49 Days on Trango Tower and an Epic Survival Story

In 1990, Japanese climber Takeyasu Minamiura made the first ascent of a committing alpine big wall on Trango Tower over weeks of solo aid and free climbing. He then tried to paraglide back to the valley, but crashed on the tower and became stranded on a ledge until his friends rescued him.

From the beginning of his career, Trango Tower had been a dream objective. He had soloed routes in Japan before, and he enjoyed working alone, cleaning, and exploring new lines. “I think I liked to create something by myself,” he said. Soloing allowed him to fully appreciate every pitch, and he decided that it was the only way to experience Trango as he envisioned it. At the same time, he was captivated by paragliding, which was at the height of its popularity. Flying offered the same sense of freedom and thrill that climbing had once given him. “Paragliding has equal or even more potential as free climbing,” he believed, and it promised a quicker descent from the summit, though he still carried a parachute to lower his climbing gear safely.

Minamiura’s expedition required an enormous amount of equipment: a full El Cap rack, dozens of pitons, five ropes, two paragliders, a paragliding harness and variometer, a video camera, batteries, tapes, films, and a transceiver. “Although I believe my plan was a reasonable one given my experience, I must admit that the amount of my gear was crazy,” he said. He hauled roughly 150 kilograms to Advanced Base Camp and another 100 kilograms to the start of the climb. The lower wall was particularly gruelling. He aimed for a one-push, capsule-style ascent, but bad weather and hauling difficulties forced him to retreat after pitch 11. He waited at base camp, hoping for better conditions and for his friends to return from Great Trango. Two weeks later, he returned for the final push. He reached the summit on Sept. 9, after 40 days of climbing, including 21 nights bivouacked on the wall.

The ascent was relentless: there were no ledges, and climbing often felt like moving up a massive chimney. “It was really cool to do bold moves in such a great place,” he said. He fell four times, endured storms, and contended with falling ice, verglass, and freezing snow that pushed him off his portaledge. Seeing Masherbrum, a mountain he had previously summited in alpine style, gave him strength and encouragement amid isolation.

The descent, however, became an ordeal of a different kind. Minamiura rappelled to the shoulder where he intended to take off in his paraglider. Conditions were already precarious: clouds were increasing, supplies were nearly gone, and the wind was unpredictable. When he finally launched, the paraglider immediately failed on one side, flipping him upside down. “I tried to convince myself that I am in a bad dream,” he said, but the shock of reality struck instantly. Injured and barely able to breathe, he hung suspended in space. Only his transceiver allowed him to communicate with his friends: “I told them that I had an accident and needed a helicopter,” he said, avoiding the word help. Night fell as he waited, suspended in his harness, and the next morning he discovered that a tiny flake had stopped his fall. He managed to move to a ledge barely wide enough to sit on, where he remained for six days.

Rescue proved difficult. Helicopters could not hover at such high altitude, and dropped supplies repeatedly missed him, though one pack of mango juice exploded nearby, making him laugh. “It made me laugh rather than to be disappointed,” he said. Hunger and thirst worsened, but he carefully protected his feet from frostbite, determined not to lose his climbing ability. On Sept. 15, a can of cheese finally lodged on a nearby flake. Risking everything, he climbed five metres to retrieve it, his first food in six days. Later that day, he spotted his rescuers, Masanori Hoshina and Tetsu Kimoto, who had risked dangerous terrain to reach him in just three days. On Sept. 16, Minamiura reunited with the rescue party, bivouacked, and then rappelled to the lower wall before finally returning to the ground on Sept. 18.

As Greg Child wrote in the 1993 American Alpine Journal about his and Mark Wilford’s new route on Trango called Run for Cover (VII 5.11 A3 +, 22 pitches): “On Trango you pay your money and take your chances. A crosswind dashed Minamiura into the cliff and he plunged down. But luck had a change of heart, and his chute snagged, bringing him to rest on a ledge 200 feet down. When he called Base Camp by radio, his Japanese friends launched a rescue, jümaring up the decaying ropes of the 1976 first ascent. By the time he was down, he had spent 49 days on the tower.”

The incident remains one of the most astonishing survival stories in climbing history, placing Takeyasu Minamiura among the most hardcore big wall climbers of all time.

With notes from the American Alpine Journal and bigwallgear.com.