Carlos Pauner 2008: DHAULAGIRI REVISITED

DHAULAGIRI REVISITED

Once again, our steps are in the direction of one of these great Nepal mountains.  Little by little we are gaining altitude by these green valleys, filled with vegetation and humidity.  We are on our way to Dhaulagiri (8,167 m.), a big mountain that rejected me in 2006.  That time, luck, so needed in these expeditions, was scarce and we had to quit to our dreams very close to the summit.  Time has passed by, there have been other summits and again, the turn has come for this white mountain of the Himalayas.  We left from Pokhara a few days ago, Javier, Marta and myself, towards Beni, over a wrecked road.  From there we started to walk and today, after walking for three days, we are now at 3,000 m. of altitude.  We have walked over this large valley, in parts very similar to others.  We are 2 days away from our base camp, which will be located at 4,700 m. of altitude and the news that come from above, as usual, are bad.  There is a lot of snow and porters can't reach our base camp.  Tomorrow we will go up to 3,500 m. to the Italian camp, where other groups are waiting with their porters for the weather to improve.  So far it doesn't look likely.  It rains every day and at this altitude, that means snow.  It looks like the only solution is for everybody to go by helicopter up to base camp, which is not very funny for us.  On one hand because of the cost and on the other because of the risk involved.  I still get goose bumps when I remember the accident we had while we were leaving this same base camp in 2006.  Luck smiled at us that time and we were miraculously alive and safe, after hitting the ground while taking off from our base camp.  We will see tomorrow and if there is no choice, the risk would have to be taken, like many others we had taken on our backs.  Anyway, this is not good.  If the snow doesn't let us reach base camp, it is not difficult to imagine how much snow is loaded on the mountain.  Anyway, let us wait.  There is still a long way to go and we have just begun.  Let's trust everything goes nice in this expedition we are starting. 

Carlos Pauner 

Translated from Spanish by Jorge Rivera

Altitude pre-
   acclimatization

   Ascenders

   Atlas snowshoes

   Black Diamond

   Botas

   Brunton

   Carabiners

   CaVa Climbing Shoes
   Clearance

   Clif Bar

   Cloudveil

   CMI

   Crampons

   Edelweiss ropes
   Eureka Tents

   Featured

   FoxRiver

   Garmin

   Granite Gear

   Harnesses
   Headlamps
   Helmets

   HighGear
   Ice Axes

   Kavu Eyewear

   Katadyn

   Kelty

   Kong

   Lekisport

   Lowepro

   Motorola

   Mountain Hardwear

   Mountainsmith

   MSR

   Nalgene

   New England Ropes

   Nikwax

   Omega

   Patagonia

   Pelican

   Petzl

   PowerBar

   Princeton Tec

   Prescription Glacier

   Glasses

   Primus

   Rope Bags

   Seattle Sports

   Serius
   Sleeping Bags

   Stubai

   Suunto

   Tents

   Thermarest

   Trango

   Tool Logic

   Trekking Poles
   Yaktrax
   and more here