원정 개요

August Franzen Instagram report:

The North Ridge of Ama Dablam.

In April, Cory Schmidt and I found ourselves on this ridge with a long awaited weather window and favorable snow/ice conditions. Not a puff of wind and everything was calm all the way up to the 6812m (22,349 ft) summit.

We had attempted an alpine style ascent of this mammoth line and were on the cusp of the point of no return: our rack was meager and the opportunity to retreat was fading.

Cory had developed a cough throughout our climb and it began to work it’s way deeper and deeper into his lungs the higher we climbed. In retrospect, we should’ve caught onto the situation sooner...but we didn’t.

Lulled by a perfect summit window, we continued up. We had been steady and moving through the night, climbing ice runnels and mixed alpine choss by headlamp and moonlight. By sunrise Cory’s cough had grown deeper and more frequent.

After pulling over a cruxy headwall, I stared up at moderate terrain and the snowy ridge that would put us on the summit and safety of the fixed lines on the standard SW Ridge route.

While I was elated and convincing myself that we would stand on top of Ama Dablam, at the belay, Cory’s cough sunk deeper until he experienced the dreaded gurgling and crackles within his lungs.

It was now all too apparent: Cory had developed HAPE (high altitude pulmonary edema) high on the ridge.

The clock was now ticking and our position was a tricky one, push to the summit and safety of fixed lines, or drop elevation quickly as possible, but roll the dice and hope our rack will be sufficient to make it down.

Down we went. Eventually, we escaped the mountain with just enough gear to bail.

Ultimately, we turned around from a dream line under blue skies. We had traveled across the globe, trained like never before and went broke in the process. But in the end, we both live to climb another day. What more could you really ask for?