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JEAN-CHRISTAN MICHEL
EXPEDITION TO THE HIMALAYAS
Tawesche & Cholatse, two great summits in the Himalayas
Tuesday 16 april
1974, the 5th French expedition led by Yannick SEIGNEUR
has just achieved
a great first in the Himalayas : The TAWESCHE or TABOCHE PEAK. |
French Expedition Yannick Seigneur To The Himalayas. Tawesche, Nepal Virgin Summit, First Ascension Story: Altitude Camps, Final Assault, Challenge Succeeded! Actuality Equipments, Prices, Himalayas Map. Himalayan Peaks, Himalaya Movie, Music. Himalayas Nepal Trekking
EXPEDITION TO THE HIMALAYAS' HIGH MOUNTAINS
Here
is the story of Jean-Christian Michel's himalayan expedition
when he climbed Taboche (or Tawesche) with Yannick SEIGNEUR |
NÉPAL MAP / HIMALAYA MAP
 
Népal map / Himalayas map
The Tawesche rises in the immense Himalayan chain, between Everest and Makalu. |
JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL : A GRAND PREMIER IN THE HIMALAYAS WITH YANNICK SEIGNEUR
Postage stamp from Tawesche Nepal |
American Alpine journal 1975 - New York N.Y. 10028 |
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JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL ABANDONED TEMPORARILY THE CLARINET
Today it is an unusual Jean-Christian Michel that we introduce.
In effect he temporarily abandoned his clarinet andthe welcoming embrace of the churches where his music still resonates, to attempt a grand adventure in the Himalayas.
He returned fascinated and amazed by all that he had seen and heard,
with a heart full of a quite new enjoyment.
For
weeks, Jean-Christian Michel studied at the school of stamina and
will, and of surpassing himself in a long climb where every step
represented a victory.
He
has brought us the dream-inducing story of this great first, and
makes us dream about the secret Kathmandu where incantatory music
springs from the heart of the temples, and the valley of the Everest with its steep slopes, ice-cold summits and eternal snows.
Jean-Christian Michel, through his compositions, brings us the emotion and magic
of these magnificent moments". How did he manage this ?
SUMMER
SKI
An
experienced skier, Jean-Christian Michel, during a summer
ski training course, struck up a friendship with a Chamonix
guide : Henri LEBLANC.
The
following January, Yannick SEIGNEUR was looking for a doctor
for his expedition. Henri LEBLANC, who was going to be the
expedition photographer suggested Doctor Jean-Christian Michel.
HESITATANCES
But
the former surgeon hesitated. Withdrawn into the country in
his house in Aix en Provence to had dedicated himself to musical
composition, he had not practised medicine for years.
On
the other hand, if it is true that he had made numerous difficult
ascents in the Alps during his childhood and even Mont Blanc
when he was 13. Due to his musical career, he had not done
any serious climbing for a long time. In addition, the Himalayas
are a very different matter from the Alps! The previous expeditions
had often left sad souvenirs. Who remembers the suffering
of Maurice Herzog...
High
forbidden places do not forgive the weakness of their "intruding
visitors". A merciless hand-to-hand struggle with cliffs
and ice, where each gesture proceeds from an irreproachable
technique and an implacable will to succeed. Where the least
error can plunge you into the abyss. Where the icy cold can
freeze hands. And for a clarinetist, are not fingers fairly
vital ?
SURGICAL
RETRAINING
All
the same, after a fortnights consideration Jean-Christian Michel eventually accepted this fantastic opportunity. An
adventure such as this does not admit refusal.
From
then on, his days were shared between a medical and surgical
retraining, the study of clinical observations made during
Himalayan expeditions and very hard sports training. Climbing,
walking, bike riding, skiing and snowboarding were the order
of the day…
| TAWESCHE's
5TH FRENCH EXPEDITION TO THE HIMALAYAS |
Departure
took place at Orly in the second half of March. Jean-Christian Michel met for the first time all the members of the expedition.
Yannick SEIGNEUR, conqueror of the western pillar of the MAKALU,
hero of the north face of the GRANDES JORASSES. One of the
top 4 or 5 international climbers. Serge CACHAT, the fantastic
specialist lane skier, Henri LEBLANC Chamonix guide and photographer,
and the veterans of himalayan climbing, Paul GENDRE, Louis
DUBOST and Jacques BRUGIRARD. Finally, two French film-makers
specializing in high mountains : Jacques ERTAUD and René
VERNADET, who would afterwards realize a magnificent film
"PREMIER DE CORDEE" ( First in Line ). Fourteen
people who have decided to go all the way.
