Recent Climbing News
We are in the saddle season for the big mountains – 8000ers post-monsoon in Nepal and anticipated winter climbs this winter. So here’s a quick round-up of some of the more interesting recent activities.
Autumn 2018 Himalayan Climbing: Summit Pushes Begin
Pretty much on schedule, multiple teams will be starting their summit push this week, if they haven’t already. The weather continues to be decent but fresh snow on Dhaulagiri and Annapurna will require a couple days to settle. Cho Oyu Climbing the Seven Summits team reported they left for the summit today, Monday Sept 24 2018: “Their plan is to head up to Camp 1 today and on to Camp 2 tomorrow. We are looking at an excellent weather window coming our way with low winds and dry conditions. We will keep watching the forecast like hawks as they make their way up the mountain but so far, so good.” Kobler reports they are also leaving for the summit as is Adventure Consultants who posted “The time has come ! All the preparation, training, acclimatisation is done and tomorrow we begin our accent of Cho Oyu.” Alpenglow will leave BC on the 26th. Could be a bit crowded on the route. Manaslu – Rain and Snow Apparently there has been wifi problems out of Sama Goan – a 1st world problem – that has hampered comms from Manaslu but we do know that there has been rain at Base Camp, and snow up high. I’ve seen reports of 1.5 meters or 5-feet of new snow above C2. In other words, a normal season on Manaslu. A summit window around September 26-29 is emerging that will attract most all of the teams. On Manaslu, you climb when the weather allows, waiting is a poor option. The vast majority of the estimated 200 climbers will take the standard route but a couple of teams will attempt to climb alpine style via the pinnacle and several will ski from the summit – a popular option in recent years. According to my friend Hugues Duplantier, who is climbing Manaslu, there is a Nepal climber who plans to paraglide from the summit. Mingma Sherpa running one of the many, many Sherpa lead large teams reports in: Imagine Nepal Manaslu Expedition consists of 10 foreign members, 4 cooking staffs and 10sherpa. All members and Sherpa slept at camp1, camp2, camp3 and returned back to base camp. Now the team will take few days rest in base camp and will make final summit push by end of September. Sergi Mingote is reported to have left C3 with no Os for an alpine climb of Manaslu. He summited Broad Peak and K2 a few months ago. Polski Himalaizm Zimowy 2016-2020 im. Artura Hajzera reported a small earthquake but no damage. Dhaulagiri – Slow Progress with Snow 79-year-old Spanish climber Carlos Soria Fontan has done one rotation and is back in Base Camp. They conducted their puja today. Weather has stalled a lot of progress on this peak this season similar to this past spring. Recent fresh snow has required teams to pause for a couple of days to let it all settle but the sun is now out. Billi Bierling has a very nice write up posted a few days ago on her Dhaulagiri experience and the tragic death of a Sherpa fixing rope. She is with Kobler. This is a brief excerpt but I encourage you to read the entire post: Third rotation: After two more days, we were once again on the long path to camp 1. of entry into the route requires extreme concentration, because this leads in the middle of the so-called “Eiger” – when you stand before it, you know immediately why this big boulder Wearing that name. It is true that there is a feeling of a smaller version of the famous eiger north face. This time we needed “only” 8 hours and 20 minutes for the rise, which was the record so far. ” I’m pulling the hat in front of my teammates and I have no idea how they found the way past the countless crevasses,” says billi. ” I am very grateful to you.” in nice weather we made it comfortable in the already established tents and waited for the opening of the next day, because then it should be in camp 2 to CA. 6.400 m. We broke comfortably at 8.30 and saw the sherpas of the other expedition that pinned the way to camp 3 When we reached our three sherpas at about 6.000 M, we learned about the misfortune. AN AVALANCHE WAS OVER CAMP 2 and tore three of the seven sherpas. Two were able to escape from the snow, but young dawa gyal Jen disappeared into the snow and could no longer be found. The team went off. We did it and returned to camp 1 ” I think we should not continue to rise out of respect and the suboptimal conditions on the mountain,” informed us Andreas – a decision we all agreed with. In the afternoon we heard the helicopter that was looking for the young sherpa, but unfortunately only a backpack could be found – he himself will remain in eternal ice. After another night at camp 1, we were on the next day at 5.30 out of the bags and again rose in the sunshine direction 2 where our three sherpas had already set up a tent. However, since the weather forecast is unfavourable for the next two days, we decided on the same day. Lhotse Ski Descent Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison, climbing with a team of Sherpas, are fighting to get the route in but are reporting all is well. Annapurna Ski Descent Two Russian climbers/skiers, Vitaly Lazo and Anton Pugovkin, are hoping to ski down Annapurna I at 8,091-meter/26,545-feet. The have reached C2 at 5,600-meters/18,372-feet. They report a lot of fresh snow requiring time to settle, Chinese Fight on Manaslu Sadly, this headline made the rounds last week. I choose to bury it as it is a shame to see such behavior on the mountains. Anyway, it appears two Chinese climbers with different teams got into a verbal dispute about a business dealing back home. The argument escalated when one of the protagonists kicked the other in his chest
Autumn 2018 Himalayan Climbing: Sherpas Dies on Dhaulagiri
Team after team are wrapping up their acclimatization rotations so look for summit pushed to begin as early as this weekend or early next week. The weather is looking poor for next couple of days but then returning to nice autumn conditions, albeit with rain around Manaslu and snow on Dhaulagiri – which seems to be the norm for those peaks. Sherpa Death on Dhaulagiri As happens regularly when climbing the world’s largest peaks, a death has occurred. This time he was Dawa Geljen Sherpa of Makalu rural municipality – 2, Sankhuwasabha on Dhaulagiri. Apparently he was part of a seven-person rope fixing team when an avalanche slab below them released carrying the Sherpas downslope. Dawa Geljen didn’t survive. He was employed by Seven Summits Treks and supporting a team that included 79-year-old Spanish climber Carlos Soria Fontan. There were between Camp 2 at 6,400-meters/20,997-feet and Camp 3 at 7,400-meters/24,278-feet. Cho Oyu The world’s sixth highest peak at 26,907’/8201m is the second most popular 8000er after Everest with over 3,500 summits. Everest now has over 8,000 summits. Most teams have spent nights as high as Camp 2 at 7,100-meters/23,293-feet – a bit higher than Aconcagua. This year the commercial teams include. Adventure Consultants IMG 7 Summits Alpenglow Kobler reports they are at “6500 M, have built a depot with tents, ropes, cooker and gas, and slept two nights at camp 1 in 5.800 m. The Acclimation is progressing.” Caroline Gleich climbing with Alpenglow has been posting about her difficulties adjusting the altitude, but now she seems fine. Manaslu – 250++ climbers Similar to Cho Oyu, Manaslu is regarded as attainable and in recent years has seen a dramatic increase in traffic with the closures and avalanches on Cho Oyu. However, some foreign guide companies refuse to guide on Manaslu feeling the avalanche risk is too great so they focus on Cho Oyu. Most of the communication coming from Manaslu says that their rotations are on schedule and they are optimistic about summiting soon. Dhaulagiri – Carlos’ last Time 79-year-old Spanish climber Carlos Soria Fontan has done one rotation and is back in Base Camp. Also Kobler is running a trip on Dhaulagiri this year and they report in all is well expect for the Sherpa’s death which has hit the entire camp hard. Lhotse Ski Descent Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison, partially sponsored by The North Face will attempt a ski descent from the summit of Lhotse this autumn. They have established the route to Camp 2 on the Western Cwm Annapurna Ski Descent Two Russian climbers/skiers, Vitaly Lazo and Anton Pugovkin, will attempt ski down Annapurna I at 8,091-meter/26,545-feet. Movie: Dawn Wall Lastly, I saw the movie The Dawn Wall last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is showing in limited release but if you a chance, take it. In January, 2015, American rock climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson sent a route on Yosemite’s El Capitan almost everyone said simply couldn’t be done. The movie takes us through their lives, their friendship and struggles on the Wall. Climb On! Alan Memories are Everything
Autumn Himalayan Climbing: More Summits, More Attempts!
