원정 개요

Seven Summit Treks Makalu expedition was a combination of several independent teams (1-5 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:


Taras Pozdnii (Ukraine)

Appr: Trekked via Num
Camps: ABC(21/04,5700m),C1(26/04,6420m),C2(27/04,6620m),C3(13/05,7480m),
xxx(15/05,8230m)
Left: 26/05
Hired: 1
Term: Abandoned on 15/05 due to slowness, lack of time and oxygen.

Started from C3 at 9:20 pm on 14/05. His Sherpa was going very slowly and was weak. It took them 7 hours to reach 7800m from C3. Pozdnii changed his bottle of oxygen at 7800m, his Sherpa going down from there. Pozdnii continued alone. He reached the French Couloir at 8230m. He calculated his oxygen would not be enough for summit and to go back, and decided to turn around. He turned around at about 9:42 am and was back to C3 at 1:30 pm.

Pozdnii says the deceased Indian Dipankar Ghosh summited on 16/05. Going down he got lost in a storm and died at 7800m-7900m. He was alone and hasn’t been found yet.

Oxygen: Used from C3 to HPt and down to C3.

Hired:
Keshap Gurung (7800m), Gorkha


Brad Johnson (USA)
William Mattison (USA)
Sarah Strattan (USA)
John Jacoby (Australia)
April Mayhew (USA)

Appr: Trekked Tumlingar via Num
Camps: BC(14/04,4700m),ABC(17/04,5700m),C1(24/04,6200m),C2(26/04,6700m),
C3(13/05,7400m),Smt(15/05,8230m)
Left: 19/05
Hired: 2
Term: Success by Johnson, Strattan, Jacoby

Hidalgo died in C2 in the night of 7/05-8/05. He was found dead in his tent in the morning at 11:30 am. His body was brought down by Sherpas on 09/05 and flown to KTM on 10/05. Autopsy showed that he might have died of HACE.

The team initially wanted to take another, easier route than other teams. They started to fix ropes for their route, but later ropes were buried in the snow and they ended up doing same route as other teams.

The team started from C3 at 8:20 pm on 14/05. Johnson was the first to summit at 06:50 am. Jacoby, Strattan and both Sherpas summited between 7:30-7:45 am. Totally clear summit day, some cirrus clouds, little wind. All back to C3 at 1 pm.

Mattison turned around at 6900m on 13/05 because of diarrhea.

Hired:
Dendi Sherpa
Tawa Sherpa


Jonas Lohaus (Belgium)

Appr: Trekked via Num
Camps: ABC(21/04,5700m),C1(01/05),C2(02/05),C3(14/04),Smt(16/05)
Left: 19/05
Hired: 1
Term: Success by Lohaus and Phurba Sherpa.

Lohaus summited at 10:20 am and Phurba Sherpa summited 30 minutes later. Started from C3 at 6:40 pm on 15/05. Good weather on summit day. High winds in the afternoon. Back to C3 at 4:30 pm.

Lohaus together on summit with deceased Indians Dipankar Ghosh and Nayaran Singh (from Indian Army team).

Oxygen: Used by Lohaus and Phurba from C3 to summit and down to C3.

Hired:
Phurba Sherpa


Chang Yuan-Chih (China)
Lu Chung-Han (China)

Appr: Trekked via Num
Camps: ABC(21/04,5700m),C1(24/04),C2(28/04),C3(12/05),C4(13/05),Smt(15/05)
Left: 18/05
Hired: 1
Term: Success by Chang and Lu

Members started together from C4 at 9 pm. Chang summited at 8:30 am and got back to C4 at 2p m. Lu summited at 11 am and got back to C4 at 4 pm. It was a good day, fair weather, just a bit windy.

Lu summited without supplemental oxygen.

Their Sherpa abandoned summit attempt at 7700m on 14/05 because he didn’t feel well.

Oxygen: Used by Chang from C4 to summit and down to C4; not used by Lu

Hired:
Dafuri Sherpa (7700m)


Vibeke Sefland (Norway)
Allie Pepper (Australia)

Appr: Heli from Namche
Camps: BC(26/04,4800m),ABC(27/04,5700m),C1(01/05,6100m),C2(02/05,6400m),
C3(14/05,7500m),xxx(15/05,7700m),Smt(24/05)
Left: 18/05 (Pepper); 26/05 (Sefland)
Hired: 0 (first attempt); 1 (2nd attempt by Sefland)
Term: Abandoned on 15/05 due to tiredness (1st attempt)
Success on 24/05 by Sefland and Nima Dorje at 8 am.

Acclimatisation rotation touched 7000m.

