원정 개요

Adventure Consultants Ama Dablam led by Luis Benitez - 12 Nov 2007

The team spent only one night in ABC. The site had no water, so supplies had to come up by yaks.

Benitez's policy is to move his members up to each successively higher camps without descending until it is time for their summit push. Then down to rest in BC and up again. Since he had two deputy leaders, he divided the membership into two teams in C1 to make their bids for the summit one day apart, as follows:

Team 1: Chaplin, Johanson, Kilpatrick, Wexler and Lhakpa Dorje

Team 2: Benitez, Bradley, Comes, Kennedy, Linnola, Robertson, Tootill, Varcas, Dawa Jangbu, Pasang Bhote and Phurba Ridar Bhote (Bradley and Varcas did not join the summit bid on the 4th of November: see below re non-summiting members)

Team 1 Team 2

31 Oct. C1 to C2 stayed in C1
1 Nov C2 to C3 C1 to C2
2 Nov C3 to summit to C2 C2 to C3
3 Nov C2 to C1 stayed in C3 because of strong wind
4 Nov C1 to BC C3 to summit to C3
5 Nov in BC C3 to C1
6 Nov in BC C1 to BC

Team 1 left C3 for the summit on 2 November at 9:00 am, were on the summit at different times between 12:30 and 2:30 pm and down to C2 at 4:30 pm.

Team 2, a slower group, left C3 for the summit on 4 November at 9:00 am, were on the summit at 2:30 pm and were in C3 at 6:00 pm.

Some expeditions this season skipped C3 because of the avalanche danger, but Benitez made C3 at the traditional altitude of 6300m but as far as possible to the right, about 500 feet, from the old site because the fatal avalanche of November 2006 had ripped apart the left side of the camp area: half of the C3 shelf was gone now, and there still was some ice coming down from the bottom of the Dablam. "If we had gone from C2 to the summit, 50% of Team 1 and all of Team 2 would never have made it." Benitez said; they were not strong enough to go all that distance up and back in one day.

Last spring, some teams Sherpas refused to camp at the old site because of the danger and the ghosts of the Pangboche men killed the previous autumn. This autumn two senior Adventure Consultants Sherpas refused to go to Ama Dablam either because of their wives insistence or of their own volition. Benitez had to recruit two men from the Makalu area who had been with the Adventure Consultants Cho Oyu expedition last spring.

Benitez himself was not happy about the continuing danger of falling debris. He felt "the hazard level is significantly higher" even if C3 is skipped. "Clients need to be made aware of the increased hazard because of the ice seracs threatening the route." There was a release of ice while his members were in C3; they were far enough to the right of th seracs' path not to get hit, but they "felt the blast" of wind from the falling ice. "The whole Ama Dablam is calving, and eventually all of it will come off".

Perhaps the SW Ridge route should not be used in the near future. But if another route is substituted for it, a higher degree of technical skill would be required of the clients.

Non-summiting members:

Bradley had been assigned to Team 2, but he only slept in C1 on 30 Oct as found climb too difficult, went down to BC 1 November and helicoptered to Kathmandu same day.

Morrison got only to ABC, had to go home because of illness in his family, and left expedition on 29 October.

Varcas had been in Team 2, but turned back from C2 on 2 November because the climb was too difficult and went down to BC same day.

Sherpa summiters:
Dawa Jangbu, 22/4/73, Pangboche, Everest X5, Cho Oyu X1
Lhakpa Dorje, 16/11/61, Sanam, Gudel, Solu, Everest X3, Makalu X3, Cho Oyu X3,
Lhotse X1
Pasang Bhote, 19/5/86, Chepuwa-4, Makalu, Everest X2, Cho Oyu X1 [???]
Phurba Ridar Bhote (father of Pasang), 1958-9 (2015), Chepuwa-4, Makalu,
Everest X3, Cho Oyu X2, K2 X1