Ama Dablam 2006 -  Dreams and Disaster

Intro : To ABC : The Climb : Descent : Everest Base Camp Trek : Tragedy : Dispatches

On the 15^th of October I headed out to Nepal to climb Ama Dablam, one of the most beautiful mountains in the world. Over the next 5 weeks we had some amazing experiences – a lifetimes worth!

I was initially going to go to attempt Cho Oyo but after the slog on Peak Lenin I wanted to enjoy a more technical peak with fellow climbers.  When Daniel Carlsson, a Swedish climbing pal of mine had told me of his planned trip to Ama Dablam I realised immediately that this would be the dream expedition I was looking for. I needed to find an experienced team and so I got in touch with Dave and Stu at Field Touring.

By the 20^th Nov all of our team safely returned home from a great trip to Ama Dablam and the Khumbu and you can read the dispatches and see the new pics in the photo gallery.

Nepal and its people are incredible - I love the place. We saw much good humor in the face of hardship and suffering. The people make the most of things and their cheerfulness will be my lasting memory. We had good enough weather in the mornings it was sunny and in the evenings we had snow storms. We had a great team which secured our success and made trip very enjoyable. Most of us made the summit …all of us had an amazing climb. 8 of 10 members made it to the summit. In my opinion we were one of the strongest teams on the mountain. 

The trek to base camp took several days. We took it easy and I had an opportunity for a side trek out to Thame , a remote monastery which brought me into contact with the locals. I met some interesting people that day,  for example there was a friendly Porter who spoke excellent English yet had never been to school – he wanted nothing more but to enjoy my company whilst he carried his load.

During the expedition I saw several schools along the Khumbu, their facilities are 'relatively' good thanks to Edmund Hillary Trust. I was informed that other regions are much more impoverished such as the Langtang region. The schools I saw were still quite poor by our standards - pens, text books etc are always in need.

To Advanced Base Camp

It wasn’t long before we were at base camp and our work had begun. We spent the first week carrying to advanced base camp and acclimitising.  Unfortunatley, Hon Wan couldnt adjust to the altitude and  on trying for ABC exhausted himself of physiacl reserves. He decided to return and left the team to go on a sightseeing trek. The  other climbers who were reaching new height gains,  such as Daniel and Surech also struggled with the altitude i.e. chucking up and headaches. Later on in the exped they adjusted and became men of iron. The actual ascent took 5 days however it took us 2 weeks to trek out there and to carry our gear up to advanced base camp at 5500m.

I thoroughly enjoyed the climbing and apart from, the Yellow Tower, I climbed the entire route without yanking on the fixed line – very satisfying. My favorite parts were climbing up the mixed pitches on the Grey coulour – esp the ice on the 3^rd . I really enjoyed climbing from C1 to C2 – I found the first rock sections especially good. The mushroom ridge enroute to C3 was awesome – such exposure ! At camp 3 we settled in to our tents in good form. Stu and I listened to music and talked about home, we were able to radio Chad and Sean. Stu and I feasted on super noodles and smash.  The camp site at C3 is spectacular and I felt that I was on one of the most beautiful places on earth. How lucky am I!

The summit day was first class – not too long and varied…there was a nice Bregschrund to cross and an amazing scene with the blue ice of the hanging seracs gleaming next to you. Champagne climbing! We climbed in poor visibility and were in a white out when we got to the summit. The summit was marked by circle of prayer flags. We took some snaps and then got ready to go down.

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 Getting down proved much harder than the ascent as the weather had turn on us. As things kicked off on our way down, Vlad was heard to say cooly “ its fine”  and Dan said “ this is F’n brilliant!” I groaned and said “not again!”  I was thinking that we would be stormbound at C3 ..a hat-trick for me.

Luckily we got a break in the wind around 10am the next morning and got the hell out of there. It was an awkward descent, as sherpa rappelling down knife edge ridge in zero vis is not easy. I was really glad to reach Camp 2.  Dan gave me some lemon tea which revived me again. C2 to C1 was full of pauses ..waiting for people to clear the ropes..it seemed to take ages when I could have blasted it.

However once we made it back to the relative safety of Camp 1 we were treated to a spectacular sunset under a full moon. Sidi was there with a boiled egg and a hot cup of tang for each of us – unreal ! The nicest egg I have ever tasted. This kind of support was totally new to me and is another reason why I will return to climb in the Himalayas.

