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6 October -
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: WWW.DHAULAGIRINEWS.COM TEAM
WALKS ACROSS FRENCH PASS & DAMPHUS PASS TO YAKARKA @ 4200 M / 13,779 FT.
GORGEOUS!
4 October -
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: WWW.DHAULAGIRINEWS.COM TEAM
ALL BACK DOWN SAFELY IN BASECAMP. TODAY IS OUR LAST DAY IN THIS BEAUTIFUL
CAMP.
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: ALL DHAULAGIRI TEAM TUCKED
INTO BED SAFE & SOUND IN CAMP 1, WHILE A SNOWSTORM LASHES THE MOUNTAIN
3 October -
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: TEAM TURNS ROUND @ 0330HRS.
UNSTABLE SNOW. EVERYONE OK. NOW HEADED DOWN FOR CAMP 1
2 October -
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: GOOD LUCK FOR SUMMIT!
WWW.DHAULAGIRINEWS.COM TEAM IS NOW IN HIGHCAMP @ 7577 MTRS / 24,852 FT. UPWARD
DEPARTUR IN 3 HRS.
1 October -
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: DHAULAGIRI TEAM REST DAY IN
CAMP 2 @ 6553 METRES / 21,50@ FEET. GOOD WEATHER. SHERPAS NEED TO FIX MORE
ROPES FOR SAFETY.
30 September -
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: OUR DHAULAGIRI TEAM REACHED
CAMP 2 @ 6553 METRES / 21,500 FT. WEATHER GOOD. NOW TRYING FOR C3, 7500 M /
24,600 FT
29 September -
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: WWW.DHAULAGIRINEWS.COM TEAM
HEADING FOR SUMMIT. NOW IN 5800 METRE / 19, 000 FOOT HIGH CAMP 1. HEADING FOR
C2 NEXT.
27 September -
The first week after the team's arrival at Base Camp, the weather was anything
but favorable. A steady rain fell, occasionally giving way to snow that landed
more or less as slush. By the time the team began its initial climb onto
Dhaulagiri, time had been lost due to the weather, thus a more special
acclimatization schedule seemed to be called for, in order to make up for lost
time.
With this in mind the team departed Base Camp (4650 meters / 15,252 feet) at
0500hrs on the morning of the 21st and began a steady climb towards Depot Camp
(5100 meters / 16,728 feet) across rock, snow and ice with the team all
complete in location by around 1000hrs.
The following morning, the 22nd, the team departed Depot Camp at 0600hrs and
crossed the upper Dhaulagiri ice fall to reach Camp 1. (5850 meters / 19,188
feet) with the team complete again by 1300hrs.
The next day, the 23rd, was taken as a rest day to allow the team to
acclimatize further before a push to Camp 2 at 6560 meters / 21,517 feet.
At 0600hrs on the morning of the 24th, on what turned out to be the hardest
day of the expedition so far, the team made its way further up the mountain.
Conditions ranged from blinding sunshine and heat to cold and near zero
visibility which could occur with in minutes of one another. The team arrived
at varying times this day, ranging from 4 to 6 hours, and everyone were in
varying degrees of health on arrival at Camp 2. At the time it seemed like a
challenging jump in altitude between camp 1 and 2, although now that we are
now back relaxing comfortably in basecamp, we recognize we
were barely halfway up the mountain with still a long way to go.
After an interesting night at high altitude, on the morning of the 25th, the
team descended back down to Camp 1, to spend the night before returning to
Base Camp very early on the morning of the 26th. Over the previous 5 days the
team had ascended from 4650 to 6560 metres, 15,252 to 21,517 feet, a
total of 1910 meters / 6265 feet vertically. After such a gain, the effects of
altitude experienced by some at Camp 2 can be completely expected.
With necessary acclimatization now complete, at the moment of this writing,
the team now rests back in Base Camp awaiting the weather window that will
allow for a summit attempt. According to more than 5 daily weather forecasts
compiled and sent to us each day by Stewart Wolfe in the SummitClimb home
office via satellite messaging service, the 2nd of October could be a good day
to climb to the world's 7th highest summit, Mount Dhaulagiri.
Last but not least, the unfortunate events that occurred in the tragic
avalanche on Mount Manaslu, the world's 8th highest peak, located in Nepal,
need to be mentioned. All of us at SummitClimb send our thoughts and
condolences out to the injured and lost fellow climbers, their families,
friends, and colleagues.
