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 SummitClimb Ama Dablam 2005: excited as we are | ||||||||||||
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Dispatch Two: Dear EverestNews.com Readers, I hope you are all well and are getting as excited as we are about our upcoming climb! No doubt you are the friends and family of the fantastic members of this Expedition. Your loved ones are in very good hands, with not only the expertise of Daniel Mazur and myself, but also with our fine Leaders in Training, Doug Sandok and Phil Austin. Doug hails from Colorado, USA and has summited Aconcagua. He works full time as a Program Director for the internationally acclaimed organization, Outward Bound, and has run programs all over the world. He is a friendly, well organized, highly experienced person and a pleasure to work alongside. Phil is from Kent in the UK, and has visited Nepal many times. He has climbed on both Pumori and Everest. Phil's Leadership background stems from service in the military. He is very strong and fit and an expert climber. Phil is a valuable asset to our team. No new arrivals today, but our day has been very busy nonetheless. We went through our food lists, equipment lists, briefed the staff, and completed the necessary paperwork for our Climbing Permit. A high altitude climbing expedition is a mammoth exercise in logistics. For example, we need to feed and house 30+ people for 30 days. Not to mention climbing gear, and transport.....Easy to do in a city - not so easy in a remote location, so part of our gear list looks something like this - Food - 1.5 tons (yes tones!) Tents - 75 Rope - 3.4 kilometers Gas - 168 canisters Stoves - 20 Kerosene - 800 liters Then each member and staff has 2 duffle bags full of equipment that weigh 30kg each, so right about now our total weight of goods is bordering around 5 tons....... Try checking THAT in at the airport!!! But - when it comes to transport - that's exactly what we do. A line of trolleys about 300m long snakes it's way right out the door and down the carpark on check-in morning. Lost bags anyone??? An enormous train of about 100 grudge bearing yaks then carry our food and equipment for the 5 day trek to Basecamp. THEY are another series of stories within themselves!! Counting yaks..., chasing runaway yaks...., arguing with yaks....,preventing yaks from eating our potatoes...., wrestling yaks with baskets stuck on their horns as a direct result of eating our potatoes..... We have some more arrivals tomorrow, here at the Nepa Hotel, Kathmandu, so until then........ Thank you very much for following our expedition, From Jay Reilly and all of us at Summitclimb.com AMA DABLAM: sometimes spelled: Ama Dablan, or Amadablam, or Amadablan ASIA'S MOST FAMOUS TECHNICAL BUT CLIMBABLE ROCK-ICE-SNOW CLIMB Leader: Daniel Mazur, Ama Dablam 4 time summiter, climber-leader-organizer of Everest, K2, and 12 "eight-thousand-metre-peaks", leading together with Jay Reilly, two time Ama Dablam and two time Pumori summiter Our expedition offers an opportunity to climb this challenging semi-technical rock-ice-snow climb with an experienced team, at an affordable price. We have organized five previous expeditions to Ama Dablam, so our leaders and staff are very familiar with the climb. In October 2003, fourteen of our members and 5 sherpas reached the summit in all safety. It was our fifth successful ascent of the mountain. We were fortunate in that the weather was ideal, the team cooperated together well, our Sherpa climbing staff worked very hard, our equipment functioned well, the food and hot drinks were well prepared, and the route was in excellent condition. Please share in our congratulations to all of the team members and thanks to everyone who helped and supported us, including our generous sponsors. Nepal is indeed beautiful now and the pleasant weather and calm conditions in this very peaceful and happy region made our expedition especially enjoyable. SOME FACTS ABOUT AMA DABLAM: Ama Dablam is in the Khumbu valley, near to Mt. Everest, in the heart of the Sherpa area of Nepal, and is considered by many to be the most famous rock-ice-snow climb in all Asia. The name Ama Dablam means Mother’s Charm Box: the high hanging serac located just below the summit resembling the Dablam or Charm Box which unmarried Sherpa women used to wear around their necks. The first ascent of the mountain was by Ed Hillary's Silver Hut expedition in 1961 when Bishop (USA), Gill, Romanes (NZ) and Ward (UK) reached the summit, via the SW ridge, on 13 March after 20 days working on the route. Since then the mountain has received about 500 ascents (not including Sherpas) mostly via the SW ridge. WHY THE SOUTH WEST RIDGE Here is what one of our previous top climb leaders (Jonathan Pratt, from Essex, England) had to say about the route: “The easiest way to the top of Ama Dablam is via the SW ridge, a semi-technical route, and considered to be the standard route. Although there are several other routes on the mountain, they are all very much harder than the SW ridge. The route has been considered to be a safe route, free from objective danger, such as avalanche. It is a varied and interesting route with loads of superb climbing - not just a huge snow slog, unlike other Himalayan climbs. On Ama Dablam, the rock and ice is not sustained but tends to come in short manageable sections.” NOTE: Please don’t underestimate this climb. Although there is only one 6 metre, 20 foot section of grade British severe, or North America 5.5, (the rest of the climb is known as "scrambling" or "4th class") there are complicating factors which you may not find at home on your local crag and definitely not in the rock-gym. These may include: ice, snow, high-altitude, temperature, weather, exposure, and other factors.
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