YANNICK SEIGNEUR
Yannick Seigneur,
Expedition Leader |
Yannick SEIGNEUR is one of the 4 or 5 greats in world mountaineering. This fabulous climber, remarkable author of numerous mountain books and Himalayan expeditions (Le Ciel à pleines mains), has achieved countless difficult climbs, accompanied by some very great firsts.
Famous for his "directissime" routes carried out both in season and in winter, he has conquered and accumulated the most beautiful peaks, both in the Alps and in the Himalayas : |
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Hero of the North face of the Grandes Jorasses, winner of the West pillar of Makalu with Robert Paragot, Yannick Seigneur opens a new route to Gasherbrum II, to Broad Peak. Yannick conquers the north face of Everest, will achieve the premiere of Tawesche, this sacred mountain.
Fourteen men in all, determined to go all the way. The Boeing 750 stops in Tel-Aviv, Tehran, New-Dehli... with endless waits in the airports.
KATHMANDU
IN NEPAL
Kathmandu, Népal : Bodnath Stupa |
And here is KATHMANDOU - nestled in a plain surrounded with hills, sculptured by their "restanques" in contour lines : the least square meter has its value for growing something !
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KATHMANDU
- CALENDARS ADVERTISEMENTS FOR HASHISH-CENTRE
A
busy and mysterious city with its spice-laden markets, prayer
flags, temples hidden by the jungle; the swarming multitudes
who haggle over a few rupees.
The river BAGMATI, the sacred
river, lazily stretches in long meanders. It is a fabulous
city smelling of dust, where forests of giant bamboo and eucalyptus
stand out against the intense blue of the sky.
A magma of flesh and bone, people
and animals muddled together. A world indifferent to life
and death, with its cremations usual, but always moving. |
A
city where hashish is freely sold, with even advertising calendars for "Haschisch centers", but from which the junkies
have gradually been banished... Preserved city, where it is still impossible to buy a photo film !
INCANTATORY
MUSIC IN THE TEMPLES OF KATHMANDU |
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TEMPLES
AND MUSICIANS AT NIGHT
Kids accompany the team everywhere and guide it
through the maze of Kathmandu's streets. One of them manages
to speak in six different languages and plays marvelously
of a kind of little violin.
Nepalese
people adore music.
A PRAYER WHICH SEEMS TO REGENERATE PERPETUALY
At
night, Jean-Christian Michel goes to listen to Nepalese musicians,
in their strange temples : "They play with their eyes
closed and the face tightly concentrated on listening to life…
mystic incantation, always the same and never monotonous. |
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"A prayer which seems to regenerate perpetually as if by a
reflection from the borders of heaven... ". Too
bad, he left with an ice axe and crampons but did not think
of bringing his clarinet..
The weather is not very good. And as we have to wait for something better before taking the small plane that will take us to Lukla, Yannick SEIGNEUR takes the opportunity to identify the two tonnes of material for the expedition :
2000 METERS OF ROPES
2000 meters of ropes, ice picks and pins, Himalayan tents, inflatable mattresses, sleeping bags, food, canned food, powdered or freeze-dried food, Himalaya OmniFuel Primus stove, etc. and ... two trekking bags of 40 kg each, filled to the brim with medication.
Three days to wait. This is an opportunity to get to know Kathmandu better, to explore the surroundings and to stroll through its picturesque commercial district of Thamel ... But luckily the sky has just cleared ...
APPROACH
- HALT AT NAMCHE BAZAR IN THE EVEREST VALLEY
Very
early one morning the team flew towards LUKLA ( 2800 metres
) in small single-engined aircraft. The crew landed at a handkerchief-sized
airport. The Sherpa Leader, TENSING Sirdar, was waiting for
them with his bearers' caravan.
Lukla's Altiport |
NAMCHE BAZAR, TANG BOCHE, KUMJUNG
Himalayan Prayer Flags |
Himalayan Paths |
Approach Trekking |
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Porters in the Himalayas
Stop at Namche Bazaar
Himalayan Yaks |
It
was a long walk to climb up the Everest valley, by steep paths,
between huge rhododendrons, through steep-sided gorges with
torrents of turquoise waters.
We cross cedar and pine of the Himalayas forests, conifers elongated like fir trees, but whose needles resemble those of pine. In humid places, the branches of trees are adorned with long hanging moss streaks, greenish gray in color.
The paths are often steep, but remarkably well paved. Indeed these tracks are the only way of communication there.
Carriers and Yacks, too heavily loaded (each carrier, men or women support on their back during the whole journey a barda which weighs between 30 and 70 kg), however advance fairly quickly and quite regularly.
