Allan Rick (Richard)

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Biografie:
Schotte
Leiter der britischen Ganesh-Himal Expedition 1984 (Nachmonsun) mit 2 Teilnehmern.
Ganesh II, South Face. Rick Allen and I reached Base Camp at 4300 meters below the 2500-meter-high (8000-foot-high) south face of Ganesh II on September 28. We were not alone as a large Swiss party was already established and making an attempt on the extreme left of the face to gain the west ridge. Our proposed route was the south face, a variation of the tragic Polish attempt of 1983. On the 30th we crossed the glacier beneath the face to place Advance Base at 4100 meters, actually lower than Base Camp. We planned to climb alpine-style, but with limited time and no suitable acclimatization peak, we were forced to acclimatize on the route. We climbed on October 2 and 3 to the site of Polish Camp II at 5400 meters to leave a cache of food and equipment before descending to Base Camp for a rest. We left on October 7, going straight onto the face. Taking seven days of food, we continued to the previous high point to bivouac. From there we kept to the Polish line for a short bit to find a rock traverse which gave access to the upper part of the face. In two days we got to 6200 meters, where we took a rest day because of a poor bivouac and consequently a bad night. We had some difficult mixed climbing on October 13, climbing through a rock band at 6400 meters. The weather deteriorated, but deciding that the west ridge would offer an easy descent, we pushed on, reaching the summit (7111 meters, 23,330 feet) on the afternoon of October 15. The weather that day was particularly bad. We bivouacked at 7050 meters in a snow cave on the west ridge. Unstable dangerous snow and strong winds forced us off the ridge to rappel blindly down the south face. We eventually regained the ascent line after a further two days of descent and we reached Advance Base on the 18th and Base Camp on the 19th. The ascent took nine days and the descent three. The later days were particularly difficult because of bad weather and the lack of food.
Nikola Kekus, Alpine Climbing Group
Quelle: American Alpine Journal 1985, Vol. 27, Seite 278

Mount Everest, North-Northeast Ridge Attempt. After six months of hectic planning, our 18-person team flew to China with permission for the north- northeast ridge of Everest. We were a mixed bunch of English and Scots with a Swiss and an Austrian: Mai Duff, leader, Sandy Allan, Rick Allen, Bob Barton, David Bricknell, Tony Brindle, Terry Dailey, Kurt Diemberger, Liz Duff, Alan Fyffe, Andy Greig, Danny Lewis, Andy Nesbet, Sarah Squibb, Jon Tinker, Julie Tullis, Chris Watts, Dr. Urs Wiget and I. Base Camp, near the snout of the Central Rongbuk Glacier, was reached on March 18 after a delay in Lhasa, our baggage having been held up in a Chengdu warehouse necessitating a charter flight to recover it. Basque mountaineers were already established in their Base Camp at the pre-war campsite. We spent seven days in and around Base Camp, acclimatizing, preparing food and equipment and visiting the Rongbuk monastery. We established Advance Base at 6400 meters on March 25 on the right bank of the upper East Rongbuk. The weather was fair but the winds extremely strong. Initial movement on the route was slow as we acclimatized and placed fixed rope to P 7090. At 6900 meters we found the first snow cave of Bonington’s 1982 expedition, intact and usable. During the next weeks we moved loads up the ridge, establishing snow caves, Camps II and III at 7090 and 7300 meters below the first and second buttresses. Heavy snowfalls interrupted progress and it was late April before the buttresses were fixed. After further snowfalls throughout May, a cave was finally made at 7850 meters, below the first pinnacle. Unstable weather and cumulative exhaustion prevented successive parties from tackling the pinnacles. On May 21 a general retreat from the ridge was called after a severe snowfall. While most had decided to abandon further attempts, Rick Allen made a bold solo effort and got to 8170 meters on May 27. Having climbed unstable snow overlying rock, he elected to retreat. Rick’s solo was estimated to be to the same point that Boardman and Tasker had reached prior to their final attempt. Few medical problems were encountered. We had one incident of cerebral and pulmonary oedema. Oxygen was taken but used only once, by Mai Duff at 8000 meters; however the supply tube froze, almost asphyxiating him.
Nikola Kekus, Alpine Climbing Group
Quelle: American Alpine Journal 1986, Vol. 28, Seite 295

Pumori, South Face. Base Camp was established on October 7 on the eastern flanks of Kala Pattar. On October 10 we pitched a tent at 5500 meters on Kala Pattar where Rick Allen and I acclimatized. The U.S. members, Morris Kittleman and Dave Saiget, arrived at Base on the 11th and decided to spend several days acclimatizing. On the 14th we two Scots began to climb the south face and bivouacked at 5600 meters. The following day took us up mixed ground where we were forced to abseil into the main couloir. We climbed this for several difficult pitches and bivouacked at 5850 meters. We ascended the rest of the couloir on the 16th and bivouacked in a cave at 6100 meters. We moved together over the next two days, bivouacking at 6600 and 7000 meters. On the morning of the 19th at ten A.M. we stood on the summit. We descended the southwest ridge for several hundred meters and then climbed down the large couloir on the west face, arriving at a safe site on the Changri Shar at ten P.M. at 5400 meters. The next day we returned to Base Camp. The Americans later made an attempt but retreated from 6000 meters because of high winds. We believe this was a previously unclimbed route.
Sandy Allan, Scottish Mountaineering Club
Quelle: American Alpin Journal 1987, Vol. 29, Seite 236

Peaks near Latok. The goal of our expedition was to make the first complete ascent of the north ridge of Latok I. The mountain had been ascended once before from the south by Japanese in 1979. Some confusion exists in the designation of the Latok peaks. Our objective is marked with an altitude of 7145 meters on the new map of the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research. Our climbers were Austrian Robert Schauer and Britons Rick Allen, Sandy Allan, Simon Yates and I as leader. Except for Schauer, we reached the roadhead at Foljo on May 30 and continued through Askole and up the Panmah and Choktoi Glaciers. We placed Base Camp on June 6 on the Choktoi Glacier at 4000 meters below Hanipispur South and about a kilometer short of the foot of Latok I’s north ridge. Allen, Allan, Yates and I ascended Biacherahi Dome to the north of Biacherahi Tower. An attempt on the northern side of Biacherahi foundered in deep, unstable snow. We four attempted Hanipispur South but retreated from the summit pyramid after encountering unstable snow overlying granite. Sandy Allan’s and my attention was drawn to a fine granite prow projecting from Latok III. The first ascent of this 3000-foot rock climb took three days of sustained, difficult free climbing and three pitches with some artificial aid. Rick Allen and Simon Yates crossed the Nobande Sobande Glacier and explored the east ridge of Bobisghir before retreating because of unstable snow. At that point we were joined by Robert Schauer. Because of the difficult and dangerous snow condi tions and the forbidding appearance of the pendulous snow mushrooms adorning the north ridge of Latok I, we renounced our principal objective. A consensus on an alternative objective could not be reached and so the team divided. Sandy Allan and I departed, looking for lower-altitude rock. On June 26, between the Jola bridge and Askole, one of our porters, Sher Mohammed, slipped and fell from a high rocky section of the path into the Braldu River. Despite considerable searching, his body could not be found. The other three failed on the south ridge of Bobisghir. Schauer and Yates tackled some rock spires above Base Camp and traveled over the Sim La overlooking Snow Lake. Later they moved to the Hushe valley where they made the second ascent of a prominent granite spire.
Douglas Scott
Quelle: American Alpine Journal 1991, Vol. 33, Seite 274