On summit rotation HPt team left C3 at 7 pm. Weather was good and conditions favourable. When they reached 7700m at 9:30 pm, Pepper made the call to go down as she was tired and Sefland went down with her. They returned to C3, slept there and the following day the descended to BC.

After the first summit attempt, Sefland decided to stay and attempt the mountain again with supplemental oxygen and Sherpa. Pepper left 18/05 and took a helicopter from Hillary BC on 20/05.

Second summit attempt by Sefland:

C2 21/05 6400m
C3 22/05 7500m
Smt 24/05 by Sefland and Nima Dorje Sherpa at 8 am
(Josette Valloton summited at 6 am).

On summit push, they started from C3 at 6:30 pm on 23/05. Weather was good. Straightforward climb. On the summit they spent about 15 minutes on the summit and descended to ABC, where they arrived at 11 pm. On 26/05 she left BC by helicopter to Tumlingtar.

Nima Tenji’s death:

Just before they headed out of C3 for the summit push, Sefland was called to have a look at a sick Sherpa at C3. He was in the rescue team. Sefland saw that he had HAPE, he thought that he should have medication and gave him Nifidepine, but the other Sherpas refused for Nima Tenji to take any more medication. She told them that he had to go down immediately and they agreed that Nima Tenji would go down as soon as possible with support. Sefland was ensured that he would go down; however they did not go down. Nima Tenji survived the night and they left C3 to descend rather late in the day. On her way down, Valloton saw the Sherpas go down on the snowfield between the two rockbands; she thought that he was not very well. She asked him whether he needed help but he declined.

When Sefland came down from the summit, she saw a bunch of the recovery team Sherpas at the top of the 1st rock band and this was probably where Nima Tenji had died. When Sefland caught up with them, she saw Nima Tenji was dead. He had no oxygen. His body was dragged down a few days later and flown to Tumlingtar.

Dipankar Ghosh, the individual Indian who died on 16/05 after summiting, was apparently seen just above C4 due to a flashing head torch by Eva Martinez from Mexico. Sherpas were allegedly too tired to go back up to rescue. He was about 300m above C4 on the traverse.

Oxygen:
Not taken, not used by Pepper (and Sefland on first attempt)
From C3 to top to C2 by Sefland, from C4 to top to C2 by Nima Dorje

Hired:
Nima Dorje Sherpa


Raluca Uzum (Romania)

Appr: Trekked via Num
Camps: ABC(22/04,5700m),C1(28/04),C2(12/05),xxx(14/05,7300m)
Left: 18/05
Hired: 1
Term: Abandoned on 14/05 due to coldness and bad weather.

Uzum turned around at around 8:30 am on 14/05 because she was cold and was worried about her health.

Oxygen: Not taken, not used

Hired:
Lakpa Sherpa [Lakpa Wongdi or Lakpa Thindu?]


Josette Valloton (Switzerland)

Appr: Trekked via Num
Camps: BC(19/04,4800m),ABC(21/04,5700m),C2(29/04,6400m),C3(15/05,7500m),
Smt(24/05)
Left: 26/05 by heli
Hired: 1
Term: Success by Valloton and Chhangba at 5:30 am.

On summit push, Valloton and Chhangb started from C3 at 6:30 pm on 23/05. Weather was clear, but very windy to start with. Straightforward climb. On the summit, they spent about 2 minutes on the summit and descended to ABC, where they arrived at 4 pm.

Valloton had intended to summit without oxygen and had actually reached C4 (7800m) on 15/05 without O2. When she descended back to BC she met Sefland, who had changed her plans to summit without oxygen, so Valloton joined her in her idea.

Oxygen: Used C3 to top to C3 by Valloton and Chhangba.

Hired:
Chhangba Sherpa (also summited on 14/05 with the rope fixing team)


Richard Hidalgo (Peru)

Camps: BC(15/04),C2(07/05),xxx
Term: Abandoned on 07/05 due to Hidalgo's death.

Nepali Times, 09/05/2019

In the morning of May 8, 2019, according to the information received from the basecamp, Richard had hiked to Camp 2 on May 7, 2019, along with Sherpas who were ascending to the peak to fix the ropes. At approximately 9 pm, Richard and the Sherpas had left for their personal tents after the meal. Then after the Sherpas returned to Camp 2 after fixing a rope on the mountain. On not seeing Mr. Hidalgo, they had gone to his tent only to find him no longer alive.

Oxygen: Not taken, not used

Return KTM: After a bit of back and forth with the family, Richard's body was taken to the Teaching Hospital on 10/05 for post-mortem.