Getting down from C1 to Base camp took me 3 hours ..I was knackered getting across the boulder field and the icy slopes managed to make me slip frank spencer style a couple of times. I was by myself fortunately :O)  Upon reaching base camp we were treated to a terrific fry-up. Ratna, our cook, worked miracles and we later enjoyed beers, Yak curry and celebration cake. As a special request I had asked for an apple – I had developed a craving for this on the way down as I had no water. The next day we got chicken and more beer flown in thanks to the hele-evac of an aussie guy who did the ligaments in his knee outside C2 and whom Lakpa helped down. (This climber was carried down in a basket).

Everest Base Camp Trek 

Chad, Sean and Chris from our team had already headed out to Lobuche and attempted to summit this peak. I needed an extra rest day so decided to skip the climb and do a trek out to Everest instead. I couldn’t wait around and headed out the day after I got down. Unfortunatley I missed the opportunity to hook up with Daniel Carlsson as he would be up in the next day or so. The trek out to Everest Base Camp and Kalar pattar was very enjoyable as I was already acclimatised. I ran out to Gorak Shep and back to Namche in 3 days gliding past dozens of puffing trek groups in ‘conga’ lines. The actual base camp was empty – the small Canadian and Korean teams had left the day before.

I found EBC an awesome place and quite hostile -it well worth the extra 3hrs round trip from the hordes at Kalaar Pattar. In the end I had made a good decision as the guys on Lobuche found it tiring and 2 packed in their bid out of exhaustion.

Upon the teams return to Kathmandu, Vlad, Surech and I took a day out sight seeing. We were up at 4am to travel to Nagarkot to witness an amazing dawn. We were treated to a spectacle of the sun rising over the Himalaya. That day we travelled to Bhaktapur, Patan and saw dozens of Bhuddist and Hindu temples. We then visited the huge stupa at Bouddhanath. In the evening we saw the sun set over Kathmandu up at the Monkey Temple. But I found the most awesome place visited was the Pashupati Temples. Here we saw cremation ceremonies on Ghats along the holy river, Sadhus (wandering holy men) and sacred cows wondering around the temples. Children played upstream whilst paupers sifted through the silt looking for gold from the ashen remains. It was ghastly and yet enlightening – I found a respect for the Hindu faith - it must be very strong.

After each of my climbing friends headed home I took the opportunity to bus it to Kathmandu’s second city – Pokhara. This was sunny place by the lake – it had an beach like atmosphere to it. I took another early start to see the Annapurna Range at dawn. I had a lovely clear day with Annapurna and Dhulugari shining in the early morning rays. I’d like to return here again to do some paragliding with Sarah. There is a great pizza place there and I recommend pleasant beer garden that overlooks the lake temple called Boomerang where the Everest beer is nice is cold.

Tragedy

Time flew and it was not much time before I was being driven to the airport for my return flight.  Nima mentioned to me of a disaster that happened at C3 on the way. The tragedy that occurred on the mountain 9 days after we left camp 3 was very sad. 6 people were killed.

On the flight to Qatar I sat next to Steve Gandy, a team mate of the British casualty who had been helicoptered out from base camp that morning. He informed me that it was not two Swiss but two Swedes who were in the group on C3. When I got home I didn’t want to check names until the next day. Then I saw Daniel's name.III am greatly saddened by this - I have lost a good friend.

The tragedy was a terrilble shock - the risk of avalanche was a very distant concern given the history of safety at C3. People come to Ama Dablam with a very different sense of risk than when heading to a place like Everest or Pumori in which case you and your friends and family are holding in their minds that real possibility of death. For those that see such tragedies as some “timely warning” I feel that they are so ignorant of the real spectrum of risk in life. The greatest risk is not to live at all and my friend lived fully.

The following dispatch notes are taken from the Field Touring Dispatches website:http://www.fieldtouring.com/dispatches/ama_dablam_2006.php

DISPATCHES

Friday 10th November 2006

After a quick trip to Kala Pattar for great sunset views of Everest and Lhotse, our reconnaissance team of Chris, Sean and Chad headed up to the base camp of Lobuche Peak on 7 November. With fabulous weather on the morning of the 8th, all three plus climbing sherpa Lhakpa set off for the summit at 8am after a lazy breakfast. Sean and Chris, sluggish from too many yak steaks and greasy hash browns along the trekking route (plus a nasty case of wimp-itis), turned around just past high camp at 5500m.

