International Ama Dablam 6,812 Meter North West Expedition autumn

Fixed Departure
05 October 2012

Ama Dablam 6812m, normal route is easier than North West ridge. More steep climbing almost from ABC to TOP. You need fixed rope at 4500m. In May 1979 Jeff Lowe made a remarkable solo ascent of the wildly fluted South Face, emerging just beneath its vertical headwall on to the original route. That autumn a French expedition led by Louis Absorber also climbed the North Ridge.

It is fine route, harder than the South -West Ridge, with rock at the start, and an extravagantly corniced snow ridge near the top. While the French were on the North Ridge, disaster struck a New Zealand team attempting the West Face, when a huge section of the upper hanging glacier crashed down, killing Ken Hyslop and badly injuring peter Hillary and his other two companions. This face would appear to be very dangerous but it has since been climbed, solo by the well-known Czech climber Miri Smid in 1987.

Two routes were added in 1985. In November, Hooman Aprin and Randy Harrington (USA) with the Spaniard Martin Zabaleta climbed the South-East or (Left) Dwarfed by the immense ice cliffs of the Dablam, a lone climber abseils back to the top camp from the summit ice field. (Below) A typical situation on the South-West Ridge, near the base of the Yellow Tower , Behind is the famous silhouettes of Kantega (left) and Thamserku. ( Bill O'Connor) Lagunak Ridge, Again, this ridge was slightly harder than the original route with the main difficulties on snow mushrooms and fluting. Tucked away at the back of the mountain, normally seen only by people climbing on Island Peak or Lhotse , or from high on Everest, this secret face was a formidable and potentially dangerous challenge.

The danger was minimized by tackling the face in winter, with daytime temperatures well bellow freezing; the technical difficulties were subdued by the very experienced team of Carlos Buhler and Michael Kennedy. They followed the prominent curving ice rib up the centre of the face. The difficulties were predominantly on ice over rocks, waterfall ice and unconsolidated snow.