원정 개요

The team of Terray Sylvester, Katherine Crociata, Thierry D'hers and Joseph Edelen were from Madison Mountaineering.

Thierry D'hers FB page:

November 1, 2024

So today we just got back from a 3 day rotation to acclimatize at camp 1 and camp 2. It was a rough rotation with the hardest piece of climbing I have ever done.
It’s not particularly hard for a well trained gym climber, but the 1000ft of 5.8 level climbing with big 8000 meter boots and a backpack at 18,000 feet elevation between camp 1 and 2 took the wind out of me. I got stuck about 50 ft below camp 2 on the last vertical slab of the yellow tower. I just simply ran out of juice. Then coming down back to camp 1 was quite scary too. Lots of very exposed terrain and transitions between rappeling sections and horizontal traverse sections mostly done purely at arm’s strength. That was clearly the most difficult and physically demanding climbing I have ever done.

To safely summit one needs to get to camp 2 using about 25% of its strength, then use another 25% of its strength to get to camp 3 and summit and then have at least half a tank of strength left to get back down to base camp through all this very technical and steep terrain.

I didn’t feel I have the technical skills or fitness level to move efficiently at this altitude and get back down safely. So after discussing options with our guide, who is great, offered many alternative options to help me succeed and who eventually supported my decision, I have decided to stop my climbing attempt at Ama Dablam today.