Andrzej Bargiel and his team have also retreated from Dhaulagiri, citing bad weather and poor conditions. Like Manaslu, Dhaulagiri will remain unsummited this season.
Bargiel’s team, outfitted by Seven Summit Treks, reached Camp 2 while other climbing teams returned to Base Camp. The other teams turned back because of a lack of fixed ropes, and subsequently ended their expeditions.
But Bargiel still hoped to summit the peak and ski down to Base Camp. He planned to move up to Camp 3 yesterday and summit today, according to The Tourism Times. Bargiel did not share his exact location during the expedition, and his team often reported his progress with some delay. However, the skier reportedly retreated to Base Camp yesterday evening.
Strong winds and avalanche risk
“Unfortunately, I had to give up on reaching the summit given the conditions we encountered,” Bargiel’s team quoted him saying. “Over the past few days, we’ve had significant snowfall accompanied by extremely strong, almost hurricane-force winds, and this created a high avalanche risk, which was the main reason I decided to turn back.”
This aligns with conditions described by the rope-fixing team last weekend, when they stopped work on the route. Soon after, commercial teams pushing for the summit were told to return to Base Camp.
“On a positive note, I had a great ski descent from Camp 2, with plenty of fresh snow. We’re all safe and heading home, and that’s what matters most,” Bargiel said.
The skier will not launch any further attempts this season to ski Dhaulagiri. Seven Summit Treks has officially closed the expedition with a rare statement explaining their decision to halt rope-fixing work. They cited their “guide’s decision” to turn around after assessing that conditions were not safe on the upper sections of the mountain.
The expedition’s director, Chhang Dawa Sherpa, was countering accusations by climbers that the rope-fixing team had lost their motivation after Seven Summit Treks’ biggest clients abandoned their summit attempts. You can read the full statement below:
No summits on 8,000’ers
This year, the highest point climbers reached on Dhaulagiri was around 7,100m, only slightly above Camp 3. No one has seen the conditions on the traverse below the summit ridge and the couloirs leading to the summit area.
Dhaulagiri is the second 8,000’er without summits this season, after a record number of teams halted their Manaslu attempts because of excess snow on the route. Two Russian climbers eyeing Makalu also decided to go home. With no permits issued yet for Kangchenjunga or Lhotse, the only summit chance on Nepal’s highest peaks now lies with the Russian team on Everest.
