Climbing Ama Dablam in the Himalaya…
At the same time that I was in Nepal for the Everest Marathon I was given the opportunity to take part in a quick expedition. This expedition was probably one of the best and hardest climbs I have undertaken.
I was in Nepal to support my friends on the Everest Marathon and I had arrived in Namche Bazaar ten days early having completed expeditions in the southern Alps sooner than expected. There was an American climbing friend of mine, Patrick Dempsey, about to go to climb Ama Dablam but his partner had injured himself on Baruntse. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth I accepted an offer of a free climb.
We left Namche as the sun was setting over Kusum Kanguru and started out for Pangbouche. We contoured North-East, high above the Dudh Kosi and had excellent views of Ama Dablam as we descend through the ever popular rhododendron forest towards the river. We crossed the Dudh Kosi at Phunki Tenga and started the steep climb to the saddle at the top of a hill. This path wound on and on past Mani wheels (like a prayer wheel) until suddenly we walked over the ridge and into Thyangboche, the main monastery of the Khumbu area appeared right in front of us.
We were carrying large packs with food, climbing hardware and loads of other things when we arrived and decided to rest in a local guest house. We moved into a large room, sorted out our equipment and went to get some food. About 11:00pm we turned in for the night, and while Pat slipped outside for a cigarette, I settled into the warmth of my down sleeping bag.
At 4:00am we woke and started getting ready to leave. It was cold and we dressed warm, packed and left. We stored a sack of surplus gear at the guest house and set off for base camp. We walked out of Thyangboche and continued up the valley towards Everest Base Camp for about two hours before turning right up a smaller valley which leads first to the small hamlet of Mingbo and then to base camp nearby. As we reached Mingbo the sun started to pick out Ama Dablam creating a beautiful pink glow over the top section of the mountain.
We trekked up the winding path before we cut right, down an incline to the raging Dudh Kosi. We crossed by way of an old rickety bridge and climbed onto the moraine on the other side. The trek was slow and tiring but we made base camp in good time. It was about 11:00am by the time we stopped at the base camp stupa for a rest and snack. We rested a while, but knowing that we were racing against the clock we pressed on for our first objective, camp 1.
The route took us out of Base camp around to our right and along the bottom of a grassy moraine ridge. We followed the ridge in to a saddle and onto a field strewn with rocks and scree. We traversed the field and as we came out of it we reached our camp 1, approximately half way between normal camp 1 and camp 2. We set up our bivvy under a small rock shelf and made some of our food. It was going to be a cold night followed by a very long day tomorrow. The plan was to go from here to the summit and back in one day! This is a big commitment and a highly dangerous undertaking. However we felt we were both in a good position to do this. Pat had been climbing here for the past four weeks including Baruntse and Island Peak. I had just flown in from New Zealand having climbed on Mount Cook and a few of the surrounding peaks. This we hoped would help us with acclimatisation problems.
It was still dark when Pat shook me awake to get ready. We gathered our things together and set off with very light sacks just carrying warm kit and food.
The rocky ridge was narrow in places and we made short work of it until we reached the famous Yellow Tower. This was going to be hard and was one aspect of the climb I was worried about. I set up to lead it (we had been hoping to use other teams’ old fixed line but the previous expedition, it seemed, had cleaned the route of old ropes). I started out, struggled a bit and then dropped back onto the ridge. Pat then led this pitch of what he estimated was American graded 5.7 to 5.8 technical difficulty. I then seconded him onto the ridge. It was a relief to gain some height. We followed the ridge through a very messy camp that had four tents in it (they obviously didn’t clean it at all!) and then dropped down onto a snow ridge which we followed.
We followed the ridge which led to another rock wall. This one is called the Grey Tower. Again I set up to lead this. I climbed up a bit until I was thwarted by an overhang which I couldn’t negotiate. I anchored myself into the rock, whilst staring down a 1000 metres drop and belayed Pat to me. Pat then led out above the overhang and we reached the ridge above, only to find another tower. This wasn’t so difficult and we found some fixed line that we used to assist us. We overcame that and were now met by the last challenge. An ice slope stretched away into the sky to our left whilst in front was an impenetrable rock wall. I led this ice gully to the start of the Mushroom Ridge. To our left was a huge crevasse which we bypassed and then we arrived at the traditionally used camp 3. This camp was occupied by four tents. We stopped here for twenty minutes, drank some soup and marvelled at what we had achieved and then baulked at the thought of what was to come. We had started this day at 4:00am. It was now 11:00am! It was late and we shouldn’t have been on this mountain at this late an hour planning to go higher… but we did.
We left camp 3 and set off straight up the snow slope behind us. To our left was the huge expanse of the Dablam which was constantly making noises and throwing bits of itself off it. We climbed this slope and it was surprisingly easy going. My head was pounding now though, but I kept going. Pat was about 50 metres ahead of me and I knew I was slowing down. I started to plod on just following Pat’s footsteps. His path weaved this way and that and now we were moving left across the face. I looked up and Pat had reached some icy flutes leading to a crest. I gained some inner strength and pushed myself hard to reach it. I scrambled over the crest and found Pat lying on his back in the ice. I managed to mumble something and he turned to me grinning and said, “well done Taffy! You’ve made it.” I attempted a reply but was speechless with exhaustion and emotion so just giggled. One of my dreams had come true. We looked around to see another team had ascended and were on the summit already. We took their photograph and vice versa.
The descent was energetic. We spent less than five minutes on the summit at 4:30pm, drank some lukewarm tea and set off for our camp. We reached camp 3 in twenty five minutes by dangerously glissading most of the way. I had left one of my ice tools and my rucksack there so I retrieved them and we carried on. As we descended the snow slopes below I dropped my descender so had to switch to an Italian hitch; not so good when your vision is blurry from exhaustion. The rest of the descent went very smoothly with us reaching our camp at about midnight. The following day a very jubilant, but very tired pair of mountaineers descended into Thyangboche and settled into a ‘bar’ for a relaxing beer.
Climbing Ama Dablam was one of my dreams; it came true and although it was very hard physically and mentally that sense of achievement to kneel on the summit and weep was mind blowing. It was the highest and hardest summit I have managed to climb and reach and I am proud for it to have been that one.