The first 8,000m summits of the year had been expected this week on Annapurna, but many exposed crevasses on the largely snowless peak have made the route harder than ever. For the second time, the Sherpa team had to turn around — this time, at 7,600m — when they ran out of rope to fix.
“We had a very difficult time on Annapurna,” Imagine Nepal’s Mingma G told ExplorersWeb from Base Camp. “I have never seen the mountain in such bad conditions.”
This year, Imagine Nepal is the outfitter in charge of fixing the ropes on Annapurna. As usual, the plan is to prepare the route promptly and then summit as quickly as possible. Annapurna is typically the first 8,000’er of the season, and an important percentage of the climbers and staff want to hurry on to another peak.
Miles of rope needed
Leader Mingma G initially warned about the poor conditions earlier when his eight Sherpa guides started working on the route. The mountain was bare after an extraordinarily dry winter, and the route was mostly sheer ice. While this eliminates the risk of avalanches, navigating among seracs and gaping crevasses has been challenging.
“It took us two days to find a way through the icefall right above Camp 3,” Mingma G said. “Our team reached 7,600m, tackling many A-shaped crevasses, [but at that point,] they had to abort the summit because of lack of rope.”
This is the second time the rope-fixers used so much rope among the open crevasses that they ran out.
“We will try again, and we won’t miss the summit this time,” Mingma G said.
That won’t happen immediately. The Sherpas are back in Base Camp, and Imagine Nepal’s clients — eight Chinese climbers — have either flown to Pokhara to rest until the next good weather window or gone home.
Lost patience with Annapurna
Mingma G said these clients also want to climb Everest next month, and some chose to fly back to China for some weeks until everything is ready for Everest, which is more important.
Meanwhile, several climbers on other teams have already done a rotation to Camp 2 and they are ready to attempt the summit. Csaba Varga of Hungary is one of them. He returned to Base Camp yesterday after two nights in Camp 2. He shared some photos confirming how dry the route is.
Annapurna above Camp 1 this week. Photo: Csaba Varga
Not long ago, everyone came prepared to devote two months to a Himalayan expedition. Now, swift success is expected, and the timeline has contracted to three weeks — or less, as we will soon see on Everest.
