Climbing History
The first attempt on Kawakarpo was made in 1987 by a party from the Joetsu Alpine Club of Japan.
In the winter of 1990–91 a group from the Academic Alpine Club of Kyoto University attempted the peak in conjunction with a Chinese group. Their activity caused heavy protests from the local Tibetan community due to the mountain's cultural and religious significance. On 3 January 1991, a nighttime avalanche killed all seventeen members of the expedition, in one of the most deadly mountaineering accidents in history. The Kyoto club returned in 1996 to make another unsuccessful attempt.
American expeditions, led by Nicholas Clinch, visited the range in 1988, 1989, 1992, and 1993, attempting other major peaks, but were unsuccessful.
In 2001, local government passed laws banning all future climbing attempts on cultural and religious grounds. As of 2010, none of the significant peaks of the range have been successfully climbed.
Read more about this topic: Kawagarbo
Famous quotes containing the words climbing and/or history:
“We seldom break a leg as long as we are climbing wearily upwards in our lives, instead we do it when we start going easy on ourselves and choosing the comfortable paths.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)