Posted: Mar 23, 2010 12:55 pm EDT
Annapurna is grabbing all attention with early birds already working the avalanche-prone flanks. Meanwhile Americans Chris Warner and Marty Schmidt plan to make waves on a lonelier 8000er: Makalu.

“Marty Schmidt and I are headed to the south side of Makalu, leaving this coming week,” Chris Warner wrote in an email to ExplorersWeb yesterday. “We are hoping to climb a new route to the summit of Makalu SE (7803 meters) and then follow the SE Ridge to the (main) summit.”

Route details

“Our planned route lies between the SW Ridge (opened by Czechs in 1976) and the SE Ridge (Japanese climb in 1970),” expedition website SharedSummits reported. “The route will ascend snow gullies and rock bands, up the 7000 foot face to Makalu SE (7803 meters). Here it joins with the Czech and Japanese routes along the SE ridge, knife-edged and gendarme guarded all the way until the summit.”

“At 8300 meters, a 100 meter rock band blocks the route, making for an extremely technical summit day,” SharedSummits added. The climbers expect to find snow slopes to 60 degrees, ice to 85 degrees and rock sections to 5.7.

Himalaya veterans

Both climbers are highly experienced mountaineers: In addition to new routes on Shivling and winter Ama Dablam, expedition leader Chris Warner has been on 13 expeditions to 8000ers, reaching the summit of Everest (guiding three times), K2, Lhotse, Shisha Pangma (solo south side) and Cho Oyu, plus attempts on Nanga Parbat and Broad Peak.

A regular on Denali and Aconcagua; Marty is a seasoned high mountaineering guide and a four-time Cho Oyu summiteer (including a speed ascent and a ski descent), who also topped-out Kangchenjunga and attempted K2 from both sides.

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