원정 개요

Seven Summit Treks Makalu expedition was a combination of several independent teams (1-2 climbers each). Seven Summits provided transportation, base camp facilities and various levels of high altitude support (oxygen, high-altitude porters, tents, etc) as required and contracted for by each team. The individual accounts for each team are given below:


Gregory Attard (Malta)
Raphael Fenech Adami (Malta)

Appr: Tumlingtar, jeep to Num, trekked to BC
Camps: BC(01/05,4800m),ABC(02/05,5600m),C1(05/05,6400m),C2(06/05,6650m),
C3(09/05,7450m),Smt(11/05)
Left: 13/05/2017
Hired: 1
Term: Success at 10:30 am.

Attard departed high camp at 11 pm on 10 May, summited at 10:30 am 11 May. Was very windy at first and I left the tent when wind died down a little. Waited for a fellow climber Raphael Fenech Adami and his Sherpa. We left together, but they turned back after 20 mins at 7500m. Climb was interesting, but uneventful. Clouds came in and it started snowing soon after reaching summit. Descended to C3.

Attard did not use a Sherpa.

Sherpa:
Phurba Sherpa, Makalu, 18/01/80 (with Raphael Fenech Adami)


Saulius Damaulevicius - 29 Oct 2018

Damaulevicius says that Gregory Attard as well as members of MAKA-171-02 only reached the foresummit and not main summit.


Rudi Bollaert (Belgium)

Appr: Tumlingtar, jeep to Num, trekked to BC
Camps: BC(17/04,4800m),ABC(20/04,5600m),C1(24/04,6400m),C2(25/04,6650m),
C3(08/05,7450m),xxx(21/05,7600m)
Left: 24/05/2017
Hired: 2
Term: Abandoned at 7600m due to being too slow.

The first time Bollaert went to C3 on 8 May, he went together with Phil Crampton's Altitude Junkies. That night the rope-fixing team was supposed to fix up to the summit, but did not due to bad weather. They reached C4, but it was too windy and the fixing team returned to C3. On 9 May Bollaert went down to ABC.

The next window was around 20 May. The weather was bad and they ended up in a snow storm in C3. They stayed a night and on 21 May they left C3 at 8 pm to go for the summit (with Phurba and Dawa Sherpa). Bollaert was too slow and decided to turn back to C3, where they arrived at 11 pm. On 22 May to ABC. Left ABC on 24 May.

Oxygen:
Taken and used from C3 to high point to C3 by Bollaert.


Thomas Laemmle (Germany)

Appr: Tumlingtar, jeep to Num, trekked to BC
Camps: BC(20/04,4840m),ABC(21/04,5690m),C1(6100m),C2(24/04,6650m),
C3(08/05,7480m),xxx(21/05,8300m)
Left: 29/05/2017
Hired: 0
Term: Abandoned at 8300m due to being too late in the day.

Laemmle had 4 attempts for the summit.

On his third summit attempt, he reached C3 on 20 May. He was with Rudi Bollaert from Belgium, who had 2 climbing Sherpas. Laemmle left C3 at 11 pm on 20 May. He wanted to follow Rudi and the two Sherpas, who had left C3 at 8 pm. At 12:30 am he reached C4, where there was a Spanish and a Russian team, who were also waiting for the Sherpas to open the route.

He left C4 again at 1:30 am, with the Spanish and Russians following him. At about 8150m Xavier from Spain helped Laemmle break trail. When at about 2 am they reached the bottom of the French Couloir, Laemmle thought it would be too late to reach the summit. He decided to turn around.

Laemmle tried one last summit push from Hillary BC. He started on 25 May and reached C2 the same day after 9 hours. On 26 May he ascended from C2 to C3 in seven hours. On 26 May, he left C3 at 9:30 pm. This time he reached 8050m, but there was too much snow and the weather was turning bad. He turned back at 6 am and descended to C2, where he arrived at 4 pm. On 28 May back to ABC.

Laemmle orginally planned to attempt Lhotse after completing Makalu, but this was canceled.

Oxygen: Not taken, not used.


Rainer Pircher (Germany)
Tobias Schwab (Germany)

Appr: Tumlingtar, jeep to Num, trekked to BC
Camps: BC(19/04,5000m),ABC(21/04,5600m),C2(23/04,6650m),C3(08/05,7500m),xxx
Left: 13/05/2017
Hired: 0
Term: Abandoned at 7500m due to bad weather forecast.

The team was on their summit attempt; however, the weather forecast was not good for the next few days (cold and wind) and as they were climbing without supplemental oxygen, they decided to abandon the expedition.

On 9 May, they descended from C3 to ABC, where they arrived at 9 pm.

Oxygen: Not taken, not used.


Saulius Damaulevicius (Lithuania)
Alexander Lutokhin (Russia)
Dimitri Sinev (Russia)

Appr: Num by helicopter, trekked to BC
Camps: BC(16/04,4880m),ABC(18/04,5600m),C1(21/04,6350m),C2(23/04,6650m),
C3(09/05,7450m),C4(20/05,7600m),xxx(21/05,8200m)
Left: 25/05/2017 by helicopter
Hired: 0
Term: Abandoned at 7500m due being too slow with weather deteriorating.

High point team left C4 at midnight. Weather was perfect, but very cold. After about one hour they found it difficult to find the route. The spent about 40 minutes to find it. There was only old fixed rope. After about 100m they found new fixed ropes and saw that they had to go right. They also were too slow. They wanted to be on top at about 8 am, but they were still below 8000m at 9 am. At noon they decided to turn back as they were too slow and the weather was changing. They descended to C4, where they arrived at 5 pm. On 22 May to BC.

Oxygen: Not taken, not used.