Challenge - Never Go Near Him

No man will ever set foot on the north face of Jannu.

– A quote from the 1930s journal of English mountaineer Frank Smythe, summing up the intimidating reputation of Mount Kumbhakarna (Jannu)

That's the thing that pissed me off about these jokers today, all they were trying to do was get in Mountain magazine.

– Graeme Dingle shares a laugh with the group after a tough day on the north face of Jannu

Personalities tend to become a bit shattered at times. Even some of my greatest friends, we've almost come to blows on climbs because of being in a difficult situation and you start to lose control at times, if you lose control completely well...then you're really in trouble.

– Expedition leader Peter Farrell on the pressure mountaineering can have on even close friendships

The Himalayas have an enticement to most mountaineers, Jannu represents a challenge of altitude where your body is laboured to the extreme and in that situation you're testing your mental endurance to the extreme ... the big thing I fear with this expedition is the likelihood of a fatality.

– A member of the 1975 expedition, on the dangers Mount Kumbhakarna (Jannu) presents

I feel optimistic about climbing it, and I think technically its well within my capabilities and things are well within the capabilities of the team.

– Mountaineer Graeme Dingle expresses confidence about the expedition early on

I'll wind my neck out on a technically difficult thing where it depends on my skill but I won't wind my neck out on a thing that I can't control — an ice avalanche, that sort of thing.

– Graeme Dingle on the increasing danger of pressing ahead with a north face ascent

Jannu lies in eastern Nepal in the Kanchenjunga Himal along the Indian border. When asked what he thought about the mountain, Chomolungma (Everest) first ascensionist Tenzing Norgay replied, "That is not a mountain, it is a ferocious giant."

– Excerpt from Alpinist Magazine, Alpinist website, 4 April 2019

Frankly I don't think they've got a chance: the really big pushes in the Himalayas have been sort of 3000 feet over fairly easy ground.

– Graeme Dingle concludes that the summit attempt by Peter Farrell and Brian Pooley won't be successful

Everything that's been said about Januu I think is true. From a mountaineering point of view it's a bloody tough climb, there's no two ways about it. Every obstacle we came to we said 'this is it, okay this is the turning point once we've passed this difficult position, things must get easier'. But it's never happened with Jannu.

– 1975 expedition leader Peter Farrell

Underneath their politeness they're a very strong people and the sabs they see as being pretty lazy ... Ed Hillary's sudha, when you get him boozed has got some really interesting comments to make about New Zealand because he's been through New Zealand, and he says New Zealanders are lazy and they've got too much money and two cars and swimming pools and the Sherpas haven't go anything like this and they're hard workers. And he's right.

– Kiwi climber Jim Strang on differences between the lives of Sherpa people and a typical Kiwi family

I was 30-years-old on Jannu, but some pictures from that climb make me look older than I am now at 70.

– Graeme Dingle on the toll the 1975 Jannu expedition had on him, Alpinist Magazine, 21 February 2017

The next day, watching from advance base camp with binoculars, we saw Geoff and Jim traverse right and then climb straight up to camp at about 22,000. Their route avoided much of the danger posed by the dablam and skirted the difficulties of the more direct line. But winter had arrived on the face. Jet stream winds descended and hammered the upper slopes. Temperatures plummeted. Spindrift swept the upper slopes, like an endless cascade of white sand. To make matters worse, their stove didn't work. For the three days, their only drink was what they had in their water bottles.

– Graeme Dingle writes about the final leg of the 1975 Jannu summit attempt, Alpinist Magazine, 21 February 2017