“It ain’t over till it’s over.” – Yogi Berra Surprise on Dhaulagiri – 5 Summits! No for Carlos We have been following the efforts of 78-year-old Spanish climber Carlos Soria Fontan on Dhaulagiri. They tried twice in September to summit including once going up the wrong couloir. By the time they discovered their mistake, it was too late with conditions worsening. They never got another good chance as conditions continued to degrade thus ending his 8th attempt over nine years to summit Yes for Boyan, Yuri and Ang Phurb But Bulgarian climber Boyan Petrov who was climbing at times with Carlos persevered and summited on September 29, 2017, his 10th 8000er. He tired a week earlier without success, you can read about it here and for his summit push read here. A few days later, on October 1, Russian climber Yuri Kruglov and Ang Phurba Sherpa also summited Dhaulagiri. All of the links are excellent overview of their efforts. Another Yes for Cala and Mathias and a great Photo My friend László Pintér gave me the pointer that Italian Carlo Alberto Cimenti aka “Cala” and Mathias König had reached the summit of Dhaulagiri solo from Camp 3. Yesterday, the Italian Carlo Alberto Cimenti aka “Cala” has reached the summit of Dhaulagiri solo from Camp 3. Leader of the Italian-Swiss expedition, Davide Gerlero already descended from Camp 2, passing on the photo of the late Luca Borgoni, who initiated and mainly funded the expedition, winning the Mountopia video contest. He fell to his death on the Matterhorn this July during training. He was 22. Cala took his photo to the summit of Dhaulagiri, as promised to his family. The Swiss member of the team, Mathias König was together in Camp 3 with Cala, but decided to wait a little more with the summit push. Cala started first, alone, reaching the summit after an arduous climb, with wind and a lot of doubt, with no tracks in the snow and no fixed ropes. Two hours after Cala, Matthias also left Camp 3 and headed to the summit. Later he met the already descending Cala and reached the summit himself. They made it safely back to Camp 3 and are heading down the mountain to base camp today. The original plan to ski the whole mountain has not come together, further details are avaited. Photos show that Cala did ski some parts of the mountain though in the past weeks. On Facebook Cala’s team posted this great picture with the details: And, One More First Ascent! There was another first ascent in Nepal! Jost Kobusch claims to have accomplished the solo first ascent of the 4th highest unclimbed mountain in the world, Nangpai Gosum II at 23,937/7296m on the border of Chia and Nepal. More Manaslu Hans Kammerlander is headed back to Manaslu on October 11, 2017. After losing two close teammates, Friedl Mutschlechner and Karl Großrubatscher, on the peak in 1991, he vowed not to go back being content with summiting 13 of the 14 800ers. One asterisk however is that he reached the central summit at 8008 meters, not the true summit of 8,027m on Shishapangma. He posted on his blog: I decided to return once again to Manaslu. That mountain where I lost two good friends in a tragic and fateful day 1991st I am now of the opinion that I have thus been waiting far too long. Perhaps the time is really ripe for it only now. Together with my North Tyrol friend and partner Stefan Keck, a mountain guide colleagues from Stans, I will now leave early October on an expedition to Manaslu. We are accompanied by an Austrian film crew which reconstructs important phases of my life for several weeks. This documentary feature film will then be released in the autumn 2018th We want to try to tell at this point more or less regularly over the course of our plan to cruise the Manaslu after climbing with skis. Not always it will be possible technically to connect to Europe. But together with my friend and author Walther Lücker want Stefan Keck and I try to keep you posted. For more on this 60 year-old please read this excellent interview by Stefan Nestler. Climb On! Alan Memories are Everything
Autumn Himalayan Climbing: Manaslu Summits, Dhaulagiri Over
With a period of excellent weather on Manaslu, teams are making their summit pushes and over 150 have aready summited this week. However, deep snow on Dhaulagiri has ended the Autumn summit bids. Dhaulagiri – Over for the 78 year-old 78-year-old Spanish climber Carlos Soria Fontan on Dhaulagiri has ended his 8th attempt over nine years to summit Dhaulagiri. They tried to summit last week but went up the wrong couloir. By the time they discovered their mistake, it was too late with conditions worsening. His first attempt on Dhaulagiri was in 1998 and has made others in 2001, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2015, and spring of 2017. His highest thus far was 7700 meters on the 8167 meter peak. He has Dhaulagiri and Shishapangma remaining to complete his dream of summiting