Seven Summit Treks reports that Antonios Sykaris of Greece and Dawa Sherpa summited Dhaulagiri today at 12:40 pm local time.
Expedition leader Mingma G and his team safely reached Base Camp yesterday. They all flew to Pokhara that evening.
Mingma G has also posted a video showing the excellent conditions on Dhaulagiri. It confirmed his strategy for going so early in the season.
“In late March-early April, there is more stable weather, the best snow conditions, no threat of avalanche, and no risk of life,” he said.
This first summit wave doesn’t mean that the action is over on Dhaulagiri. More climbers will arrive soon, including Carlos Soria and The Himalaya DataBase’s Billi Bierling.
Toward C3 on Annapurna
On Annapurna, climbers are doing their acclimatization rounds. 8K Expeditions reports that most team members and their guides have finished their rotation to Camp 2. They are now fixing ropes to Camp 3.
Those planning to climb without supplementary oxygen will need an extra acclimatization round.
Kangchung Nup
The two Japanese climbers Takeshi Tani and Toshiyuki Yamada have obtained their climbing permit and are approaching their Base Camp at Kangchung Nup (6,090m). They aim to do the first ascent of its huge North Face. As we originally reported, other teams have tried but so far none has succeeded.
Everest doctors in place
At Everest Base Camp, the Everest medical team is already acclimatizing. Every spring, this “Base Camp hospital” supports the climbers and camp staff.
Other groups are also approaching the base camps of Everest-Lhotse, Makalu, and Kangchenjunga.
So far, 530 climbers from 62 countries have permits to climb mountains in Nepal this spring. The U.S. tops the number of foreign climbers with 93, followed by the UK with 45.
The most noticeable absence is, sadly, Ukraine. However, 16 climbers from Russia are currently in Nepal. Ukraine asked Nepal to ban Russian climbers while the war continues, but the request was not even acknowledged.