Dhaulagiri: Off to the Summit!

Fighting deep snow, Carlos Soria and his team reached Camp 3 (about 7,200m) earlier today. Now they’re recovering their strength and deciding when to strike out for the summit.

Originally, they’d planned to head all the way up tonight, but now they are reconsidering their options: They may wait for better conditions on Saturday or establish a fourth camp higher up tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Csaba Varga has already made his decision. He made it to Camp 3 around 3pm local time today, rested for a few hours and has headed off for the summit. Also in that group is Luis Cortadellas, who came with Sergi Mingote but didn’t join that first summit push.

Speaking of Mingote, he posted the above cool video, filmed during his successful bid last week. It shows how much snow there currently is on Dhaulagiri: good for building tent platforms but grim for anyone breaking trail. In the video, he also pays tribute to Juanjo Garra, a Spanish climber and a good friend of his, who lost his life on Dhaulagiri some years ago.

Related story:

Dhaulagiri Climbers Battle Snow to Reach Camp 2