Horia Colibasanu, Marius Gane, and Peter Hamor have set up Camp 3 at 6,300m on the Northwest Ridge. This is 100m above their previous 2019 high point. Thus, it’s the highest ever reached on this unclimbed route. Now they are back in Base Camp for some well-deserved rest days before proceeding higher.
“Above camp, there is another exposed area at 6,800m, where we’ll have to fix ropes,” Colibasanu wrote.
This is the only new route on an 8,000m peak this season. In 2019, this Slovak-Romanian team reached 6,200m before strong winds pushed them back. And in 2020, the COVID pandemic prevented them from even reaching Base Camp and stranded them in a locked-down Nepal for weeks.
Meanwhile, on the normal (NE Ridge) route, Stefi Troguet and Jonatan García are back in Base Camp after caching more gear at Camp 1 and retrieving two tents that last week’s snowstorms had destroyed.
Carla Perez and Esteban Mena gave up their plans for the NW Ridge when their third member dropped out. They are now on the same route as Troguet and García. The pair have not updated in a couple of days, but were likely working on the C1 cache with the other couple. They intend to make for the summit during the next weather window.
Carlos Soria, 82, once again on Dhaulagiri. Photo: Luis M. López
Sophie Lavaud spent two nights in Camp 1 last week, then returned to Base Camp before the storm. The members of her all-women team are moving at their own pace. Some had climbed Annapurna before heading for Dhaulagiri, and it is unclear whether the Japanese woman rescued on Dhaulagiri last week was team member Naoko Watanabe.
Carlos Soria, Sito Carcavilla, and Luis Lopez hoped to spend their first night in Camp 1 today. They set off early this morning.
There is no news yet from the Annapurna summiters now on Dhaulagiri, although Uta Ibrahimi posted a photo from Base Camp yesterday.
