02/09/2021
Tragedy on Nanda Devi, 1st Special Forces Group by my brother Randy...
HIMEX- Nanda Devi 1995, Tragic Expedition II. By Randy Kerlee
In the fall of 1994 CW2 Steve Hogan, SSG Jakob Nommensen III, and myself SGT Randy Kerlee were selected from the mountain teams in 2nd Battalion to participate in the International Army Expedition titled HIMEX 95 to climb Nanda Devi 25,646 feet (7,817 meters) with the Indian Army. The Expedition would include India, Nepal, Great Britain, Australia, and the US. While I was the lowest ranking in the group from the US, I was given the position of Lead Climber for our team because of experience and physical fitness in the mountains. We were given a training budget of around 60k from SF and the DOS and trained from November 2004, through the winter, until April of 2005 preparing for the expedition.
Upon our arrival in India, Steve would catch amebic dysentery twice within the first 4 weeks of the expedition and ultimately be evacuated from the mountains and experience a near death infection. Jake was a former Ranger and in great physical condition, however, he had zero experience or background in mountaineering. He was selected from his team ODA 143 because of his physical fitness and desire to learn more about climbing. The offer to participate in a world class expedition sounded like something he would be interested in.
I was assigned to ODA 163 in the winter of 1992 and 2nd battalion was the cold weather battalion for 1st SFG(A). I grew up in Washington state on the back side of Ft. Lewis my whole life. I learned to ski mountaineer at the age of 8 and had summited Mt. Rainier when I was 12. My whole life had been preparing me for this team and I was ecstatic. There was some deliberation with ODA 163 as to whom would be selected and offered this trip. We were currently planning an expedition to Mt. McKinley (Denali) in Alaska for that same time frame and I was also the primary planner for that trip.
In 1994, ODA 163 may have been the premier climbing team in all of SF, if not one of the best in the military overall. We had 3 or more SMEβs for every type of climbing on the team, so our overall capability was through the roof. My strength on the team came from years of altitude exposure, alpine/arctic survival, skiing, aid climbing rock, and general mountaineering. I did not think twice when offered the opportunity and position of lead climber for the HIMEX expedition.
The intent of the expedition was to climb a route that had never been completed at that time. Nada Devi consists of two summits connect by a 6 km ridgeline at 24k feet. John Roskelley was the first American to summit Nada Devi proper Nanda Devi 25,646 feet (7,817 meters). The route HIMEX 95 was going to conduct had been attempted by five different countries previously and all had failed. On team 1 for the expedition, our job was to fix all the ropes up the mountain for the remainder of our fellow climbers to use on their ascent. This is what Sherpa guides do in the Nepalese Himalaya on Everest, so Jake and I were very βproudβ to be in this team.
Nanda Devi is the second highest peak in India and considered geographically as the spiritual high point of India. At 25,646 feet (7817 meters) Nada Devi β translates as βGoddess of Joyβ for the Hindu people of that region. Considered among the most sacred of mountains it is only second to mount Kailash and is located in the Garhwal Himalaya, near the Nepalese boarder. Nanda Deviβs inner sanctuary remains off limits to climbers and trekkers and was only discovered by Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman in 1932 and the peak was eventually climbed by Tilman in 1936.
During the expedition Jake and I encountered numerous hardships (concerning expedition living and health) but maintained our physical endurance over all the other international climbers. We were so physically fit and motivated about climbing this mountain that we were the only team to bring skis on the trip. During one rest day at base camp, we woke up early in the morning before dawn and climbed to the top of the mountain in front of our camp. As the sun rose, we skied off the summit and down to camp with almost perfect figure-8βs down the face of the slope, and just in time for breakfast. We were unaware at the time, but a film crew was in camp and caught our decent that morning. The Embassy detail told us later that we were on the National news the next day.
We fixed rope up to 23, 800 feet for almost 4 weeks and established camp three. We then fixed rope across the east face out to the ridge in preparation of crossing to the main summit. On 31 May 1995 we had been climbing hard at altitude for about 4 days and I suffered a moderate attack of altitude sickness at camp three on the afternoon of the 31st. However, we woke early around 3 am on the 1st of June and both of us expressed that we were feeling physically fine, we had eaten and drank well the night before. We spoke at length and both agreed we were ready for the East summit push that morning.
With perfect weather and snow conditions on the morning of the 1st of June we set out of camp to fix our 200 feet of rope that had been given to us the night prior. Our first challenge would be to lead climb an open-book corner of shale rock for 90 feet to gain the ridgeline and move up towards the summit. As typical, our Indian Army counterparts were extremely slow to start and usually left camp late and we had anticipated this on this morning. Today, our timing was perfect and as we finished our last anchor as the first of the Indian climbers arrived at our new high point.