As a side note, the mountain our SummitClimb team is attempting, Mount
Dhaulagiri, sits at quite some distance away from Manaslu and our local
weather and snow conditions are quite different and apparently considerably
more stable.
Report compiled by Richie Maybank - UK
24 September -
Team reports in live (click here to listen)
Hello SummitClimb News this is Arnold Coster; the leader of the Dhaulagiri
expedition calling from camp 2 at about 6,516m and today is Monday 24th of
September.
We had a hard day climbing up here; it’s a long way up from camp 1 to camp 2
but all members made it up here and in reasonable time. It’s a nice camp with
some nice views of Machu Pichu and Anna Purna 1 and it’s a pretty amazing
place here.
Yesterday we had a rest day in Camp 1 at about 5,850m, we’re trying to make up
some time because when we arrived in basecamp we had a long period of bad
weather so we’re trying to catch up now and I think we’re catching up well.
Unfortunately today we got some bad news from Manaslu, we heard that some
climbers got killed in a huge avalanche our thoughts are with the families of
the injured and the victims. I also want to let you know that Dhaulagiri is
very far away from Manaslu so don’t worry we are on a completely different
mountain.
Tomorrow we will go back down to camp 1 again and the next day we will
probably go back down to basecamp for some rest.
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: WWW.SUMMITCLIMBNEWS.COM
DHAULAGIRI EXPEDITION REACHES CAMP 2 @ 6558 M / 21, 510 FT. GOOD WEATHER &
SNOW CONDITIONS.
EVERYONE @ SUMMITCLIMB SENDS THEIR CONDOLENCES TO FAMILY, FRIENDS & COLLEAGUES
OF THOSE LOST IN MANASLU AVALANCHE TRAGEDY
23 September
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: DHAULAGIRI TEAM REST @ C1,
5800 M / 19,000 FT. TEAM MEMBER JERRY GLADH PHONED HOME TO DISCOVER HE IS NEW
GRANDPA TO 3.9 KG / 8.6 LB BABY.
21 September -
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: DHAULAGIRI TEAM REACHES DEPOT
CAMP AT 5086 M / 16,682 FT. EVERYONE OK. RESTING NOW, WISH US LUCK TOMORROW 4
WALK 2 C1. WEATHER CLEAR IN A.M.
20 September -
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: TONIGHT. 4 AM. JOURNEY TO CAMP
1.
THANKS FOR WATCHING!
Hello, This is Matt Belman writing on a spectacular sunny morning from Base
camp. The team is feeling strong and the monsoon seems to be going away.
Yesterday we had fun training on the glacier getting tuned up on our rope
safety skills and crampon use. A few days ago we acclimatized up at French
pass with a few hikes and a lot of cloud, rain and snow, testing our route
finding skills. We have been entertaining ourselves with a few games of cards,
yahtzee and a guess who I am game which has brought us to hysterics. We are
surrounded by spectacular peaks and ice falls and a geologists dream of rock
strata. A few animals are about, rabbit, we think and pesky clever and hungry
ravens. Fortunately, we are sharing the mountain with only the Spanish team.
Tomorrow we plan to head up the ice fall to depot camp and the next day for
camp 1 .We all send our best to family and friends. Thanks for following
Summit climbs Dhaulagiri 2012 NE rib climb.
18 September -
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: AFTERNOON SUN HIT BASECAMP &
SURROUNDING PEAKS. WE EXPLORED NEW SNOW ON SURROUNDING GLACIERS. TONIGHT STARS
ARE OUT. TOMORROW GLACIER TRAINING.
17 September -
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: BACK IN 4650 M / 15,252 FT
HIGH BASE CAMP. JUST RETURNED FROM 4 DAYS ABOVE 5O00 M / 16,500 FT. NOW
SNOWING HEAVILY.
16 September -
At the moment we are living in a very small world. It's cloudy, rainy, snowy
all at the same time and we are just able to see a few meters around us. It's
like we are living inside a ping pong ball!
This morning we went for an acclimatization hike with the whole team to the
French Pass. A few of us scouted the route out a day before, so it was not too
hard to find the way this time, even in total white out conditions. We put a
lot of extra cairns on the route, this way it's easy to find the way back and
the next group who passes by here has no route finding problems either. On the
French pass the wind was hauling and it was snowing horizontal, not very nice,
so we decided to head down to our high camp again and call it a day.
In our high camp we have a small kitchen and staff who take very good care of
us. This makes our stay here, even in this bad weather, very easy.
They wake us up with tea in the morning, followed by breakfast. When we came
back from our hike they served us a delicious lunch and tonight we will be
surprised with a tasty dinner again. This way we will stay strong, so if the
weather clears we are ready to go high up the mountain.
High Altitude greetings,
Arnold Coster
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: TODAY WWW.DHAULAGIRINEWS.COM
TEAM MADE AN ACCLIMATIZATION TREK TO FRENCH PASS @ 5380 M / 17,646 FT. HEAVY
SNOW & HIGH WINDS CHALLENGE!
15 September -
Well the last few days have been very exciting for the SummitClimb Dhaulagiri
Expedition.
After arriving in basecamp on the 11th, the members had a lovely few rest days
in 4671 metre / 15,320 foot high basecamp relaxing in their warm and cozy
private individual tents, meeting up in our very spacious heated and
comfortable group dining tent, enjoying delicious freshly prepared meals,
watching entertaining dvd's and playing several rousing rounds of cards.
During the warm afternoons, we all took hot showers.
On the morning of the 13th, we had a blessing ceremony called a "puja" for all
of the sherpas and members, where the most religiously knowledgeable of our
staff recited prayers and lit incense while sherpas strung prayer flags around
the basecamp and everyone drank special tea and ate yummy fresh doughnuts.
Our neighbors joined in the Puja as well. They are a Spanish expedition,
working to place Carlos Sorias on the summit of Dhaulagiri. At age 74, he is
attempting to become the oldest person to climb all 14 eight thousand metre
peaks, and has an impressive support team of sponsors from a Spanish bank, a
doctor, camera men, journalists, cooks, guides, and sherpas.
On the afternoon of the 13th, our SummitClimb sherpas went off up the
Dhaulagiri icefall at 4900 metres to carry and install fixed lines. While the
sherpas were busy fixing rope, the members prepared all of their climbing
equipment, harnesses, ice axes, helmets, etcetera.
On the 14th, the members, accompanied by 4 kitchen assistants, 1 cook, and 2
climbing sherpas, climbed up to 5034 metres / 16, 511 feet, in the direction
of the French Pass, and made a good camp in a sheltered, dry, flat, rocky
valley with a clean flowing stream. This is where I am writing you from at
this moment. The plan is to stay up here and acclimate and hike the dry
moderate rocky slope up to 5800 metres / 19,024 feet, in order to further
acclimate, before we climb through the rocky icefall. We are calling this our
Advanced Basecamp (ABC) on the way to French Pass.
The trail between BC and ABC was very interesting, at first walking along the
white and black ice of the Dhaulagiri Glacier, then the French Glacier, then
gaining moraine ridges with inspiring views of the massive North East wall of
the Dhaulagiri Massif. The terrain was very easy and there was even a faint
trail, cairns, and prayer flags at times.
On the afternoon of the 14th, a group of us hung out near the ABC kitchen tent
and drank delicious tea and ate soup, while Arnold, Fredrick, Richie, and
Chris, explored the higher reaches of the French Pass and the Hidden Valley,
all of the way to 5800 metres / 19,000 feet. One of their goals was to see if
they could find a higher campsite, to allow for additional acclimatization,
however, they said that during their tour, they never saw enough free flowing
water to allow a large camp to be established. Nevertheless, they were not
able to observe in very much detail the terrain all around them, due to heavy
fog, which made their return to ABC, even using GPS, a bit challenging.
Fortunately they did arrive before dark. It commenced raining after our very
delicious dinner last night and ceased again at around 2 am.
This morning in ABC we enjoyed another big fresh cooked breakfast with lots of
hot drinks and at the moment are waiting in our tents for the fog to burn off
so that we can walk around these beautiful valleys and further explore this
gorgeous French Pass and Hidden Valley area, while our sherpas continue to
forge the route to camp 1 on Dhaulagiri. Thanks for following our expedition
and please stay tuned.
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: STEADY RAIN & MISTS MAKE GPS
NAVIGATION ESSENTIAL @ 5034 M / 16,518 FT.
