A strong Sherpa team will try to climb 8,481m Makalu next month, together with two clients. One of them, Piyali Basak of India, was rescued from the mountain near death in 2023.
Sanu Sherpa, who has over 40 8,000m summits, including the full 14×8,000m circuit twice, leads the team, which is outfitted by Makalu Adventure. It also includes 19-time Everest summiter Phurba Onchu Sherpa, as well as Phurbu Kusang, Ngima Tashi Sherpa, Lakpa Tenzi Sherpa, and Lakpa Rinjin Sherpa, plus Abolfazl Gozali of Iran. Gozali has climbed Lenin Peak five times and summited Manaslu in the fall of 2022.
This marks the second attempt on winter Makalu for Sanu Sherpa, Phurba Ongchu Sherpa, and Abolfazl Gozali. Last year, with Pastemba Sherpa, they set up three camps along the route and fixed 3,500m of rope, but their summit push ended at 7,900m due to high winds. This winter, the team is larger.
Makalu Adventure told ExplorersWeb that, like last year, both Nepalese and foreigners will use supplementary oxygen.
Rescued in 2023
Piyali Basak, a woman from India, is one of the clients. Basak summited Makalu in 2023 but nearly died there.
Piyali Basak of India with Makalu Adventure’s Mohan Lamsal in Kathmandu. Photo: Makalu Adventure
On that occasion, Basak insisted on proceeding without supplementary oxygen. After summiting and descending to 7,400m, she became too weak to continue. Two supporting Sherpas helped her until they also ran out of oxygen.
A fresh group of Sherpas arrrived the following day with more bottled oxygen and helped her back to Camp 3, and then to Camp 2. However, high winds kept rescue helicopters grounded. She had to be carried all the way down to Base Camp. From there, a helicopter finally airlifted her out three days later, in serious condition.
At that time, Makalu was Basak’s sixth 8,000m peak, five with oxygen and one (Dhaulagiri) without.
Earlier this year, she attempted Kangchenjunga, but she didn’t summit, according to The Himalayan Database. Basak has confirmed her participation in this winter Makalu expedition on social media. She hopes to become the first Indian to summit an 8,000m peak in winter.
The group flew to Tumlingtar on Saturday and will trek slowly to Makalu Base Camp and then Advanced Base Camp. They expect to arrive on January 10.