Chad and Lhakpa continued to the summit on great snow and enjoyed perfect views of the entire Khumbu! Chad, Sean and Chris returned to Namche via Cho La Pass for great views of Cho Oyu. All agreed that Lobuche is a great peak to be added to the Field Touring Alpine portfolio.

Thursday 9th November 2006, Thyangboche

Our team has had a very exciting last 4-5 days and are now finally all down from high places and beginning the process of moving towards Lukla and ultimately Kathmandu and onwards.

Our busiest member has been Surech with a valiant summit attempt which ended high on the summit face and well above the "dablam". despite fighting significant stomach sickness for more than a weak Surech mounted the effort by calling on remaining his reserves and joined forces with our lead sherpa Tsering. They left BC on the 3rd of November and made their way to C1, on the 4th moved to C2 and rested there on the 5th. On the 6th at 2 am they left to make a summit attempt from C2 and after nealry 12hours of battling the steep and sinuous terrain they found themselves running out of good weather & reserves. Rather than place themselves at significant risk, they decided to take a few pics, congratulate each other on a good try and make their way back to C2. AS it was they needed 2-3 hours of climbing in the dark and return exhausted to C2 at approximately 8:30pm. In the morning they found the route choked with climbers moving upward to C2 and were unable to return to BC until 10:30pm after clearing out personal effects and tents at C2, C1 and ABC. They had the outstanding help of our BC assistants Kansha & Siti who carried full loads of tents and gear and enabled Surech to return less encumbered! Upun Surech's arrival we celebrated with Yak Curry, beers and "Mustang coffee" ( a brew of local brandy, coffee, sugar and some undetermined spices....strong stuff!).

Sean, Chad, Chris and Lakpa took a short detour and headed over to Lobuche E and word has it that Chad and Lakpa made the top on the 8th. They intend to return to Namche byt way of the Cho LA pass and we will give you the true update after we meet tmorrow niight in Namche. Kevin, Daniel and Vladimir all attended the annual festival at Thyangboche monastery and Kevin took the extra days to head up to Gorak Shep and the famous views of Everest at Kala Patar while Daniel and Vladimir have headed back to namche for some R&R.

Yesterday Surech and i left base camp after helping to pack up the 10plus yak loads of personal gear, climbing bags, tents, cooking gear, trash and fuel. We ambled down to pangboche and spent the afternoon chatting with a nice group from Australia who had just finished coming from Kala Patar and have made plans for a major pool tournament on the night of the 10th in namche...stay tuned for the outcome!

This morning as i began to make my way back to namche Surech decided to make his way to Chukung Ri and views of island peak and Makalu....good to see he has recovered from his summit attempt!

We are very happy with the expedition this year and glad that we were able to see 9 members reach the top and two others quite close. All of this without any injury with the exception of one rolled ankle which occurred in the way in near phakding! A second safe and successful year in a row and looking for number three next year. Our team has been very cohesive and many new friendships have been formed. Not to sound too trite but it really has been a great group and i look forward to our remaining nights together and more animated discussions of mining, politics, family,, travel, climbing and the correct rules of cribbage!

In the next dispatch I’ll send a more detailed write-up of the summit days of team Vladimir / Daniel / Lakpa / Stu & Kevin...we had a great and wild ride and a very exciting summit descent and night weathering a strong storm. A good Scottish-style climb!

Our love to all of our family and friends - we are thinking of you every day and as we leave the mountain behind our desire to see you all and be in your company grows stronger with each step. Thanks for putting up with our absence and antics in the mountains. We promise to put the garbage out and do the dishes without complaint for many months to come ;-)

Sunday 5th November

More summits! On November 3rd Vladimir, Daniel, Kevin, Lakpa and Stu reach the summit of Ama Dablam in low visibility at approximately 12.30 and descended safely in hard weather to camp 3.

After a long night with high winds we descended to camp 1 by an the exposed, wind blown ridges and spin drift filled gullies. The weather began to clear after we dropped below camp 2 and were treated to a full moon rising and the sun setting.

After a great sleep and warming sunrise the day turned out all blue sky and no wind. After a lazy breakfast we returned to base camp all safe and sound. In the meantime Surech and Tsering are making their summit push and are now at camp 2 with the plan being to reach camp 2 tomorrow and the summit by 7th November.

Monday 30th October

We’ve had a great rest day at camp 1 and lower. Sean, Chris, Dave and Chad are moving today to camp 2 and hope to arrive shortly. The day has been hot and sunny with no wind. More news to follow soon!