all fourteen of the 8000 meter peaks. Carlos’s team posted on Facebook: this morning we started a second attempt at the mountain. We knew that we did not have many possibilities, because of the heavy snowfall of the previous days, but we wanted to check for ourselves. We have started early ascension, and quickly we have been able to make sure that the amount of snow accumulated was a big setback to the intentions of trying the summit. During the ascent to field 1 there have been several avalanches, not far away. In higher areas, more snow is accumulating and in places such as the journey, the way to the top, the danger of avalanches is very high. In addition, Field 1 stores have been broken by inclement weather, assuming that field 2 AND FIELD 3 have run the same fate. The ropes, previously installed, are buried. In the face of all these disadvantages we have no choice but to permanently suspend our expedition to the dhaulagiri for this season Manaslu – Summits and Huge Crowds This week opened with the tragic news of Philip Harvey‘s death while descending. He reportedly was suffering from altitude sickness. Currently Manaslu is giving every team a chance to summit with excellent weather conditions and are they ever taking advantage of it! Reports are coming in daily of summits. There are an estimated 235 foreigners with permits plus at least that many Sherpas on the mountain. It is so crowded due to China closing Cho Oyu this Autumn fearing demonstrations during a meeting in Lhasa. Seven Summits Treks who has recently catered to Indain and Chinese members with low prices has the largest team on Manaslu and are enjoying excellent success thus far with almost 90 summits. These teams are reporting summits with 69 foreigners and over 80 Sherpas totaling 149 people. Click on the links to see the names of the climbers. Himalayan Experience: 2 members, 2 Sherpas Seven Summits Treks: 36 Chinese, 3 French, 1 Australian, 1 Mexican, 2 Koreans, over 45 Sherpas – 90 estimated total TAGnepal (Tendi Sherpa): 4 members, 4 Sherpas SummitClimb: no details Satori Adventures: 2 Indian, 1 Australian, 3 Italians, 1 French, 1 Israeli, 1 Romanian and 13 Sherpas Climbalaya Treks: 6 members, 5 Sherpas Ascent Himalaya: 3 Norwegians, 8 Sherpas Snowy Horizon Treks: 2 members, 2 Sherpas With the weather continuing to look good, the remaining teams are preparing for their push. The boot path is surely well established! Other teams pushing soon include: Seven Summits Club, Adventure Consultants, Arnold Coster, Teams that were on the mountain but are not updating their plans include Adventure Peaks. Crowds With so many people on Manaslu, long lines are inevitable. This picture posted by Seven Summits Treks shows the story. I added one of the same area during my climb in 2013 when there was a total of 121 summits. Chances are excellent there will be twice that number in 2017 – a record. The most successful year thus far on Manaslu was in 2011 with 285 total summits followed by 2012 and 2013 with 121 each. There have been over 150 in 2017 with many more to come. This section between C3 and C4 is a long snow slope at an aggressive angle. It causes many people to slow to a crawl. Once at the top of this slope, the route turns to the climber’s right to C4. Lhotse – South Korea back for 5th time South Korean, Sung Taek Hong at age 51 is back for the 5th time to attempt Lhotse’s South Face. The only time this route has been climbed was in October 1990 by Russian climbers Serguey Bershov and Vladimir Karataev according to the Himalayan Database. Sung Taek has attempted this route in each of the previous four years. This year he has Spanish climber Jorge Egocheaga at age 49 with him. Jorge has summited all 14 of the 8000ers but has some controvesery in his past. The pair had wanted to attempt Lhotse this past Spring but the Chinese refused to give the permits due to a political clash between China and South Korea. Their latest update should have them at base camp now: Our team has arrived in Chukkung(4,730m) which is the nearest village from the Lhotse SF base camp. They started their journey to the BC from Kathmandu on the Sep 9th, trek to Namche Bazaar on Sep 10th, went through Temgboche, Dingboche and arrived at Chukkung today . After a short acclimatization, they will move to built their base camp on Sep 16th. Congratulations to all who summited and best of luck to the rest. Climb On! Alan Memories are Everything
Autumn Himalayan Climbing: Manaslu Summit Rush, Dhaulagiri Stalled
