Ama Dablam Climb and Trek Expedition News October and November 2018
Ama Dablam Climb and Trek Expedition News October and November 2018
News from Ama Dablam Expedition
Our first group summited with 10 members and 5 Sherpas on top. Congratulations to the team!! They had excellent weather. Our Second group just summited with 2 members and 1Sherpas on top.
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24 Nov - Update from Tenji Sherpa - Steve and Christophe Summitted AmaDablam. Congratulations and Best Wishes.
Steve and Tenji are on the Summit of AmaDablam.
Team Summit AmaDablam. Photo Martin and Chris
2 Nov - All members from 1st group are in lukla, tomorrow we're going back to Kathmandu! Everybody is happy and ready to celebrate summit. Our team had the honor to get a special place in the famous everest bakery in Namaste !
At the summit of AmaDablam. Photo Scott
Mushroom ridge. Photo Scott.
Camp 2, mushroom ridge amadablam. Photo Scott
The famous dablam. Photo Scott. Team at Basecamp.
Auto graph for ama dablam . ama dablam t-shirt with signature. Photo Martin
31 Oct - First team is coming down from mountain to Pangboche to Namche and then Lukla following day. Will try to flyout from Lukla on 3 Nov.
30 Oct - Jürgen, Christian, Juri, Christina and Martin summited . Today Ryan, Mark, Morgan, Blake and Martin w. all summitted with Sherpas. Now all are coming down to Camp 1. Congratulations and Best Wishes.
27 Oct - we are moving to c1 today, group 1 summit on 29th, group 2 summit on 30th
24 Oct - Scott and Nicole summited.
23 Oct - On Sunday the international contingent of our group made the largest step towards the summit yet. We climbed from basecamp at around 15000 feet to camp 1 at 19000 feet. The climb was arduous but extremely rewarding, as are many ordeals in life. From camp 1 you can see the impressive camp 2, from which we will launch or summit push on the 31st and 1st . However, what is more stunning is the view of the horizon. Above the clouds, the only challenge to this view comes from mountains that would dwarf anything in Europe or North America. There is nothing quite like it, with the exception of having such a moment on the summit of a beautiful peak like Ama Dablam. Ama loomed above us, reminding us of this fact. It was however a long night for our team. The gain in altitude was a trying but necessary aspect to our journey, but in general we failed very well in our night at 19,000 feet. The following day we returned to the relatively oxygen rich environment of basecamp, which would typically seem to be filled with thin air, but to our newly acclimatized lungs we may as well be at sea level. Tomorrow we will head back up the mountain to touch camp 2 and sleep at camp 1. With most of our gear at ABC courtesy of the yaks we will have a chance to move more of our gear within striking range of the summit. More importantly, the team has become a true unit and our comradeship makes the struggles of gaining and losing thousands of feet of altitude that much more bearable. Today though we enjoy a rest day and attempt to utilize the spotty internet, which is an even greater luxury than the oxygen found in the valley beneath Ama Dablam.
Landscape view from camp 2. Photo Martin
Hiking towards to ABC. At Camp 2. Photo Martin.
Camp 1. Photo Martin
20 Oct - Today our group was treated to an amazing experience, which i am sure most of us will never have the chance to be a part of again. Our team leader Martin and assistant team leader Christina were married in a traditional Nepali wedding at the base of AmaDablam. No Cathedral could match the beauty of that setting and the joyous celebration amongst our teammate and Sherpa friends was a truly wonderful thing to be a part of. It involved day drinking, throwing of rice and some sort of powder and comical dancing amongst the sherpas and climbers. The puja ceremony also went off without a hitch and our climb has been blessed by the local lama. The international portion of our team moves to camp 1 for an acclimatization night tomorrow, but for now we are all simply happy to have had such a great time bonding with our Nepali and non-Nepali teammates by celebrating love as they do.
Team members at Puja Ceromony. Photo Martin
Team members at Puja Ceromony. Photo Martin
Team members at Puja Ceromony. Photo Martin.
Team members at Puja Ceromony. Photo Martin
17 Oct -
Rope training climbing at basecamp.
Rope training climbing at basecamp.
Rope training climbing at basecamp.
Ready for the food. Member showing statue. Photo Martin
Mountain view.
Amadablam looks beautifull behind cloud. Team member posing for photo background Ama Dablam.
Ama dablam covered by clouds. Taboche covered with clouds.
Hiking toward Ama dablam basecamp.
Team members with Tenji Sherpa statue.
Amadablam seen from Tanboche.
At basecamp. Trekking toward basecamp.
