American Mike Gardner falls to his death » Explorersweb

In today's story about Jannu East (7,468m), we described how Benjamin Vedrines, Leo Billon and Nicolas Jean turned back near the summit ridge while attempting a new route over the extremely difficult north face. But something happened on the descent: American Sam Hennessey called for help after his partner Mike Gardner fell fatally.

Vedrines didn't mention anything about it on his social media But told the story to the French mountain site Alpinemag. He noticed that his team decided to turn around because Leo Billon was feeling sick.

As they rappelled down the middle of the face, Vedrines saw American Sam Hennessey waving at him. Apparently the line the Americans climbed crossed the French route.

“But I couldn’t see his partner Mike (Gardner),” Vedrines said AlpineMag. “I took off my hood and paid attention to what Sam was trying to tell me.”

Body is still missing

Hennessey explained that his partner fell to the base of his face. When the two parties reached the point where their routes intersected, the French asked Hennessey to dismount with them.

They abseiled the last 700 m together. When they got to the bottom of the face, they searched for Gardner's body, but only found a few pieces of clothing.

Sam Hennessey, left, and Mike Gardner. Photo: Mike Gardner/Instagram

We are waiting for further details about the cause of the accident. Hennessey was on his third attempt to climb the north face of Jannu East in Nepal's Kangchenjunga region. Two of his attempts were with Gardner. Hennessey received an American Alpine Club Cutting Edge Grant for this project.

Mike Gardner was a second-generation mountain guide from Idaho. In the following Arcteryx video he describes himself as a climber, skier, but above all a skateboarder.