The First Winter Summit of Shishapangma

At a little over 8,000m Shishapangma is the World’s fourteenth highest mountain with its summit at 8,027m (26,335 ft). Located within Tibet, a semi-autonomous region of China, Shisha Pangma was the last of the 8,000m peaks to be climbed, partially due to difficulties of getting visas etc.

The mountain was first climbed in 1964 by the Chinese team led by Xu Jing. A successful calendar winter summit attempt was only achieved some forty years later in the winter in of 2004/05 by Piotr Morawski and Simone Moro who reached the summit on 14th January 2005, they were part of a team led by led Jan Szulc who used Cumulus (now Criterion) sleeping bags. This success came twelve months after the team had been forced to abandon their 2003/4 attempt at 7700m a mere 327m vertical meters short of the summit. On both occasions they climbed the extremely dangerous south face which famously claimed the lives of Alex Lowe and David Bridges in an avalanche in 1999. The location of their bodies was only found on the mountain some fifteen or so years later. or http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web16b/newswire-remembering-david-bridges-and-alex-lowe

As with many mountains in the region there are different names and meanings for Shishapangma one alternative name is Gosainthan which is roughly translated from Sanskrit as “place of the saint” or the “Abode of God”. In Chinese, the mountain is named Xixabangma which roughly translates as meaning “bad weather” or “severe climate”. In the Tibetan dialect, the traditional name of Shishapangma can mean “crest above the grassy plains” or “meat of dead animals and malty dregs.” This latter connotation of the name does have some meaning in local legend whereby after heavy snowfall, people had to survive on dead carcasses and the dregs of beer. Given the mountain’s location as the gatekeeper to the plains to its north or its beauty we prefer the more gentle meanings!