Everest/Lhotse 2016: The Other Side of the Mountain

Every mountain has two sides, or more 🙂 As we took an “active rest day” at nearly 14, 500 feet in the village of Dingboche, we took a walk and were rewarded with seldom seen sides of two famous peaks: Lhotse and Ama Dablam.

We ran into a few climbers on their way back from Island Peak, a popular ‘Trekking Peak’ that sees many summits each season. It was nice to visit with Melissa Arnot who is taking the season off from climbing the big peaks to guide an impressive 13 year-old throughout the Khumbu. They had just summited Island.

My objective was to see the South Face of Lhotse Peak. I last saw it in 1997 on my first visit to Nepal and a trek to Everest Base Camp. We took a small detour to see Face. This impressive mountain wall is rarely climbed and has taken many lives. There is a memorial to three Polish climbers who died attempting it. Over the past three years, an amazing team of Korean have given it their all but have come up a bit short of making the top. It is steep, full of hanging seracs and avalanche prone, other than that, it’s a walk-up!

I stood there today once again in awe. It brought back memories of that 1997 trek and how Nepal and the Khumbu changed my life. Now I look at these walls as more of a climber, but this one will never feel my crampons. I will be fully satisfied if I can reach the top from the other side in a few weeks.

The other peak I saw was the North Ridge of Ama Dablam. I must have hundreds of pictures of the Southeast Ridge, the route I summited via in 1999. But the other side is a totally different mountain. It is steep, and full of cornices. Russell Brice climbed it in 1989 has attempted it a couple of times in recent years only to be stopped by the very last ridge which is full of loose soft snow.

These mountains, and many more, offer so many routes beyond the most popular ones that when I hear people complain about crowds, I think – why not try the other side?

Everest News

We are hearing that Everest Base Camp has very few people and we are witnessing very people on the trek in so the recent reports that over 350 Everest permits have been issued does not match. We will see once we get there and get a head count based on the Expedition Operators Association’s need to collect money for fixing the upper mountain.

The weather is fairly normal with clear mornings, and afternoon clouds. This far no rain or snow for us.

We will arrive at Everest Base Camp on Saturday April 10. I will have limited internet until then.

Alzheimer’s

• NO CURE, always Fatal
• No easy, inexpensive method of early detection
• 3rd leading cause of death in the US
• New case every 68 seconds, 4 seconds worldwide
• Impacts more than 5+m in US, 25m+ worldwide
• Devastating financial burden on families
• Depression higher for caregivers
• Issues are increasing rapidly as population ages

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything