Ama Dablam
03 Jan 2024 14:03 #78835
by ghaznavid
Ama Dablam was created by ghaznavid
For those unfamiliar with it - Ama Dablam is a 6812m mountain in the Solukhumbu Region (also known as the Everest Region) of Nepal. It is sometimes called the Matterhorn of the Himalaya, although I prefer to call the Matterhorn the Ama Dablam of the Alps. It is one of the most iconic mountains in Nepal.
In November 2023 I had an attempt at climbing it. I won't post the full story here, you can read that on my blog (link below), but I thought I'd provide a brief summary and some photos.
The very short summary of this story is that I picked up a bad case of flu a few days into the hike and only recovered towards the end of December. Getting back from a full month of leave to be booked off and put on antibiotics is never ideal! Naturally climbing a technical 6000er while sick is simply not going to happen.
The plan was that I went to Afriski the weekend before flying out and spent some time above 3300m. I then went up Khunde Peak (4220m) behind Khumjung (near Namche), followed by Nangkartshang (5087m). We were planning to head up Lobuche East (6119m) from there to acclimatise, but ended up turning around at 5600m as I was feeling very sick. Pasang (my guide) wanted to get a rope out to pull me up so we could keep going up, which I refused for obvious reasons. That was the first time I realised how sick I was. Here is a photo of Tabuche and Cholatse from just below where we turned around.
I wanted a bit of time to try and shake the flu, but there was a good weather window coming, so we spent a full day in Pengboche, which I mostly spent in bed. The following morning we went up to Ama Dablam Basecamp.
We hiked from basecamp to camp 1. The views on this route are insane. You can't go onto the fixed ropes without a permit, but you can go as far as advanced basecamp without one - I'd highly recommend this as a side quest for anyone doing one of the routes in the area, such as EBC or 3 Passes. My guide was telling me that he is setting up a variation on the EBC trek where he takes hikers to ABC on Ama Dablam for his clients in future.
I had been feeling very sick on arrival and didn't sleep well. I wasn't feeling great when we left camp 1, but stupidly decided to push on. We got to just below 6000m and Pasang was worried how slow I was, so he pulled out his oximeter, which said I was on 71%, which is dangerously low. A bit later he gave me a story about how he thought the ropes were unsafe in order to convince me to turn back - in hindsight I'm actually annoyed that I even pushed on that far, considering I was coughing up phlegm and generally feeling terrible. Here's a photo of where we turned back.
There was a weather window expected for the next week, so we stashed some gear here and started heading down. 5965m (per my GPS) is now the highest elevation I've ever been to. We dropped down to 5950m and stopped for a break. I had a go at beating my personal altitude record for highest I've whistled the SA National Anthem - and yes, I know I am not in tune for a fair amount of it, whistling in thin air is really difficult.
Most of the way down to camp 1 could be abseiled, so I was able to get down surprisingly quickly, and we actually went all the way down to basecamp the same day, arriving just after dark.
We spent 3 full rest days back in basecamp, during which I mostly lay in bed listening to audiobooks. We then set off for one last try, but not far out of basecamp I already knew I wasn't ok.
We spent the night at camp 1 again, and this time I focused on just enjoying the location. Because we wouldn't be going for the top, I waited in basecamp while my guide went up to get the stashed gear. I spent most of my time between arriving and sunset, then from sunset till we let the following day, just staring at the view. I can say that camp 1 on Ama Dablam is unquestionably the most beautiful location I have ever been to.
Will I try it again? I can't say for certain, I would obviously like to, but I'd rather attempt something entirely different than return just to see the top 800m that I have missed. I'd approach a few things differently if I went back to try again, but I don't think I would have any issues with this peak from a technical perspective. The fixed ropes mean you can aid anything you aren't sure about, which unfortunately takes a lot away from the difficulty of this great mountain. I'm sad I never got to do the notorious traverse into Yellow Tower now the Yellow Tower itself - but such is life.
Full story at the following links:
jonathantheghaznavid.com/2023/12/17/ama-dablam-part-1-start-to-nangkartshang/
jonathantheghaznavid.com/2023/12/22/ama-dablam-part-2-first-attempt/
jonathantheghaznavid.com/2023/12/24/ama-dablam-part-3-second-attempt/
In November 2023 I had an attempt at climbing it. I won't post the full story here, you can read that on my blog (link below), but I thought I'd provide a brief summary and some photos.
The very short summary of this story is that I picked up a bad case of flu a few days into the hike and only recovered towards the end of December. Getting back from a full month of leave to be booked off and put on antibiotics is never ideal! Naturally climbing a technical 6000er while sick is simply not going to happen.
The plan was that I went to Afriski the weekend before flying out and spent some time above 3300m. I then went up Khunde Peak (4220m) behind Khumjung (near Namche), followed by Nangkartshang (5087m). We were planning to head up Lobuche East (6119m) from there to acclimatise, but ended up turning around at 5600m as I was feeling very sick. Pasang (my guide) wanted to get a rope out to pull me up so we could keep going up, which I refused for obvious reasons. That was the first time I realised how sick I was. Here is a photo of Tabuche and Cholatse from just below where we turned around.
I wanted a bit of time to try and shake the flu, but there was a good weather window coming, so we spent a full day in Pengboche, which I mostly spent in bed. The following morning we went up to Ama Dablam Basecamp.
We hiked from basecamp to camp 1. The views on this route are insane. You can't go onto the fixed ropes without a permit, but you can go as far as advanced basecamp without one - I'd highly recommend this as a side quest for anyone doing one of the routes in the area, such as EBC or 3 Passes. My guide was telling me that he is setting up a variation on the EBC trek where he takes hikers to ABC on Ama Dablam for his clients in future.
I had been feeling very sick on arrival and didn't sleep well. I wasn't feeling great when we left camp 1, but stupidly decided to push on. We got to just below 6000m and Pasang was worried how slow I was, so he pulled out his oximeter, which said I was on 71%, which is dangerously low. A bit later he gave me a story about how he thought the ropes were unsafe in order to convince me to turn back - in hindsight I'm actually annoyed that I even pushed on that far, considering I was coughing up phlegm and generally feeling terrible. Here's a photo of where we turned back.
There was a weather window expected for the next week, so we stashed some gear here and started heading down. 5965m (per my GPS) is now the highest elevation I've ever been to. We dropped down to 5950m and stopped for a break. I had a go at beating my personal altitude record for highest I've whistled the SA National Anthem - and yes, I know I am not in tune for a fair amount of it, whistling in thin air is really difficult.
Most of the way down to camp 1 could be abseiled, so I was able to get down surprisingly quickly, and we actually went all the way down to basecamp the same day, arriving just after dark.
We spent 3 full rest days back in basecamp, during which I mostly lay in bed listening to audiobooks. We then set off for one last try, but not far out of basecamp I already knew I wasn't ok.
We spent the night at camp 1 again, and this time I focused on just enjoying the location. Because we wouldn't be going for the top, I waited in basecamp while my guide went up to get the stashed gear. I spent most of my time between arriving and sunset, then from sunset till we let the following day, just staring at the view. I can say that camp 1 on Ama Dablam is unquestionably the most beautiful location I have ever been to.
Will I try it again? I can't say for certain, I would obviously like to, but I'd rather attempt something entirely different than return just to see the top 800m that I have missed. I'd approach a few things differently if I went back to try again, but I don't think I would have any issues with this peak from a technical perspective. The fixed ropes mean you can aid anything you aren't sure about, which unfortunately takes a lot away from the difficulty of this great mountain. I'm sad I never got to do the notorious traverse into Yellow Tower now the Yellow Tower itself - but such is life.
Full story at the following links:
jonathantheghaznavid.com/2023/12/17/ama-dablam-part-1-start-to-nangkartshang/
jonathantheghaznavid.com/2023/12/22/ama-dablam-part-2-first-attempt/
jonathantheghaznavid.com/2023/12/24/ama-dablam-part-3-second-attempt/
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