Dave just made contact that they’ve just arrived safe at camp 2 though are a bit short of breath after the climb. The entire team is no upon Ama Dablam and base camp is empty!

Sunday 29th October

Stu, Kev, Danny, Vlad are currently back in base camp and plan to head for C1 tomorrow to commence their push up. Chris, Dave, Chad and Sean are currently in Camp 1 and plan to make the shift to C2 tomorrow, with an idea they will try for the summit on Nov 1st . Suresh is in advance base camp, and will move to C1 in the morning with Stu and the rest of the group. Hon Wan has ended his ascent due to the worsening of a sinus condition, he was suffering the same on Island Peak however it has become progressively worse.

Hon has been a great companion and we will all miss him very much, Hon will descend to Namche tomorrow. Otherwise the team is going great and the weather is now perfect and warm. The sunsets from here are awesome, we'll post some pictures upon our return. We all miss our families and friends and send our love to all.

October 27, 2006

Hello from Advance Base Camp!

Its been a busy couple of days since our last dispatch, setting up base camp and acclimatising.

The team are all well and feeling great about the climb, at the moment Chad, Dave and Sean are en route from Camp 2 to Base Camp after spending a couple of days high on the mountain. Chris today will move from Base Camp to Advance Base Camp whilst Vladimir, Kevin, Dan and I will make a move from Advance Base Camp to Camp 1. Hon Wan is currently in Base Camp and will shortly join Surech in Advance Base Camp.

The weather is warm and sunny this morning though we're expecting a little snow fall this evening.

Everyone is fine and we're having a blast,

Until the next, Climb On!

Stu

Wed 25th October

Greetings all this is Stu calling in from Ama Dablam base-camp with a quick message on what’s happening around here Everything is progressing really well, and we expect for most of the team to head up to ABC this afternoon for a carry and a return back to the Mess tents at base-camp for a big meal and a cuppa this evening.

The Malaysian contingent amongst us have decided to opt for a rest day and keep feeding up!. Everybody is feeling well and strong and soaking up the sunshine and balmy breezes. There have been a lot of climbers topping out in the past few days and the route is very well fixed and solid. It bodes well for us in the days ahead, as the amount of work our crew will have to do.

October 22, 2006

Hello from Tyangboche,

This is it! The moment we all have been waiting for! The big day! How do you describe something that is the realization of years of dreaming and planning? I suppose you just sit there with your mouth hanging open and try not fall over backwards.

The team all camped just down the hill from Tyangboche and as we arrived the snow started to fall. What a wonderful scene. We couldn’t see any mountains but we all knew what was in store for us when the skies become clear. This morning we were rewarded with the surreal views of Ama Dablam, so huge, so steep, so wonderful. We were all very pleased to spot a cluster of tents at Camp 3. A real sign that progress has been made on the mountain. We hope that the recent success on Mt Everest will serve as a good omen for everyone at Ama Dablam base camp.

This morning Stu and I saw our fabulous ground operator Nima T Sherpa off. He has taken such good care of us and treated us all as if we were his own family. It was a sad moment for all to see him go.

With the fresh snow, the true spirit of Tyangboche was revealed. The monks from the Tyangboche Monastery all pulled out their snow boards and skis and all raced for first tracks through the heart of town. What a place!

Except for a few sore throats and runny noses, the team is all I tip top shape. Everyone sends their love and kisses from the wonderful winter wonderland we’ve all dreamed of for so long.

Namaste and climb on!

Chris

October 21, 2006

Namche Bazaar

First of all hello to all of our family, friends and trip followers! Our team is healthy and in good spirits after two days of acclimatizing walks and pizzas and we are ready for the demands of the days ahead.

Yesterday many of us took a walk up to Kunde through a lush forest and onto ridge of cliffs and caves and boulders which reminded us each in turn of some favourite place we had hiked before (lake district, tetons, white mountains, and more) While Vladimir, Hon Wan and Daniel remained low Dave, Chad, Sean and I managed to climb a steep slope and walked along a ridge reaching 4200m. I was lucky enough to share my 44th (gulp!) birthday with good company all day and it was so much fun that we are planning a few false birthdays just to get the cook staff to make special birthday cakes again! Surech has volunteered to be the first and we will celebrate his birthday on the 25th. Please don't email or call our cooks ;-)

Kevin opted to make the long walk to Thame in spite of somewhat threatening skies and was rewarded with a 6 hour roundtrip walk that took him up to the monastery and enabled him to meet and talk with many locals. He came back in time for tea refreshed and invigorated by a day of solitude and cultural exchange. Surech had mildly twisted an ankle on the walk from Phakding to Namche and took the day to rest up his ankle which seems well on the way to fully mending. Chris ambled over to the Everest View hotel and chatted up a few other Canadians and wandered through the forests which occupy the rim above Namche.

