The first summit success of the spring season on Nepal’s eight-thousanders is achieved. The expedition operator Imagine Nepal announced that the Nepalese mountaineers Dipan Gurung and Phinjo Dorjee Sherpa, together with their Chinese client Zhao Yiyi, had reached the 8,091-meter-high summit of Annapurna I in western Nepal today. According to the company, it was not an easy summit success.
Mingma Gyalje Sherpa: “Mountain is too risky”
A first attempt failed on 26 March at an altitude of just below 7,600 meters. “I have never seen Annapurna in such worst conditions before and I would never wanted to see it again in such conditions,” wrote Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, head of Imagine Nepal, on Instagram. “This mountain is just too risky between Camp 2 and Camp 3 and this should be my last expedition on Annapurna.”
Speed climber Druelle rescued from crevasse
French speed specialist Vadim Druelle fell into a crevasse near Camp 3 on 30 March. The Pakistani mountaineer Sirbaz Khan and several Sherpas were able to rescue him. Injured in the hand, Druelle was first flown by helicopter to base camp and then to Kathmandu.
The Nepalese Ministry of Tourism had issued (as of 21 March) 42 climbing permits for Annapurna I this spring. Imagine Nepal had fixed the ropes. It is expected that more members of commercial teams will reach the summit via the rope-secured route in the coming days.
Update 8 p.m.: According to expedition operator Seven Summit Treks (SST), its client Cesar Chinchay from Peru was also part of the team that reached the summit today. He had climbed without bottled oxygen, let SST board member Chhang Dawa Sherpa know.
