latter occurring much more frequently during daylight hours the duo would continue to ascend a further 800 M over the course of the night and by the morning of October 9th they had reached an elevation of 7,000 m where they located another narrow ledge to bivy and get some much needed rest the following day on October 10th the duo awoke to find that the weather conditions had again begun to take a turn for the worse and as the climbers were still quite exhausted from their efforts on the e8th and 9th they would apprehensively opt to remain in place on October 10th although the pair weren't keen on remaining at this site for long as they were being frequently barraged by Falling debris from above which is a common occurrence on anap Perna's sheer Southern face on the morning of October 11th 1992 the two French climbers would emerge from their bivvies to find that the weather conditions had not cleared up much if at all however while these weather conditions were far from ideal for climbing the duo ascertained that they could climb in such conditions and thus the pair were faced with a difficult decision having reached 7,000 M already they could continue to make a push for the summit through the poor weather conditions and hope that they would clear up quickly like before or they could begin to descend back to base camp before the weather potentially worsened after deliberating for a while the duo decided that they tough out the frigid weather conditions and continue to make their push towards the summit all the while hoping that the weather conditions did not further worsen the two climbers made slow progress through what they had predicted would be the most technically difficult portion of their Ascent battling against the whipping winds and heavy snowfall that lashed against them as they ascended towards the summit after a day of Highly strenuous bone chilling climbing the duo would opt to bivvy at an elevation of 7400 M on the evening of October 11th as the two climbers awoke the following morning on October 12th the weather conditions had still not improved and so the pair would again deliberate whether they should continue their push for the summit despite it or throw in the towel on this attempt after discussing the matter for a while the duo decided that continuing their Summit push through the foul weather was not worth the risk and thus the two men would begin their descent back to base camp that morning however as the duo descended down the face at an elevation of approximately 7,100 M A Falling Rock From Above would sheer Pierre's rope and would strike both him and Jean Kristoff breaking Jean Kristoff's hand and subsequently sending Pierre plummeting 1500 M me down the southern face to his death below Jean Kristoff was now completely alone high on on aerus slopes in worsening weather conditions a truly nightmarish situation for even the most hardened of Mountaineers Jean Kristoff knew that his only hope of survival was to continue his descent despite the numerous risks however he would decide to bivy at an elevation of 7,000 M for the remainder of October 12th and throughout the entire 13th in order to recover his strength and possibly wait out the bad weather the following morning on October 14th John Kristoff would awake to find that the weather conditions had not improved whatsoever and thus he then opted to remain at the bivy site throughout the remaining daylight hours of the 14th however ever he had grown increasingly nervous about being struck by Falling Rock and ice from above which had barraged this Biffy site throughout his entire stay there and thus he would opt to continue to descend to the team's Advanced base camp during the nighttime setting off from the bivy site at 7,000 M on the evening of October 14th Sean Kristoff would arrive at the site of the team's Advanced base camp in the early morning hours of October 15th to find that his teammates had wisely decided to retreat back to base camp from Advanced base camp after they had split up and as a result of the heavy snowfall the team's Advanced base camp had been completely destroyed by an avalanche which meant that Jean Kristoff would be forced to continue to descend to base camp Jean Kristoff would slowly weave his way across the glacier from Advanced base camp throughout the morning of the 15th exhausted from his ordeal on the south face and as daylight began to fade he found himself still navigating down through the glacier however his slow rate of descent across the glacier had caught the attention of another Slovenian Expedition team who had been attempting their own route up the South face and this team would dispatch a party of climbers and sheruz from their expedition to search for Jean Kristoff using their flashlights to look for him and shouting back and forth to ascertain his position and they were able to successfully locate him on the glacier and subsequently assisted him back to their base camp on the evening of October 15th and he was evacuated by a helicopter to a nearby hospital for medical treatment the following day on October 16th [Music] in Wake of the incident a simple helicopter search operation was enacted by local officials on October 20th who scanned the face where Pierre had last been seen and where he could have likely Fallen however after scanning the mountain side they were unable to spot any trace of him during their reconnaissance efforts and thus the efforts to recover his remains from the mountain side were subsequently abandoned thank you all for watching [Music]