We switched leads and took most of the extra supplies from our fellow Indian teammates to assist in the final push to the summit. On the last rock band just below the summit, the team was one rope length short of fixing the whole route from camp three to the summit. The team discussed the problem, and I presented a potential solution for this. The team accepted the recommendation I made so I descended the mountain and removed one 70 meter 8mm rope from a snowfield below us. The snowfield was around 50 degrees in slope angle with perfect windblown compact snow. I returned to the rock band with the rope and our team was able to complete the climb to the summit before lunch.
We were feeling a huge weight off our backs having summited the first peak and we were discussing how easily we would fix the ridgeline the following day for our main summit attempt in 5-7 days if the weather held. During this conversation Jake suddenly experience a severe hypoxic event and collapsed on the summit. Worried about his health we rested for about 30 minutes, ate a granola bar, and drank the remainder of our water on the summit. Then we indicated that we were going to descend to get Jake down to camp three for some proper rest and hydration.
When climbing a mountain on fixed lines, changing out safety leashes can be monotonous when travelling over thousands of feet. Our Indian counterparts would frequently βBatmanβ across anchors rather than transition with their safety leash to prevent a catastrophic fall. Over the last two week, Jake had been taking allot of shortcuts on fixed line transitions to speed up his personal rate of travel. He found transitions over anchors to be excessive and he did not find the utility in a proper changeover. I spoke with Jake two days before our summit push, I would counsel him on this exact topic, logging it in my nightly journal.
We began our decent of the fixed line and I placed Jake in front of me so I could observe his coordination and watch for any signs of altitude sickness, I was concerned about cerebral edema. We moved off the summit and followed the fixed line down to the last anchor at the top of the snowfield where we had borrowed a rope previously. Here, we would now be required to transition from fixed line travel to downhill snow travel with an ice axe out.
Jake stopped at the last anchor before the transition and faced the slope. Using his right arm, he reached across his body to the left and removed his safety leash from the fixed line and secured it to his harness on his left hip. Then he turn abruptly to his right and reached for his ice axe that was secured to his harness in a holster. This motion caused him to loose his balance and he fell onto his back with his head downhill. As he fell, his axe was pinned under his back and still in the axe holster as he began to quickly slide. I yelled for him to self-arrest, but his mind was consumed with the axe being under him and he failed to attempt an alternate method of self-arrest.
Because of the slope angle and lack of oxygen, you have very little time for errors at altitude. Unfortunately, Jake could not get his slide under control and began to cartwheel down the mountain for around 100 yards. His head would strike a rock knocking his goggles and hat uphill as his body would disappear over the cliff. As soon as he disappeared, I saw a large plume of white feathers blow up the mountain from where he had disappeared over the cliff. We were both wearing down altitude suits and the feathers could only be from his suit tearing.
Years prior I had read a climbing story where the partner had fallen, and he also saw feathers plume up from the cliff. In the book, the climber descended to the cliff face, looked over, and found his partner with a broken femur 15 feet below. An overwhelming feeling of hope rushed over me and I quickly descended about 400 feet down to ridge to remove another rope from the fixed line below. I moved back up the ridge as quickly as possible and then out onto the face where Jake had fallen. I quickly set a single dead-man snow picket for a hasty anchor and rappelled 10-15 feet over the edge. I quickly turned to look over my shoulder, I was sure he had landed on a ledge after seeing the plume of down feathers, instead, I was greeted with a 900 foot cliff.
From my position over the cliff, I could clearly see camp three just below to my left and about 50 yards west of camp there was a blood stain on the glacier where Jake had impacted. This was also on a high angle slope and the body then slid down this glacier and his body fell over a 5,000 foot cliff. Below this cliff there are thousands of feet of hanging glaciers with crevasses as with as jumbo jets. Upon seeing this, I ascended the rope to the snow field to begin my decent on the ridge back to camp three.
As I climbed up-over the cliff edge, where Jake fell, the Indian climbers were now descending from the summit and could see me on the cliff face doing something with a rope and an anchor. Because they had not seen the accident, they did not know of Jakes death. They began yelling at me at telling me I was going in the wrong direction, literally screaming, and shouting towards me; I am sure they thought I had lost my mind due to altitude or something? I returned to the ridge-line and reconnected the rope I had previously removed to make my check of Following this, I signaled to them so they would descend the rest of the way towards me.
I collapsed in the snow at this anchor and just sat there reflecting over the last the last 15-20 minutes of my life. As the Indian climbers passed me, they all criticized me for trying to rappel back to camp because it was obviously too far of a rappel. They had not considered any other options for my actions at this point and I felt very isolated just below 24k feet. Finally, our team one Team leader, an Indian Army 1st Lieutenant, descended and sat down next to me. He waited for some time and then said, βMr. Randy, where is Jake?β I turned to the Lieutenant and said, βJakes not with us anymore.β I repeated this statement about three times and pointed to my rappel point before the Lieutenant understood what I was telling him. He immediately took out his radio and called down to base camp to report the accident.