After a few days of heavy, deep snow on Manaslu, the hordes are prepared to push hard this week. Look for huge crowds at all camps and competition on the narrow summit. Meanwhile rain at base camp and heavy snow above has stalled all efforts on Dhaulagiri. Dhaulagiri – Rain and Snow 78-year-old Spanish climber Carlos Soria Fontan on Dhaulagiri is holding at base camp after his first summit attempt stalled after they went up the wrong gully to reach the summit. By the time they had discovered their mistake, the conditions turned cold, windy and snowy so they returned to base camp. Carlos’s team posted on Facebook: The #Expedicióncorreos sends us an image today from the base field that says it all. And it is that since they came down from making the attempt at the top of the dhaulagiri, it has not stopped raining, day and night. What is water in the base field becomes snow in the upper fields of the mountain, which begins to be a concern for the potential danger of avalanches, which could bury the ropes installed. You have no choice but to wait patiently, observing the changes in the mountain, waiting for the time to improve and that the circumstances can be given to make a second attempt to achieve that spectacular summit that you have almost touched with the tip of The fingers. Much mood team! ???????? Manaslu – crowded at all camps After several Sherpas and two members from Himex summited last week, heavy snow hit Manalsu holding everyone at Base Camp. Now the weather has moved on and there is an estimated 500 people wanting to summit this week. This is a huge number and more like what we see on Everest. Manaslu is not that large of a peak and finding safe camp sites from avalanches is always a problem. Also the summit is so narrow and small that only 2 people can stand on it at one time. I waited an hour in 2013 for my turn, so I can’t image what it will be like this week. Hopefully the weather stays calm enough to support all the teams. Seven Summits Treks posted on their huge team which has become their normal for all their Everest and Manaslu climbs: Chinese Team (Zhang Wei) (9 Member 10 Sherpas) is at Camp 4 and planning to summit tomorrow (25th Sep). Korean Team (2 Korean and 5 Sherpas) are at C4, summit plan 25th Sep. Another Chinese Team (Song’s Team) is at C3 & C2 and planning to summit on 26&27 Sep. Flor (f) from peru is at Camp one planning to summit on 28th sep. Four French are at C2. Aparna Kumar (India) is at C4, summit plan 25th Sep. William from Australia is at C3 with his sherpa Ang dawa, summit plan 26th Sep. Varga Csaba from Hungary is at C2. Sung Il Nam (Korea) with his Sherpa Thilen is at C2. Arnold’s International team will be heading to C1 tomorrow. The Summit Climb team made an interesting post which is indicative of some commercial team’s’ strategy – let others do the work and follow their path. Tons of snow here as well as at least four times the number of tents! And I have yet to see the upper part of Camp 1. So, we will now spend the night here, and in the morning move on up to Camp 2. It is still snowing as it has been the whole way up, so we will need to take it easy and hope that somebody else will break trail before us. Adventure Consultants reported: Camp 1, 2nd rotation. Well the heavy rain stopped but the cloud and drizzle stayed but we came up to camp 1 anyway arriving here just after Lunch. First jobs was to dig out the tents then get clean snow for melting water, then a mid afternoon nap, make dinner, sleep and get up early for our trip up to camp 2 were we will spend two nights. The weather the next few days is looking good with many teams going for the summit. We wish them luck and it’s great to have so many people moving on the mountain to keep the route open. Our turn will come. Best of luck to all and hoping the weather holds for them. Climb On! Alan Memories are Everything
Autumn Himalayan Climbing: First Summits and Heavy Snow Ahead
The rope fixers reached the summit of Manaslu while other teams across the Himalayan continue to establish high camps enjoying good weather with one exception, those on Dhaulagiri saw their summit bid stopped cold. Dhaulagiri – summit stopped 78-year-old Spanish climber Carlos Soria Fontan on Dhaulagiri saw his first summit attempt stalled after they went up the wrong gully to reach the summit. By the time they had discovered their mistake, the conditions turned cold, windy and snowy so they have returned to base camp to regroup and will hopefully give it one more try. Carlos is trying to complete his quest to summit all 14 of the 8000 meter peaks. He has Dhaulagiri and Shishapangma remaining. On this climb he is teaming with Luis Carcavilla (Spain), Luis Mifuel Lopez (Spain) & Boyan Petrov (Bulgaria). Carlos’s team posted on Facebook: One of the keys to the dhaulagiri is to choose the corridor correctly, about 100 m, which gives access to the Royal Summit. In this season we were the first group to go to the top, so we did not have any reference to previous ascents. We also found the conditions of the final part of the mountain very changed, with regard to last spring. We decided to start ascension by a first runner, who finally did not turn out to be the right one. We walked at the foot of the final stripe looking for the