원정 개요

C1 at NE Col
C2 on NE Ridge
C3 on NE Ridge just below the rocks

Indian Army Mt. Dhaulagiri Expedition 2009, Mahavir Chauhan - 22 May 2009

The expedition left Kathmandu by road to Beni, then trekked up the Kali Gandaki River valley to Jomsom and on north to Muktinath to acclimatize and do puja at its famous Hindu temple. From there they trekked back down the Kali Gandaki Valley to Marpha, then west across Dhampus and French Passes to the normal BC site, where they arrived on 7 April.

Their first summit attempt was launched from BC on 30 April by Angchok, Bhatt, Patil, Thapa, Sunil and four Sherpas, Dawa Chiri, Nima Grimen, Pemba Rinji, Pasang Sherpa. They climbed to C1 on the 30th, went to C2 on 1 May and reached C3 on the 2nd. But on the 3rd very bad weather forced their retreat to BC. There was snowfall and avalanche danger, even white-out and strong winds.

Their second attempt succeeded. Aukta, Bisht, Bodh, Rangdol, Rinzin Dorje, Targais and the same four Sherpas from the first attempt left BC on 6 May, climbed directly to C2 and were in C3 on the 7th. They left C3 a 8:00 pm on the 7th, climbed through the night and arrived on the summit at 11:30 am of the 8th of May, having had to fix rope as they climbed. (Both now became the only Indian to summit six 8000ers.)

In their descent from the top, a thunderstorm caused the rock to become charged with electricity, forcing them to wait for two hours at 7800m at the west end of the traverse. They returned to C3 at 6:00 pm on the 8th and were back safely in BC on the 9th.

There was now no hope of mounting another summit bid soon because there was continous snowfall on 10 to 13 May. All camps were cleared from the mountain on the 14th, and the expedition left BC on the 15th.

They had fixed a total of 3700m of rope on the route; no other climbers had fixed any. To be safe, below C3 they installed 3000m because of the multitude of hidden crevasses, and above C3 in their summit, they added 600m on the blue ice just above the camp on the traverse and 100m more in the final small couloir of rock and blue ice above the traverse.

Health problems: all of Pasang Sherpa's toes became frostbitten during the two-hour stop in the descent from the summit. They probably will not lose any tips. Pemba Rinji and Nima Grimen also got slightly frostbitten.

Bisht became snowblind while he came down from the top, and suffered for one day. He had taken off his goggles to see better where to place his feet.

Sherpas:
Dawa Chhiri/Tsiri, 20/2/67, Lokhim-9, Solu, Everest X3, Makalu X3, Cho Oyu X3,
Manaslu X2
Nima/Ngima Grimen, 31/3/82, Gudel-5, Solu, Everest X2
Pasang Sherpa, 23/4/82, Gudel-9, Ramechap, Lhotse 25/5/08
Pemba Rinji, 10/1/76 (26/9/2032), Bishinga-7, Okhaldhunga, Everest X1,
Dhaulagiri I X2
Pemba Gulme, no 8000ers