This Saturday marked the first summit day of this year’s spring season on Nepal’s eight-thousanders – and what a day it was. Summit successes were reported from three of these mountain giants, with the majority coming from Annapurna I in the western part of the country.
After the four-member rope-fixing team from the operator Elite Exped reached the highest point at 8,091 meters, thereby opening the route, a total of more than 40 climbers from four teams made it to the summit.
Makalu Lakpa completes eight-thousanders of Nepal
Lakpa Sherpa from the 14 Peaks Expedition team, also known as “Makalu Lakpa,” completed his collection of Nepal’s eight eight-thousanders (including Cho Oyu) with his success on Annapurna.
According to Chhang Dawa Sherpa, board member of Seven Summit Treks, 57-year-old Isfrahil Ashurli from Azerbaijan did not use bottled oxygen during his ascent to the summit. Detailed information is still lacking for most of the other seven summit candidates who did not use breathing masks.
Only Stefi Troguet from Andorra reported that she had turned back at 7,500 meters. “I’ve never felt so cold in my life,” the 33-year-old posted on Instagram. “I hadn’t acclimatised properly, so I was moving very slowly.”
Rope-fixing teams clear routes on Dhaulagiri and Makalu
On Dhaulagiri, located just 30 kilometers as the crow flies from Annapurna I, the rope-fixing team from the operator Imagine Nepal was the first to reach the highest point at 8,167 meters on Saturday. By the end of the day, around two dozen members from two teams had reached the summit of the world’s seventh-highest mountain.
On the same day, the first six summit successes of the season were also reported from the fifth-highest peak, the 8,485-meter-high Makalu, located further east near Mount Everest. This was achieved by the six-member rope-fixing team from Seven Summit Treks.
Icefall Doctors have not yet given the green light
As of 15 April, Nepal’s Tourism Department has issued climbing permits for Makalu to 54 foreign climbers – the second-highest number among the eight-thousanders after Mount Everest, where the permit count is nearing the 300 mark. To date, 297 permits have been issued for the world’s highest mountain.
Due to dangerous conditions, the Icefall Doctors – who are securing the lower section of the route from base camp through the Khumbu Icefall up to Camp 2 at 6,400 meters – have not yet been able to complete their work. Only when they give the green light will the first commercial teams be able to ascend for their initial so-called rotations to continue acclimatizing for the climb to the summit at 8,848 meters.
Update 20 April: It is still not entirely clear who reached the summit of Annapurna I on Saturday without a breathing mask. According to explorersweb.com, in addition to Isfrahil Ashurli, the group included two Russians Vitaly Shipilov and Anton Pugovkin, as well as the Dane Andreas Frydensberg. Last October, Shipilov was part of the Russian team that opened a new alpine-style route up the previously unclimbed Southwest Face of the eight-thousander Manaslu.
After his successful summit of Annapurna, the Azerbaijani climber Ashurli had to be rescued by helicopter from Camp 3 at 6,600 meters because he was dehydrated and completely exhausted.
On Dhaulagiri on Saturday, Nirmal Purja was also among those who reached the summit. According to his own account, he did not use bottled oxygen. For the head of Elite Exped, who was leading a Russian client, it was his 50th eight-thousander success in which he reached the so-called “True Summit.” Four years ago, there had been a heated debate over whether climbers had truly reached the very highest points of the eight-thousanders during their ascents. Since then, much closer attention has been paid to whether they were at the “True Summit.”