Avalanche Sweeps Dhaulagiri NW Ridge — Climbers OK

May 10, 2021 Angela Benavides 8000ers | Dhaulagiri | Expeditions | Mountaineering

Climbers on Dhaulagiri's NW Ridge. Photo: Horia Colibasanu

We were hoping for summit news from the team attempting the NW Ridge of Dhaulagiri. Instead, we have to celebrate that they are alive.

An avalanche buried the tent in which they were sleeping at 6,800m. “They had to cut the tent with a knife to get out,” Horia Colibasanu’s home team reported. “Peter and Horia were the first to make their way out. Marius [Gane] came out later, as he couldn’t find his boots inside the tent. They had been lost under the snow.” Gane eventually found them.

The climbers managed to shelter in a small cave for the rest of the night. Come daylight, they retreated to Camp 1. They are all safe. According to latest news, they are on their way back to Base Camp. “Depending on weather, they will decide in the next few days whether to restart the ascent,” Colibasanu’s team wrote.

Angela Benavides is a journalist specialised on high-altitude mountaineer and expedition news working with ExplorersWeb.com.

Angela Benavides has been writing about climbing and mountaineering, adventure and outdoor sports for 20+ years.

Prior to that, Angela Benavides spent time at/worked at a number of national and international media. She is also experienced in outdoor-sport consultancy for sponsoring corporates, press manager and communication executive, radio reporter and anchorwoman, etc. Experience in Education: Researcher at Spain’s National University for Distance Learning on the European Commission-funded ECO Learning Project; experience in teaching ELE (Spanish as a Second Language) and transcultural training for expats living in Spain.

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1 year ago

Unfortunately the wind speed looks not good after wednesday, so they have to wait for a new weather window for at least 10 days. I’m glad to hear they are alive. Must be a very scary moment. Viridiana’s tracker shows that she went down to BC.