Climbing History
The first attempts to climb Gauri Sankar were made in the 1950s and 1960s but weather, avalanches and difficult ice faces defeated all parties. From 1965 until 1979, the mountain was officially closed for climbing. When permission was finally granted in 1979, an American-Nepalese expedition finally managed to gain the top, via the West Face. This was a route of extreme technical difficulty. The permit from the Nepalese Ministry of Tourism stipulated that the summit could only be reached if an equal number of climbers from both nations were on the summit team. John Roskelley and Dorje Sherpa fulfilled that obligation.
In the same year, a British-Nepalese expedition climbed the long and difficult Southwest Ridge to the south summit (7010m). Though they did not make the long additional traverse to the main summit, their climb was a significant achievement in itself.
The Himalayan Index lists only two additional ascents of the main summit of Gauri Sankar. The second ascent was made in the spring of 1984 by Wyman Culbreth and Ang Kami Sherpa, via a new route on a ridge on the southwest face. The third ascent (and the first winter ascent), in January 1986, was by South Korean Choi Han-Jo and Ang Kami Sherpa.
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