14 September -
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR: SUMMITCLIMB DHAULAGIRI TEAM
JUST REACHED 5034 METRES / 16,511 FEET ON ROUTE TO FRENCH PASS. JUST AS WE SET
UP TENTS, HARD RAIN STARTED
13 September -
TODAY’S TWEET FROM EXPEDITION LEADER DAN MAZUR : TODAY MET CARLOS SORIA,
SHARING DHAULAGIRI BC, TRYING 2 BCOME WORLD'S OLDEST 2 CLIMB ALL 14 8,000
METRE - 26,000 FOOT HIGH PEAKS!
12 September -
The team arrived in basecamp today and everyone is feeling fine. We will have
a puja ceremony in the next few days, as well as rest and acclimate to the
rising altitude. All members and sherpas are doing well and getting excited
for the upcoming training sessions in basecamp as well as working our way up
the mountain over the following weeks. We have only seen one other expedtiion
so far here in basecamp or on the mountain, a Spanish team. We'll report in
again soon after we've settled down for some well deserved rest. Thanks for
following our expedition!! Dan Mazur - expedition leader
11 September -
Yesterday our team arrived in Italian Camp at around 3660m.
Today we will have a rest day here and a chance to wash our clothing, shave
and just relax. We have an awesome view of a huge waterfall and Dhaulagiri V.
Tomorrow we will continue our trek to Base camp at around 4700m. Some of our
staff are already up there preparing base camp for us, so if we arrive
tomorrow some shelter will be there.
So far the trek has been amazing, by far one of the most beautiful treks I've
ever done. After a long and bumpy drive to Beni 830m, we were able to drive
all the way to Babichour 950m the next morning. A big landslide blocked the
road there and we had to start trekking from there. We followed the road
through small villages and beautiful rice paddies to Darapani at 1500m, where
we spent our first night in tents. The next day we followed a small trail
through the jungle to Khibang at 1850m. The trail goes through pretty dense
forests, crossing rivers and landslides. Every now and then the forest opens
up and we can see the most beautiful waterfalls. The village of Boghara at
2520m is the last real settlement here, after this it's all jungle and
mountains.
The whole way up we didn't see any other tourists, so this is still the real
Nepal!
The team is strong and is doing very well. We are a nice mix of nationalities
and we have plenty of things to talk about at the dining and breakfast table.
Tomorrow we will head off to Base Camp and reach our destination. We are
excited to go there and see what our home is going to be for the next month or
so.
High Altitude Greetings,
Arnold Coster, Expedition leader
Hi this is Andrea calling with the dispatch for the SummitClimb Dhaulagiri
expedition for Saturday 8th September.
We left the village of Bagar and we had a very beautiful trek across steep
terrains with beautiful scenery. We arrived in the village of Doban Kartan at
2520 meters. We all enjoyed the trek, it was very beautiful. When we arrived
it was very sunny and it was nice to do some laundry, get refreshed and to
chill a little bit.
We also have a friendly dog that has been following us on the trip. All of the
climbers are in good health and good spirits and we’re all having fun.
Tomorrow will probably be a long day as we head for the Italian camp and we’re
all looking forward to another day of trekking. Bye
Hi this is Chris Bailey from Australia giving the Dhaulagiri update for Friday
7th.
We left Dobang yesterday morning for another full day of trekking. We followed
a really nice trail and haven’t seen any other tourists since we left
Kathmandu; it’s really remote out here. It’s very hot and humid and a lot of
people look like they’ve been in the river all day; absolutely soaked in
water. The trekking is really nice it’s very varied, the tracks aren’t very
big and there’s a real sense of remoteness out here.
The group started to go a couple of different ways yesterday as well; one
group took the scenic route which took a little bit longer but we all arrived
in Boghara safely towards the end of the afternoon. A couple of people went
and had a shower and a wash in the water pool in the river and everyone was
very relaxed in the afternoon.
After dinner at night the local school came and gave us a bit of performance
with lots of singing and dancing and we were all dragged up to dance along
with the group at the end which was very nice.
Everyone is very excited at the moment and just really looking forward to
getting to basecamp. It’s very enjoyable at the moment everyone is just
concentrating on that so we’ll see what happens when we get there.
So that’s all for now – over and out.