MANI, CHORTEN, PRAYER FLAGS AND ... PRAYER WATER MILLS !
The road is marked by the emblems of the Buddhist "religion", omnipresent here as in all of Nepal besides, with its "mani", sometimes carved in giant pebbles high like buildings, its "chorten" (stacking of dry stones, its frayed and colored "prayer flags" which blaze in the wind.
Prayer wheels - some of which rotate continuously, driven by a paddle wheel in the clear water of a stream ... Prayers are then automatically debited : Human ingenuity is limitless and we never stop progress !
HASTOP AT NAMCHE BAZAR IN EVEREST VALLEY
We set up camp at NAMCHE BAZAR, still a small picturesque village at that time. The walls of the houses are decorated with dried yak dung which will be used as combustible. |
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We came across monsteries and picturesque
villages : We sleep in TANG BOCHE in a sort of large icy lodge...
We continue the road to KHUMJUNG then, through
fields of grass and fields of stones always in the direction
toTAWESCHE. (or TABOCHE).
But with the altitude, oxygen begins to become scarce ... Well done the joyful "trekking in the Himalayas"!
The ascent itself will soon begin and with it the real difficulties.
We came across monsteries and picturesque
villages : We sleep in TANG BOCHE in a sort of large icy lodge...
We continue the road to KHUMJUNG then, through
fields of grass and fields of stones always in the direction
toTAWESCHE. (or TABOCHE).
But with the altitude, oxygen begins to become scarce ... Well done the joyful "trekking in the Himalayas"!
The ascent itself will soon begin and with it the real difficulties.
Tawesche's base camp |
After
about ten days of approach by foot, Yannick SEIGNEUR decides to install
the base camp at 5200 meters by the edge of a cold lake, just at the
bottom of the sacred mountain. A rocky and frozen site where the most
beautiful tops of the Himalayas form a gigantic circle : TAWESCHE, MAKALU,
AMADABLAM, EVEREST...
The team
members took turns every day, whatever the weather, to prepare the rock-face
and to move the supplies up : ice spikes, tents and food...
Ève ry day, the snow begins to fall in large flakes, regularly from 1 p.m. We play cards, which I hate, but it makes time pass ...
25 DEGREES BELOW ZERO THE TEMPERATURE
OF A DEEP FREEZE !
At night, there is an excruciating wet cold : the respiratory mist crystallizes in the air in fine flakes, which cover with frost of a bright white inside the tents. The handkerchiefs are frozen, cardboard. Engaged in our special down jackets from the Himalayas, we still chatter teeth...
Each evening, we carefully put our wet shoes (plastic mountain shoes do not yet exist) in the bottom of the sleeping bag, otherwise we would find them like ice blocks the next day.
The low atmospheric pressure at this altitude (indeed at 5000 m. High, the barometric pressure is half less than that of sea level), brings the water to boil at 60 °... The tea is served lukewarm, and with –25 ° c in the tent, the water does not remain so for a long time !
Oxygen
was lacking : one night, a guide from chamonix woke up unable to breath. Two people
began a lung oedema. Ève ry day two hours of care were necessary.
Dr Jean-Christian Michel set up a small makeshift hospital on a camp bed in the central tent. Sometimes
he dreamt of the warm embrace of his home and the comfort brought by
civilization...
In
the base camp, five persons had to abandon the ascent, five others would
not go further than the second camp.
ALTITUDE CAMP 1 - 5400 m
Tawesche Altitude Camp 1 |
Despite the comings and goings to equip each day the access way to the summit, time is running slowly, because every afternoon we remain locked up and inactive in the central tent.
Through the moraines we meander between "penitents" then climb rocky spurs to reach camp 1.
The "altitude camp 1" is installed at 5400 meters, hanging on the mountain on an oblique snow ledge : it is a simple tent on a snowfield, almost a bivouac ...
At this altitude, as it is vital to drink 7 liters of water a day. So you have to work on melting and heay up this hard and cold snow of the Himalayas. |
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Very nice Louis cooks us by reheating a delicious canned civet. Truth be told, it changes from rice and boiled yak!
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LAST
NIGHT BEFORE THE SUMMIT AT 6200 M. !
The
first high camp was set up at 5400 m, then the second at 6200m
under cover of a frozen ledge just after a vertiginous col. It
was 35 degrees below.
