FRENCH GOLDEN PEAK EXPEDITION LEADER EMMANUEL PELLISSIER
Multinational teams scale Golden Peak in Alpine Style
JUNE23-2000
By
Asem Mustafa Awan
ISLAMABAD
— French expedition returned to capital with a brimming faces putting
six members out of seven on the summit besides making the first French
ascent from the North side in Alpine Style.
The
Golden Peak which is also called Spantik having an altitude of 7026 metres
had the second successful ascent from the North.
Englishmen
Victor Saunders and Mick Fowler reached the summit in 1987 and the French
expedition made the summit with a a little variation on the English Route.
Twenty
five year old Frenchman Emmanuel Pellissier led the seven member team
having members representing Slovenia, Italy, Hungary and Russia.
The
team reached the summit in two groups the first group following the
English Route made the summit on June 15 at 3:00 pm while the other two
climber both Russians made the route on June 18 with a variation to the
left of the English Route.
Leader
Emmanuel Pellissier said,"
We form the first group and it took us five days in all with four going up
and one coming down to make the summit, the second group took 13 days as
they braved a storm while staying at the face making 12 bivouacs using
portaledge."
"It
feels great to make the
summit," he said adding," Our agency North Pakistan provided
excellent services and we will come to Pakistan in 2001 for Gasherbrum II
and it will be joint Pakistan French expedition Karim Imam Dad leading the
expedition."
He
said," We are also taking one of the Pakistani Javed Ali to France
for a mountaineering course as he will also be the member of the
expedition."
One
member Erik Svab (30) from Italy left the expedition early and was not in
the summit teams.
The
other climbers who made the summit are leader Emmanuel Pellissier
(French), Emmanuel Guy (28, French), Ozvrath Attila (44, Hungry) and Marko
Prezelj (34, Slovenia).
The
two Russian who made the summit on June 18 are Klenov Alexandar (38) and
Devi Mikhail (34).
CAPTION:
Members of the Spantik expedition. — Photo by the writer