6 September -
Hi this is Slavo from Slovakia and I’m a member of the Dhaulagiri expedition
and I would like to provide a dispatch for yesterday (6th September).
We stayed overnight in a village called Dobang. We set up our tents in a
football field by one of the schools, it was simply amazing seeing large
numbers of people playing football, the local Nepalese guys are really good at
football and it was nice to watch.
We had a good breakfast and then we set off for the mountains. The weather was
good with some sunshine before noon then it was a cloudy afternoon and started
raining at about 4pm but it wasn’t that bad. It was a little bit humid; more
than most of us are used to.
We gained quite a lot of elevation but then we descended down again so overall
we gained about 300m but it was a pretty tough job to get up there and
downhill. Currently we are in a village called Dobang and we are ready to hit
the road.
The weather looks good, slightly overcast which is good – not to hot and we
are ready to set off.
5 September
Hello this is Matt Belman with SummitClimb's Dhaulagiri autumn expedition.
Yesterday we spent the night at a nice hotel in Beni and had breakfast. Then
did a little provisioning and had a few hours bus drive which, was a little
bumpy but pretty comfortable. We started walking at the end of the road where
the landslide made a path and for a few hours.
There was a little bit of heat and after a few hours we stopped off and had
lunch at a little settlement along the beautiful Marsyangdi river. The staff
prepared a delicious lunch with lots of interesting food, rice and veg and
good drinks.
We continued to walk along a nice road and trail for a few hours. Some were
fast and others a little slower but we all kept ourselves well hydrated as the
temperatures were quite warm. The sun stayed hidden behind the clouds so it
was nice and cool and we didn’t have any rain.
We stopped after a few hours in a town called Darbang. The porters found us a
beautiful place to set up our camp in a small yard where many many children
came out to meet us, see our tents, cameras and toys/gadgets that we have
here. We enjoyed a little bit of internet, another delicious dinner prepared
by the SummitClimb staff and then rested. Our altitude is 3800ft / 1200m.
Today has started with blue skies and the river is moving swiftly alongside of
us. In the distance we can see a 7000m peak, white against the blue sky with a
few light clouds. We’ve had our breakfast; eggs and salami and plenty of tea.
Now we’re all packed up and ready for another nice stroll for anywhere between
5 to 9 hours. So everything’s well here, we're all feeling good and getting
very excited about the trip ahead of us. We’ll be calling in with another
dispatch as soon as we can.
Thank you
4 September -
Hi this is Violetta Pontinen speaking, I’m from Poland. Today is the 4th
September and I’m calling with the dispatch for SummitClimb for the Dhaulagiri
expedition. We started in Kathmandu very early in the morning and we came to a
small village called Beni, which is about 800m above sea level. Our trip was
very interesting with absolutely breath-taking views, we crossed a few rivers
and a few bridges and although it was a little bit difficult we got to Beni
safely and are very happy. We all feel good and admired the views. The trip
lasted 8 hours and tomorrow we are going to our next destination.
Now I’d like to say something in Polish and in Finnish (click the audio link
above to hear)
3 September -
The entire team met for an informative get-to-know-you expedition orientation
meeting at the excellent Shakti Hotel. Then we went out to a few of
Kathamandu's more than 100 outdoor gear shops to buy the equipment we needed.
Great prices! At the end of the day, we all met up for a delicious dinner on
the rooftop of 3rd eye restaurant, while Deha, our loyal office staff,
configured our satphones to use twitter. So please watch out for our twitter
messages coming to you live from the mountain!
2 September -
Today we received the permit at the Ministry of Tourism. Then we had a
delicious celebratory dinner with the team at Northfield's in Thamel
1 September -
Today expedition leader Arnold Coster and our 8 member Sherpa staff packed and
prepared all day at the Kathmandu SummitClimb Headquarters. The weather was
good and we got a lot done!
Team Roster:
Dan Mazur (leader) - US/UK
Arnold Coster (leader) - Netherlands
Ms. Violetta Pontinen - Poland
Fredrik Johansson - Sweden
Jerry Gladh - Sweden
Andrea Rigotti - Australia
Slavo Fila - Slovak Republic
Juerg Merz - Switzerland
Robert Mooney - Ireland
Richie Maybank - UK
Matt Belman - USA
Karel Masek - Czech Republic
Dennis Miller - USA
Chris Bailey - UK
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