An unknown number of climbers reached Base Camp late yesterday. None of them have made comments so far. “Antonis has just returned to Base Camp and is safe,” Sykaris’s team posted. “When he has access to the internet again, he will tell us about his adventure.”
Lakpa Dendi, accompanying Viridiana Alvarez, confirmed that he had summited Annapurna with her and some other members of Seven Summit Treks. Dendi is immediately off to Dhaulagiri. He posted what is presumably a summit picture from Annapurna, above. Alvarez was originally also planning to do Dhaulagiri as well.
The Mexican couple Badia Bonilla and Mauricio López have also reached Base Camp. Annapurna was Badía’s 9th 8,000’er. They too are heading to Dhaulagiri.
Team Gripremi of India also reported their arrival in BC yesterday at 8:30 pm.
Details on the climbers’ condition, pictures, and reports on the summit push and descent will have to wait. Outfitters have not updated either but should soon, especially Mingma G of Imagine Nepal, who led the summit push and the rope-fixing team.
Meanwhile, more names are confirmed on the summit list. One of them is a sixth Sherpa woman, Maya Sherpa, who is vice-president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association. The other Sherpa women atop Annapurna on Friday were Purnima Shrestha, Passang Lhamu Sherpa, Dabhuti Sherpa, Sharmila Syangtan Tamang, and Dawa Yangjum Sherpa.
The Annapurna-Dhaulagiri connection
Many members of the SST team — both clients and Sherpas — had signed up for the Annapurna-Dhaulagiri double-header. This might explain why rope-fixing had not started when Stefi Troguet and Jonatan Larrañaga reached Dhaulagiri last week. Meanwhile, all teams currently climbing Dhaulagiri have reached Base Camp and are ready to go up to higher camps. Troguet and Larrañaga were heading for Camp 1 today. They had already set up their tent there on their initial trip up.
