British Ama Dablam Expedition 2017

This year I will participate in the 16th British Ama Dablam Expedition. The Nepalese mountain known as one of the most beautiful mountains in the world.

A near perfect climb on a near perfect mountain

was how american Sue Giller described her ascent of the South-West Ridge of the Ama Dablam in 1982. The South-West Ridge was the route of the mountain´s first ascent in 1961 by an expedition led by Edmund Hillary, who had earlier declared it ‘unclimbable’ , later modifying his view to ‘fantastically difficult’. 

Source: Himalayan Alpine Style, Andy Fenshaw & Stephen Venables

The very experienced Tim Mosedale leads the expedition that will take place in November 2017. November is normally cooler, but with more stable weather conditions and also more quiet.

Ama Dablam is not just a high mountain

Even though the mountain now is considered easier than at the times of Edmund Hillary, it´s a climbing mountain requiring a great deal of experience in both rock and ice climbing. Paired with tricky climbing all the way up to 6.828 m with a heavy sack on the back and wearing big boots and down mitts, we will have our hands full.

The perfect next step

It will challenge my stamina, strength and skills in climbing at the same time in a harsh environment. Lately, I have done many climbs in both dry rock conditions and very windy scottish winter conditions in the Alps. I climb both with good buddies and solo that have raised my confidence and comfort in being in a tough and “hostile” environment. This should be handy when unexpected things can and will happpen on Ama Dablam. Coming back to the very nice Nepal and Khumbu region just makes this expedition a real adventure.

Be humble

Many climbs and unsuccessful ascents have teached me to be humble on expectations to summit success. I feel prepared on what gear to bring (packed, fine tuned and re-packed for several months), skills, technique, physical conditioning and being high up. In high altitude I was doing fine in 6.461 m on the Mera Peak trek arranged by Kipling Travel in 2015, so hope I will cope with the additional 400 m´s.

However, weather, sickness and other conditions you can not prepare for or “just a bad day” can easily result in bad timing and unsuccessful summit bid.

My success criteria

My success criteria for this expedition is to climb in good style, get used to setting up and stay in high camps during longer expeditions and make a summit bid. In other words: not only focus on the summit, but enjoy the full journey and the learnings gained to move my boundaries further.

Summiting is for the ego – mountaineering is for the soul

British Ama Dablam Expedition 2017

 

Please check out expedition details on Tim´s homepage.

Please visit my blog post on planning and packing.

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