Norman Dyhrenfurth leads an expedition with thirty climbers from thirteen different countries including Don Whillans, Dougal Haston, Naomi Uemura, Pierre Mazeaud, and others. This optimistic expedition hopes to simultaneously climb the SW Face and the West Ridge Direct, but is fraught with one-upmanship, personality conflicts, and organizational problems. Harsh Bahuguna is caught out in a storm at Camp 3 and died despite the efforts of the rescue party. The expedition falters after his death, but Whillans and Haston push the SW Face route up to 27,400 feet (8,350 meters) before lack of equipment forces an end to the expedition.