Climbing teams are now in their Base Camps at Annapurna and Dhaulagiri. However, conditions are not yet good enough to venture high. Regular evening snowfall has created unstable snow conditions.
Valery Babanov shared a video yesterday that showed climbers flying directly to Base Camp. The Russian previously acclimatized on Mera Peak, with Charles Page of Canada and Israfil Ashurli of Azerbaijan. The clip also shows Annapurna looking whiter than last year. Winter was reportedly quite dry, but rain and snow have been widespread in the last two weeks.
No-O2 climbers
Since commercial expeditions began on Annapurna, it has become the first 8,000m peak tackled each spring. Its summit rates have skyrocketed, thanks to extensive rope fixing, Sherpa support, and supplementary oxygen. Some of the best-known climbers on Annapurna this season, however, will surely try without bottled oxygen.
In addition to Ashurli and Babanov, no-O2 climbers include Stefi Troguet of Andorra, who already climbed Manaslu (foresummit), Nanga Parbat, and K2 without O2, and Piotr Krzyzowski of Poland, who achieved the fastest no-O2 ascent of Lhotse and Everest without Sherpa support and without descending below Camp 4.
On their first day at the mountain, several climbers walked up to 4,500m and back.
Charles Page’s tracker shows he hiked 300 vertical meters from Base Camp and back today.
Dhaulagiri
On Dhaulagiri, a Sherpa team from Imagine Nepal has already begun to fix the route. They hope to finish by the first week of April. However, Imagine Nepal’s owner, Mingma G, reports that daily snowfall is affecting Dhaulagiri as well. That might delay the fixing above Camp 1.
Permit lists
No list of permits has been released publicly yet, which is unusual compared to previous years. In addition to the permits granted for early peaks such as Annapurna and Dhaulagiri, many permits to other peaks, including the highest ones, should be processed around now.
For instance, guide Dominic Asselin of Canada received permits for Ama Dablam and Makalu for himself and a client yesterday:
Makalu is expected to receive quite a few climbers this year, but the most popular peaks are, as usual, Everest and Lhotse. Climbers arrive at Everest Base Camp beginning around mid-April, but permits are usually issued in advance.
Route-making on Everest is already underway as the Icefall Doctors progress through the Khumbu Icefall to Camp 1. Meanwhile, the Expedition Operators Association of Nepal (EOAN) has assembled a team of 10 Nepalese climbers to fix the remaining sections to the summits of Everest and Lhotse.