right route, but the fog, which was increasingly present, made it difficult for us to work. We went to the foot of what could be the path that gives access to the top, but the great cornices that were at the end of the corridor, and that we had not appreciated on other occasions, did not make this option very clear. We had only a hundred feet of fixed rope for the final attempt, without having a clear enough choice. Time went on, and we didn’t want to get too late. Despite finding us so close to the top, the most coherent decision was to descend and try again in a few days with everything much clearer. The descent was long and hard to Field III. We decided to rest one more night in field I, to hydrate and recover a little more before we get to base camp. We can only rest for a few more days in the base camp, to recover from these days on the mountain which, more than an attempt, has been even harder than ascension to a summit of eight meters, making it all clearer. We need to look for another opportunity for the next few days and try for the second time the top of this mountain that every day we know more. Manaslu – crowded at all camps The route is fixed to the summit by Sherpas from Seven Summits treks and Phurba Tashi Sherpa from Himex who is tied for the most Everest summits at 21. It is significant that he was on the rope team as he has fixed this route many times and does it well. I followed him to the summit on 2013. Conditions are reported fairly normal thus far. The mountain is crowded with over 500 climbers, including Sherpas. Seven Summits posted on 18 September: Rope fixing team made first Summit of Manaslu – 2017. Local time (9:57am) : The team of rope fixing from Seven Summit Treks has made the first successful summit of Mt. Manalsu (8,163m). Karma Gyalzen Sherpa informed to basecamp by walkie talkie communication that they fixed the rope to the summit of world’s 8th highest peak. The team was followed and assist by two sherpas including Phurba Tashi Sherpa and two climbing members of Himex. The members of fixing team from SST Nga Tashi Sherpa, Damai Sarki and Dawa Chiring also made the summit of Manalsu. It is unclear if they fixed to the true summit or the fore summit this year, 2017, as reaching the true summit is often dangerous and difficult as it’s a corniced edge that can easily give way. Many climbers have reached the fore summit, much lower, and claimed the true summit. The Adventure Peaks team is depending on others to set the route, fix the ropes and mark the path. This strategy has left them wanting as they were forced to return to base camp after losing the trail: The followed day we decided to head up to Camp 3. To explain, as soon as we had reached the edge of the glacier en route to Camp 1, there have been fixed rope to clip into and follow. So, in reality, it is impossible to ‘get lost’. However, above Camp 2, the rope stops and you have to follow bamboo wands, and where the fixing team of Sherpa’s deem necessary they put in rope. So we left Camp 2 with the cloud rolling in and out just enough to see the 200m spaced bamboo until we got to another steepening and then we were back on the fixed rope. At the top of this, the rope stopped and we are back on the bamboo wands. This in reality is quite unnerving since when the cloud rolls in and you enter the white room, think about walking in a white out on the Cairngorm plateau with huge, and we are speaking about huge, crevasses that are just waiting for you to plop into to never be seen again. Having stretched our legs for the morning, we decided to return to camp 2 and wait for the fixing team to continue marking the route. Adventure Consultants reports good weather but has only made it to Camp 1: The team has all made it to Camp 1 for the night. The weather has been perfect, there are lots of people but fortunately plenty of room at this camp. The great thing about acclimatising is it generally gets easier each time you go up, so we got to Camp 1 just before lunch in under 4
Autumn Himalayan Climbing: Manaslu, Dhaulagiri, Lhotse
The autumn Himalayan climbing season is well underway with Manaslu, located entirely in Nepal, dominating the numbers but not the challenge. Let’s look at the more interesting climbs first. Lhotse – South Korea back for 5th time South Korean, Sung Taek Hong at age 51 is back for the 5th time to attempt Lhotse’s South Face. The only time this route has been climbed was in October 1990 by Russian climbers Serguey Bershov and Vladimir Karataev according to the Himalayan Database. Sung Taek has attempted this route in each of the previous four years. This year he has Spanish climber Jorge Egocheaga at age 49 with him. Jorge has summited all 14 of the 8000ers but has some controvesery in his past. The pair had wanted to attempt Lhotse this past Spring but the Chinese refused to give the permits due to a political clash