THE PROVINCE

March 11, 1982

page

A-2

r

CPphoto

Roger Griffiths of Capilano College will lead a 10-niember team thof will attempt to scale Mt. Gonggo in Chino. Behind him is fellow team member Ed
Silva-White, along with equipment to be used on the climb.

B. C. team to climb
peak in Himalayas
A Vancouver mountaineering
team will attempt to scale Mount
Gongga in the eastern Himalayas
in China - a peak that has claimed
13 lives in the past 15 years.
If the 10-man team, led by Roger
Griffiths of Capilano College, is
successful, it will be the first time
the 7,590-metre (24,900-foot) mountain has been conquered in 50
years, say the sponsors of the attempt - Labatt's, CP Air and the
Toronto Sun.
Griffiths, 36, head instructor of

outdoor pursuits at Capilano, said
his team will begin the 25-day
climb in the first week of April.
In 1967, four Chinese climbers
were swept away by a Gongga avalanche. The cameraman accompanying a U.S. team in 1980 also died
in an avalanche and last year eight
Japanese climbers fell off a precipice near the top and were killed.
The Canadian team, most of
whom are faculty or past and
present students at the college, will
leave Vancouver March 22.