The Himalaya by the Numbers: A Statistical Analysis - Himalayan ...

Gunfire on the Nangpa La
From The Seasonal Stories of Elizabeth Hawley – Summer-Autumn 2002
In autumn of 2002, a two-man American expedition planned to make the first ascent of Nangpa
Gosum I, which is in the Cho Oyu area, but they never got above base camp. Dave Morton and Jeff
Lamoureux unexpectedly encountered three soldiers from China who had come into Nepal via the
Nangpa La, a major pass between Nepal and Tibet.
The climbers had pitched their base camp at 5100m at the foot of the southeast face of their 7312m
objective, and then on the 20th of September went around to its west side intending to look for a
possible descent route via the north ridge. The Nangpa Gosum range is just south of the Tibet-Nepal
border, if not actually on it, and the western end of Nangpa Gosum I is not far from the 5700m
Nangpa La.
Suddenly they were fired on by two men who turned out to be Chinese soldiers; it was the first
incident of this kind ever to befall any mountaineers within Nepalese territory. The Americans were
unharmed, but they immediately abandoned any thought of climbing their mountain. “It was scarier
than any climbing I’ve ever done,” Lamoureux said about their experience. Added Morton, “It was
hard to figure out what their motive was, which made it more frightening.”
Morton told how “a shot came at us and just missed us. We heard the bullet go right past our ears.
... We started running and there was another shot. We hid behind a rock and ditched our backpacks
so we could run faster, then kept running. It seemed clear they were actually shooting towards us.
There were about five shots total at us.” The Chinese appeared to keep pursuing the Americans, who
managed to escape by turning up a side glacier and hiding for several hours behind rocks. They then
got safely back to base camp, packed up their gear and spent the night hiking down to the nearest
village, Thami.
The tents of Cho Oyu expeditions’ advance base camps were on the other side of the border not far
from the Nangpa La, and one of the leaders who were there at the time, Russell Brice, explained the
background to the incident: three soldiers of the Chinese army, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA),
were searching for a group of about 20 Amdos, Tibetans from northwest Tibet. Since the Nangpa La
is an important escape route for Tibetans fleeing their country, usually to passing through Nepal
to join the Dalai Lama in northern India, a unit of the PLA is permanently posted close to Cho Oyu
base camp on a highway.
The three soldiers found a woman lying down near the pass; she probably was a decoy, for when they
went to look at her closely, they were unexpectedly attacked by Amdos, who hit them over the head
with rocks and stole two of their guns before escaping across the pass into Nepal. The three soldiers,
two of who were Tibetans themselves while only one was Han Chinese, chased after them the next
day. The night after that the two Tibetan soldiers came back across the Nangpa La and slept in one
of Brice’s advance base camp tents. They had no sleeping bags, warm clothing or food.
On the third day, 15 to 20 more soldiers arrived at advance base camp looking for the same group
of Amdos. Some searched the moraine, some went to the Nangpa La and returned to advance base.
Three of them spent the night in Brice’s tent and the rest slept in tents of a joint Japanese-Chinese/
Tibetan women’s Cho Oyu expedition. Next day the soldiers went back to their encampment near the
road.
Later that morning shots were heard at advance base camp, fired by the Han Chinese soldier from
the original trio who was now crawling, dragging himself through the snow and firing to attract
attention. Brice, his Sherpas and some Tibetans employed as Sherpas by the women’s expedition
went to investigate and brought the unfortunate soldier into camp. Brice speculates that the
Americans were caught in crossfire between the Amdos and the PLA.
Note: A similar incident occurred in the autumn of 2006 when Chinese soldiers fired upon a group of
Tibetans crossing the Nangpa La; a Tibetan nun was killed during this encounter.
Analysis of Climbing Activity 17