I would help in searching for the body over the next five days via two high altitude Alouette II helicopters which flew in daily from a secluded airbase deep in the Garhwal. On the fifth day they would fly me out to the lowlands to catch a train back to the Embassy in New Delhi. On the morning that I was scheduled to depart, a young man from the village near to our base camp asked to speak with me. An interpreter and a couple of Indian Army friends brought him over and we sat down with tea and biscuits. He imparted a story on me that I find comforting and, in some ways, it helps me cope with never brining his body home to his amazing wife and children.
In 1976 John Roskelley would be the first American to summit Nanda Devi via the Northwest Face of Nanda Devi main as part of an expedition lead by American explorer, surveyor, and climber W***y Unsoeld. In 1949 W***y Unsoeld trekked to Nanda Devi and swore that it was the most beautiful mountain he had ever seen. In the early 1950βs, he would have a daughter and name her Nanda-Devi Unsoeld. On this expedition in 1976, W***y had brought his daughter Nanda-Devi with them and she actively participated in the climbing of the NW face of the mountain.
Roskelley had summited the mountain and prior to their decent, they fixed rope through the final sections of the NW face so the second party could summit. The next day Nanda-Devi was to attempt her summit bid, however, she mysteriously died in her sleep from complications with altitude. Her father W***y departed base camp and climbed up to where his daughterβs body lay. After saying a few words, the party pushed Nanda-Devi Unsoeldβs body off the face and into the glaciers of the western sanctuary. When Jake fell, he fell into the east side of the Sanctuary.
The young man from the nearby village began to tell me stories of Nanda-Devi Unsoeld which had been passed down for more than 20 years. He said that her spirit was now bonded with the spirt of the mountain and together they watched over the sanctuary together. However, after twenty years watching over the sanctuary with only the mountain to keep her companion, she became very lonely.
Next, he began to tell me stories of Jake and how Jake had exemplified the same traits as Nanda-Devi Unsoeld and how the local villagers regarded him with the highest respect. Jake was very religious at heart and would often discuss the similarities of Christianity and Hindu with the villagers. My storyteller expressed to me that Jake had the same kind of caring soul as Unsoeld and how the villagers had seen this in him as we travelled.
He closed the story by explaining that the American, Nanda-Devi Unsoeldβs spirit was stirred after Jake began to climb the mountain. This caused Nanda-Devi the American to feel great pain and loneliness and she beseeched the mountain goddess to have a mate. Finally, the βGoddess of Joyβ finally succumb to her requests and after our successful summit took Jake because of his perfection of character and for his respect of religion. Now, Nommensen and Unsoeld are together, watching over the sanctuary bringing peace to the Goddess of Joy once again.
I was never able to tell this story to Jakes kids, his spouse requested that I never communicate to them following the accident. The night before we left on our trip, I had dinner with Jakes wife and family. She was very concerned for his safety and I made the mistake of guaranteeing our safe return home. Jake was a man and a brother taken well before his time should have ended. I have always wanted to tell his kids this and how much we all respected and cherished their father. Maybe one day I will be able to pass this along.
In loving memory of SSG Jakob Nommensen III, summit of Nanda Devi East is 24,390 ft (7,434 meters) 1 June 1995 using no supplemental oxygen.
Not many of people remember this event but it is the entire reason the USSFC Mountaineering School was started and based out of 10th Group in 1996. SGM Paul Gamond from 10th SFG(A) would come to India and conduct the 15-6 investigation which would finally secure funding for the school. The first class was conducted in the spring of 1996 and upon its completion, which I attended and was recognized as the distinguished honor graduate. I continued to work with the 10th Group mountain locker over the next 16 years and together we wrote the 1st and 2nd editions of the mountaineering handbook.
At my retirement in 2010 I had been professionally instructing mountaineering for 16 years. Today I still enjoy ski mountaineering, some friendly guiding privately, and some mild solo peak bagging. I frequently dream of taking an expedition back to India to find Jakes body. As our climate has changed, the glaciers where Jake fell are almost gone and recent melting in that region may have exposed his body. I have watched this area of the Himalaya change dramatically now that Google Earth allows me to stay abreast to the local conditions there.
As I write this, I consider another thought process, should we recover the body? Would that change the Hindu fable of Nommensen and Unsoeld protecting the sanctuary together? Would moving his body change the structure of belief in a people dedicated to various gods and deities? Would the family want to bring up the pain and suffering of the past to lay his physical presence to rest?
I know one thing, when I get to Valhalla, Jake will be there, and we will once again embrace and tell great stories.
Peace brothers.