At 4pm we all gathered for tea and cards at our campsite just above namche. we must say that our location is fantastic as it is out of the fray of town and yet quite close. as well we are camped in a semicircle around a crashed helicopter and it looks from just above our site as if we are the luckiest people in the world to have the helicopter just miss us! The crash occurred last year just after our expedition and the good news is that no one was seriously injured.

We are exceited to get on the trail and on the way to Ama Dablam and ready to leave behind the frantic shopping center and high tech tea houses of Namche. Good bye to Everest hardware jackets, ESPN cable tv and hordes of tourists, trekkers and climbers on their way to or from their objectives.

We depart this morning for base camp with a night planned in Deboche along the way. The two day trek will take us along a precipitous trail high above the Bhodi khosi with outstanding views of Ama Dablam, Lhotse, Everest, Tamserku and more. We will cross the river several times rising to visit the Thyngboche monastery and descend through fresh rhododendron forests only to rise again to Pangboche before crossing the river for a final time before the arduous slope leading to base camp at 4500m. With good luck, ankles and knees and backs will all survive the trail and we will have some good rest and acclimatisation days at base camp. We hear that there are more than 100 tents already at base camp and we look forward to the camaraderie among expeditions which we enjoyed last year.

We hope that we will be able to send good dispatches in the weeks ahead but given satellite phone challenges we had in Pakistan we will just have to see. At minimum we will send out short messages by SMS and perhaps make them more frequent than we might phone dispatches. Just so you can all have a sense of what our climb may look like here is my approximate itinerary from last years successful ascent.

Oct 21 to Thyngboche and sleeping in Deboche
Oct 22 arrive BC
Oct 23 rest
Oct 24 carry ABC
Oct 25 move to ABC
Oct 26 carry to c1 and return to BC
Oct 27 rest BC
Oct 28 to ABC
Oct 29 to C1
Oct 30 rest C1
Oct 31 carry c2
Nov 1 move C2
Nov 2 move to C3
Nov 3 summit and return to C3
Nov 4 return to C1
Nov 5 return to BC

With good luck all members will be within a few days of this. We leave from Lukla on the 12th of October and with luck there will be some spare days for a quick ascent of lobuche in preparation for offering a Lobuche trip in the spring. We already have a Mera and Island peak expedition planned for next fall so let us know if you are interested in either!

Cheers from Namche, stu the elder

October 20, 2006

The team is assembled in the lovely Sherpa village of Namanche Bazar and we are all feeling excellent and ready to continue our acclimatization schedule. Today, we were blessed with wonderful views of Mt. Everest, Lhotse and of course our objective, Ama Dablam.

Tomorrow, we will push ourselves a little higher to prepare for our two day approach into base camp through Pangboche. The team is getting very excited and everyone is working hard to keep themselves fit and hydrated while our excellent Sherpa staff assemble base camp.

Stu’s bag arrived ahead of schedule and everything is coming together nicely. The permits are signed and we are ready to get to the mountain and begin what we all came here to do. Have fun, climb hard and become great friends in the process.

Please check back soon for updates on our progress as we work our way towards base camp.

All the Best

Chris

October 16, 2006

Welcome from Kathamandu!

Our team has assembled in the verdent valley of Kathmandu and we are all anxious to get under way to Lukla tomorrow morning. The town is significantly busier this year than last year and all oif the shop keepers are happy with the business. There is certainly amore relaxed and easy going feeling in town compared to a year ago.

We are awaiting one bag (Stu's!) still somewhere in the Thai Airways new airport terminal which did not make the final connection from Bankok to Katmandu. Vladimir had 2 bags which arrived a few days late so we are hopeful that the final bag will catch up with us in Namche by the 20th before we have to make our way to base camp.

Our plan is to catch the 6:30 am flight tomorrow to Lukla and trek to Phakding to spend the night. The next day we will make the long and demanding climb up to the cultural and economic heart of the Khumbu, Namche, where we will be for three nights to acclimatize. We will send new word when we arrive.

We send our love to all of our family and friends at home and we want you to know that we are thinking of you.

Til the 18th or 19th!

cheers,