between China and South Korea. Dhaulagiri – 7 Climbers 78-year-old Spanish climber Carlos Soria Fontan is back on Dhaulagiri trying to complete his quest to summit all 14 of the 8000 meter peaks. He has spent several nights above base camp as he acclimatizing. He posted on Facebook: In the morning we had an early breakfast, at 5:30 a.m. and started the descent towards the base camp. The weather improves and we only have to be careful with the numerous cracks that are in this route and that have been covered with the last snowfall. The final part of the road, composed mainly of stone and mud, makes the descent a bit heavier. “ He attempted Dhaulagiri in the spring of this year but was turned back by weather. If he summits Dhaulagiri, he will only have Shishapangma, the only 8000er fully located in Tibet, to summit. Carlos has set the age record for many of the 8000ers: K 2 (aged 65), Broad Peak (68), Makalu (69), Gasherbrum I (70), Manaslu (71), Lhotse (72), Kangchendzönga (75) and Annapurna (77). He is joined on this climb organized by Seven Summits Treks by Luis Carcavilla (Spain), Luis Mifuel Lopez (Spain) & Boyan Petrov (Bulgaria). Boyan is after his 10th 8000ers. Dhaulagiri Skiing! According to my friend Laszlo Pinter, an Italian-Swiss duo is trying to climb and ski/snowboard Dhaulagiri. Davide Gerlero, Carlo Alberto Cimenti and the Swiss Matthias Koenig have already arrived in Nepal. They want to dedicate the descent to their late friend Luca Borgoni, 22, who fell off the Matterhorn this July and died. He was presumably training/skyrunnig and slipped. He was the one who initiated the expedition, and got money for it by winning the Mountopia video contest. The oney was passed on to Gerlero. This would be the first full descent of the mountain from summit to BC. The Czech David Fojtik skied it in 2009, but missed the top 20 metres, plus another 500 metres between C3 and C2. Manaslu – 270 climbers! The route is fixed to Camp 3 and conditions are reported fairly normal thus far. The mountain is crowded to be sure. Manaslu is advertised as “easy” by guides trying to lure climbers into attempting the world’s 8th highest peak. They fail to mention that it has a death to summit ratio higher than Everest and Cho Oyu at 82 deaths with 1,134 summits or 7.2%. Cho Oyu is 1.4% (the safest of the 8000ers) and Everest is 3.7%. According to the Himalayan Times, there are 135 foreigners with permits this year from 11 teams including Adventure Peaks, Adventure Consultants, 7 Summits Club, Seven Summit Treks, Summit Climb, Satori Adventures, Mountain Experience, Climbalaya Treks, Ascent Himalaya, Himalayan Guides and Snowy Horizon Treks. Seven Summits Treks with a huge 60 members posted about their Sherpas fixing the route to Camp 2. They cater to the low cost members from India and China and provide basic support. This formula has been very successful for them thus far. Nga Tashi, Ngima Dorchi, Damai Sarki, Lakpa Temba, Vinayak Jung Malla & Tenje Chumbi Sherpa successful fixed the rope up to an altitude of 6,800m approx. (Camp 3) via standard NE Route and planning to go higher in fews days as all climbers will soon arrive to the basecamp. This year Seven Summit Treks have 60 individual climbers who will be attempting to the summit among them 22 climbers (Chinese, Iranian, Indian and South Korean) reached to the Sama Gaon today by Heli flight. #dhaulagiri The team of Carlos Soria has descend down to Basecamp of Mt. Dhalulagiri I after acclimatizing for couple of days between CI and CII. (Ming Temba Updated) Stay connected for further updates. Himalayan Experience is also running a trip in 2017 along with several other western companies. Himex has been guiding Manaslu since 2008. They have combined their base camp with Adventure Consultants but are climbing separately on the the mountain. In spite of Brice saying he was no longer going to base camp for his Himex’s climbs, he is at Manaslu this Autumn. Brice comments on crowds and conditions: But around us, there are many new camps that we do not normally see here, so hundreds of Sherpas have been busy building tent platforms in new locations. So it would appear that it is indeed going to be a busy season. It is rumoured that there is at least 300 western climbers and about the same number of Sherpas here this season, although there are only a few of these climbers here at BC at the moment. I am sure there will be a big influx of climbers in the coming days. Looking at conditions I see less avalanche activity than normal, and what headwalls that are visible are only about 1m deep, which would indicate that there was not much snow up high on the hill during the monsoon season. But there are many more runnels in the snow up to about C2 (6,300m) which would tend to indicate that it has been raining a lot up to this altitude. The small glacier just behind the BC is even smaller and is now