원정 개요

Karly Douglas FB page:

November 23, 2024

A few days ago I set out to climb the beautiful mountain of Ama Dablam at 6812m elevation,

You can be as prepared as possible for a mountain but sometimes fate has other ideas. I was on antibiotics and battling a chest infection/laryngitis/god knows what else.

Before setting out I knew there was a very real possibility that I wouldn't make it far and I might even need a helicopter evacuation.

After the first day my body wanted to quit but I aimed to get to at least Camp 2. I went one better and got to Camp 3. Around 2 hours before Camp 3, my body completely crapped itself. I could barely stand and I had 2 hours of climbing vertical ice walls ahead of me. I got it done, literally screaming and crying every pull of the jumar.

After Camp 3, the hard part is over and most of the technical mountaineering was behind me. But as soon as I made it to Camp 3, I had no issue calling it a day. My whole body was riddled with sickness and I'd pushed it well beyond its limits.

Mountaineering is a funny sport I've recently become infatuated with. And to be honest it's probably given me more failures than successes. But I've reframed what I see as a success. My goal on Ama Dablam was to see this beautiful mountain up close and test my skills at technical mountaineering. I did that and then some so who can really be upset with that?

Oh and I came back with all my fingers and toes which is better than some people I met along the way.


Lotta Hintsa FB page:

Nepal diaries Nov. 1.-2.

After Namche me and Gelu stayed in Pangboche 4000m and then Dingboche 4300m+. The beauty of having just a two people team was that we could move at a fast-ish pace. We arrived in Pangboche well before lunch time so we had time for a bit of a rest, a long lunch and then did a visit to Ama Dablam BC (~4600m). Some coffee and chats later at the @sevensummittreks cafe tent, we got back down to the tea house and the next day hiked to Dingboche.

At this point it had become apparent that some version of a cough/flu/virus was circling in the tea houses so unless I was there for a meal, I’d stay out of the common areas. I’d been sick three times in the past four months so I wasn’t planning on getting sick before our climb. I’d also use hand sanitizer/wash my hands where I could and covered my face on the hike to prevent dust getting into my airways.

Spoiler alert: I still got sick right after our climb. Seems to be a theme of my Nepal trips…