The
pure and frozen air vibrated like a crystal. The night glittered
with an incredible brightness, mountains sparkled, bathed in a
supernatural light. Slowly, the moon rose above the summits. Its
strange colour seemed to mark the celebration of a cosmic spell
: It seemed that the limits of exhaustion had been reached. |
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Jean-Christian Michel meditated before the final assault. He looked up at the
vault of the star-crowded sky and remembered that of the cathedrals
and how they "opened with their stained glass on the gates
of the universe".
The equipment of the final wall lasts 3 days ! So each time, you have to go back to the wet tent where it is absolutely impossible to sleep as it is cold !
After another frosty night, the pale glow of dawn sounds the start of the departure for the final ascent. I can hardly wake up, get up. I am terribly tired... I leave half an hour after the others."
The day of the summit" opens with a magnificent, but terribly anxious day : Who among us will arrive at the top? A very perilous passage overhangs a 1500 m drop. The fixed rope was removed by the team who thinks they need it further ... Too bad for security, I pass without insurance. Because in the Himalayas the rule is "Ève ry man for himself" and "Only count on you". Harsh universe and not at all designed for "amateurs" and wimps.
We are far from the reassuring tranquility of the climbs of my childhood in the Alps, with our "good guide" Gaby Simon who watched like a mother over the rascals that we were !
Climbing to Tawesche |
Climbing course
to Tawesche peak |
Blue ice wall |
Climbing to the summit |
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But here I am at the foot of the wall ... Ice tiles rise to the pass, which seems so far up there. When I look down, I see tumbling endless slopes under my legs, I see much below the glacier with its crevasses and seracs ... All the way down in in the valley you can see the checkerboard of the fields around the villages. Clouds are fraying around me ... I find it hard to breathe regularly, I gasp violently! "
Jean-Christian Michel toiled after, his breath like that of an animal, but he kept
struggling on and didn't give up. It took ten hours to reach the summit.
Ten hours to climb 500 metres ! In one month, he had lost 10 kilos..
THE
"HIGH" OF THE SUMMIT
But
the heady spirit of success was there. All around the summit,
as far as one could see there was a sea of clouds through which
sprang the highest peaks of the Himalayas.
Jean-Christian Michel in the Himalayas : The high of the summits |
Conquest
of a virgin summit, is that a meaningless victory ? Only five people
had known the exceptional joy of this moment.
Surpassing
himself and building immortal memories, more beautiful than all the
treasures of the earth Jean-Christian Michel still holds them in its
heart :
He
would display them one day as a great light in the mystery of his Music
RETURN FROM ASCENSION - EVEREST VIEW HOTEL, 3800 m., KHUMJUNG.
Japanese "Everest view" Hotel Khumjung |
Jean-Christian
Michel, Yannick Seigneur and Serge Cachat |
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The return is going well despite some small housekeeping concerns : one evening I have to sleep on the floor without a mattress !
To redeem himself, Yannick offers us lunch at the Japanese hotel "Everest View", a 4-star hotel with absolutely superb architecture. Delights of civilization and a real meal after the hardships we have experienced ... But we are in great shape! Tourists arrive staggering under the effect of the rarefied oxygen as they get off the helicopter.
Then it's the carefree return to Namche Bazar, Lukla, Kathmandu.
YANNICK SEIGNEUR LEADER OF THE FIRST ASCENT
The Tawesche expedition was a "first" in the Himalayas, the first ascent of a virgin summit.
The summit team led by Yannick Seigneur included Louis Dubost, Paul Gendre, Jacques Brugirard and the clarinetist and great composer Jean-Christian Michel, who all reached the summit. The peak was conquered in the day of April 16, 1974.
PRESS
REVIEW OF EXPEDITION |
SOME
EXTRACTS FROM THE FRENCH NATIONAL PRESS
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"
The 5th French expedition led by Yannick SEIGNEUR has just achieved
a great first in the Himalayas. With two tons of supplies, 2000
metres of ropes, 80 kg of medicines, 14 French climbers, 15
sherpas and 70 bearers they overcame an inviolate mountain in
the Everest, Makalu and Amadablam region. A world of cliffs
and ice where expeditions led Japanese, Germans and even the
famous Edmund HILLARY, conqueror of Everest, had failed …
"
"Of
this hundred people, only five reached the summit at about 7000
metres. Among them an unexpected climber: |
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Jean-Christian Michel
whose music still resounds in everyones heart. Jean-Christian Michel, great composer, clarinetist,
surgeon, climber and octor of the expedition..." Jean-Christian Michel : Himalayan Conqueror Doctor
to the 5th French expedition to the Himalayas led by Yannick SEIGNEUR
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JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL VISION D'ÉZÉCHIEL
DANIEL HUMAIR DRUMS
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VISION
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