15 Oct - Kathmandu to Namche. Yvon Chouinard once said "The word 'adventure' has just gotten overused. For me, adventure is when everything goes wrong. That's when the adventure starts." As our team takes a rest day in Namche, we have had time to reflect on the adventure of the past few days. That's when the adventure starts." We woke up at 4am on the 12th eager to begin our journey to Ama Dablam from the Kathmandu airport. As we entered the terminal with our caravan of luggage we were treated to a large photo of the beautiful mountain, but this would turn out to be a cruel joke on that day. Things do not run smoothly in the Kathmandu airport and that day they didnt run at all. Due to weather, all flights to Namche were cancelled and we ended up waiting until 1:30 before we elected to give up and go home. However, it was a blessing in disguise, because we decided to avoid this chaos and take a helicopter to Lukla, which allowed us to better appreciate the beautiful scenery on the way to Lukla. Sadly our team leader Martin would not be able to join the rest of the group until the day after we arrived in Lukla. In Lukla we marvelled at the absurdly short runway and were teased by views of the mountajns through a dense fog. Our Russian teammate Uri joined us in Lukla and Blake made an abortive attempt at teaching everybody a Russian card game. By this point our team is close and it is hard to imagine pursuing this sort of expedition without a good group of friends. This is perhaps one of the best parts of climbing in a group of strangers, most people who don't climb don't really understand why anyone would want to subject themselves to the hardships of high altitude mountaineering and meeting a whole new team of people who get it is a truly enriching experience. Our team is very strong and we are all confidently looking forward to climbing this peak, one of the most beautiful in the world. Martin, our leader, has an inspiring and reassuring record of 8000m summits, including Everest. He leads a group of 4 Americans, a Texan, 2 Australians, a Norwegian, a Russian and a German. The other half of our team is made up of Germans and has been at base camp for 2 days. After one night in the gateway to the Khumbu that is Lukla we trekked to Namche and were thoroughly humbled by Uri, the eldest of our group, who beat us all to Namche with ease. Namche is perhaps the most charming town in Nepal, sitting on the side of giant hills, walking anywhere is a light workout. However, we have countered this by frequent trips to the local German bakery, which also serves excellent pizza. We spent the night in Namche and were treated to our first view of Ama Dablam and Everest the morning after. Ama Dablam may be shorter than Everest, but its hard to beat its dramatic shape and steep slopes. Our team cannot wait to finally be before the open arms of ridges to which it owes its name. Tomorrow we leave for Pangbuche, but first we will take picture before the memorial to Tenzing, which ironically says "Dont climb."
12 Oct
AmaDablam and Lhotse Shar seen while trekking toward Pangboche. Climber's Signature at Tea House Resturant. Photo Martin
Bar on at Namche Bazaar. Trekking towards to Namche. Photo Martin.
Lunch time. Bar time.
Dog in the bridge. Team member in the bridge. Cloudy day at Namche.
LandScape View of Namche Bazaar. Photo Martin
View of Namche from our Lodge. Beautiful day to hike toward Namche Bazaar. Photo Martin
Suspension bridge near Phakding. Trail toward Namche Bazaar. Photo Martin
1st Group landed at Lukla Airport . stupa while we are hiking . Photo Martin
Our duffle bags ready to transfer. Having nap
Team ready to departure to Domestic Airport. Team members are waiting for heli to fly Lukla
Flying above the clouds while flying to Lukla airport via helicopter. Khundruke seen from heli. Photo Martin
Martin ready for heli. Ready for flying to Lukla.
Team members bags in Airport. Team members in pool.
11 Oct - Busy few days in Kathmandu with the members buying last minute supplies, equipment & getting to know each other, Second group are ready to leave tomorrow. While 1st Group are already in Namche.
Murari Sharma, Expedition Leader Martin and Christina F. receving permit from DOT.
Sightseeing around Kathmandu City before expeidition.
Team Roster
AmaDablam Team Roster
- Martin S. (Leader) Germany
- Martin W., (Leader-in-Training) Germany
- Blake T., (Leader-in-Training) USA
- Charles C. USA
- Nicole C. USA
- Christina, Germany
- Harold O., USA
- Daniel B., USA
- Brian C., USA
- Ryan M., Australia
- Brock M., Australia
- Morgan W., USA
- Iurii P., Russia
- Erland B., Norway
- Jon W, Israel
- Omer S., Israel
- Steve M., USA
- Laura R., USA
- Mark A., USA
- Jürgen M., Austrian
- Alexander Z., German
- Angela Böbel German
- Franz K, Osterreich
- Rita L., Osterreich
- Christian L.,Osterreich
- Christophe R., France
- Tenji Sherpa
- Lakpa Tendu Sherpa
- Lhakpa Dawa Sherpa
- Ang Dorjee Sherpa
- Phujung Bhote
- Wangchhowk Sherpa
- Galbu Sherpa
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