Dhaulagiri 2009: Dhaulagiri Summit by Kim Chang Ho and Seo Sung Ho

Two climbers from the Dyanmic Busan (Korea) Manaslu, Dhaulagiri, Annapurna Expedition have reached the summit of Dhaulagiri at 3 pm today. The summiteers are Kim Chang / Mr. and Seo Sung Ho / Mr. of South Korea. This is their second successful ascent of 8000 meter peaks in Nepal after their successful ascent of Manaslu on 28 April. The group had arrived at the Dhaulagiri base camp on the 9th May leaving Kathmandu on the 5th May by bus / jeep to Beni - Marpha and then via Hidden Valley - French col to Dhaulagiri BC. Arriving at the base camp, their plan to head straight for the summit was disrupted by bad weather which continued for 3 days. Consequently they left base camp for the summit on 13 June and reached Camp III 7200m on the 15th June. They further forced to spend 3 more days at camp 3 due to strong wind ( 20 meter / second). On the 18 May at 4:45 am they left from C3, after 10 ours and 15 minutes they had succeed to reach the summit at 3 p.m.. The summiteers will overnight at Camp 3 on 18 May and descend to BC the following day. Their success on Dhaulagiri marks the 9th 8000 meter peaks for Kim Chang Ho ( all without aid of bottled oxygen) and 5th 8000er for Seo Sung Ho. The expedition is lead by Mr. Hong Bong Seong with a plan to attempt 3 major 8000 meter peaks situated all within Nepal in one season. This may be the first attempt by any expedition teams to climb 3 major 8000 meter peaks located within Nepal. The expedition team hopes to leave for Annapurna I - their third peak in the list for this spring!