Hello all,

My partner and I are looking at attempting the standard route on Dhaulagiri this spring. We have heard from many sources that the monsoon comes early to the Annapurna region and have seen teams go earlier to that region, eyeing a late April early May summit window. All commercial trips seem to still be Mid April thru all of May though. I have a commitment in the USA on May 19th and was hoping to go from late March to Mid May.

Any thoughts or advice?? Also open to additional team members.

Thanks,

Matt

Matt,

Which logistic outfitter are you going with and how much is it? O or no O?

Thanks,
Kevin

We haven't chosen our outfitter yet and are talking with several companies. Some of us (not me) have been to the Himalayas.


No oxygen. Logistics only, no support above basecamp.

Woah....matt g is on summitpost!!!

Wishing you the best. I will keep in touch whether I can join.

We have heard from many sources that the monsoon comes early to the Annapurna region

That region in general is much wetter than say the Everest region or some other areas in the Himalaya. The monsoon only comes slightly earlier, since those peaks are near the plains, but we're talking hours rather than weeks.

It's not really that the monsoon comes earlier, but that it comes stronger. There aren't many foothills or other mountains to block storms from the south or southwest, so those mountains take a direct hit once the monsoon hits. That's why the avalanche danger is so high on many of the peaks in that region (especially Annapurna, Manaslu, and the west and south faces of Dualagiri.

Messner refers to Dhalagiri as the "Mountain of Storms" for the very reason that Dhalagiri is in the direct path of storms from the S and SW.

Any thoughts or advice??

I have only climbed some of the "little" peaks around Dhalagiri rather than the mountain itself, so I don't have much advice to give other than to take the side trips to the East Dhalagiri Icefall/Tukuche Ridge and maybe even the base of South Face if you have time and want some acclimatization.

Some of my friends made the first American attempt of Dhalagiri VII some years ago, but any info would be outdated by now.

Good luck.

FWIW, I was on the mountain in 1994, post monsoon. The approach is pretty hard considering the elevation changes. Tukuche is at 8,000' and the French Col at cc. 17,000'. It is about 20-25 miles to get to the BC. If you hire horses and mules to carry your gear (we did) the handlers need to get to the BC really fast. The animals have little to eat above 12,000'. So the approach is brutal. Acclimatization becomes problematic. Most of us had some problems with the fast approach to the BC.

Post monsoon, we had about 5 day window around October 6th. That was it. Rest of the trip was storms and high winds, rain on approach and snow higher up. We hiked to the mountain from one of the villages beyond Pokhara (end of the road). I don't have a clue about spring conditions. The mountain can be done without any high altitude sherpas or suplemental oxygen. We had one Gamow bag, never used it.

We hired 25 porters and 5 guys as a cooking team. Those 5 stayed with us.

The trick is to be ready for the good weather window, however short it might be. We got 4 out of 8 people to the summit. Those who were in the high camp when the weather broke, went to the top.

I hope you go. The Kali-Gandaki (sp?) river gorge is absolutely awesome place and the mountains are some of the best in Nepal from mountaineering point of view. Even after all these years, that 3 months long trip was the best trip of my life and was worth every tired step.

I hope you do it. Good luck, Alois.

asmrz wrote:The approach is pretty hard considering the elevation changes. Tukuche is at 8,000' and the French Col at cc. 17,000'. It is about 20-25 miles to get to the BC. If you hire horses and mules to carry your gear (we did) the handlers need to get to the BC really fast. The animals have little to eat above 12,000'. So the approach is brutal. Acclimatization becomes problematic. Most of us had some problems with the fast approach to the BC.

Nowadays almost everyone treks into BC from the western route, starting near Beni, as if doing the Dhaulagiri Circuit Trek, rather than come in up from Marpha/Lete/Jomsom in the Kali Gandhi like you did, Alois. It's still a tough trek, even with some avalanche danger, but not as sudden a rise as from the east.

A friend was on Dhaulagiri this last spring and it was very warm, so the icefall and glaciated areas down low melted out very badly by early May. It was a generally warm winter and wet, warm spring this year but they still had winds up very high, so very few summited. If it was like that again, you'd definitely want to go early and be done by mid-May. But if this spring was an outlier, then next spring may revert to something more like normal and be snowy down low into April. Nowadays success on the 8000ers is more down to what other teams are on the mountain and how many Sherpas they have.

Thanks Damien, good to know there is easier way to the BC.

The lower ice fall to about 19,000' is a mess, period. I would assume since more people climb the mountain these days. there will be fixed ropes especially skirting the Eiger to the left. The ice fall is extremely active, we left some fixed ropes tied to screws and by the time we left a month later, the ropes were hanging 15 feet in the air. Once you get past the ice fall, it gets easier if more technical in places.

Is the mountain being guided these days?

I thought this would be one of the peaks that can be done so well without Sherpa support, if you have 6-8 people split into 3 or 4 teams of two. Climb up, set up camp, come down. Next team goes up, repeats.

Set up three or four Camps, equip it all, go for the summit when weather is good.

Maybe things are done differently these days?

Amazing info in this thread, much appreciated. My partner returns from Peru this weekend and we will discuss.

Sounds like our dates could pan out. My partner has a permit for Cho (got kicked out year of quake) - but we don't think the timing works as well for spring, and it isn't as cool as Giri.

Right now we are considering going for Giri in Spring, and then heading to Tibet in the Fall. Perhaps with a Peru trip in the summer!!!

Is anyone in this thread interested in Giri, Cho or Shisha next year Spring/Fall??

I am also very interested in the Snow Leopard peaks and would likely attempt some this coming summer with the right partner.

WIll keep this thread updated as things develop.

In other news - 2 close friends ina team of 4 are heading up for their summit attempt on G2 this week. GOOD LUCK GUYS!!!

I was heavily researching Cho Oyu but couldn't come up with an outfitter that offers a low cost basic service package and be reliable. Dan Mazur and Summit Climb came up in my research but after speaking with a few climbers that have used his service, I decided that it wasn't the best fit. He has very low number of returning climbers. Seven Summit Trek is a cheap and sometimes reliable local outfitter but they never replied to any of my emails. I also had a friend that have used them on several climbs talk to Tashi or Mingma (the owners) in Kathmandu and still no replies. I gave up on them. Let me know what outfitters you guys come up with and the price for Cho Oyu.

Let me know if you need beta for the Snow Leopard peaks including Pik Lenin and Khan Tengri.

asmrz wrote:Is the mountain being guided these days?

By Sherpa companies, yes, and individual client-climbers with Sherpa 'partners'. Occasionally western guiding companies advertise it, but rarely actually do it.

I thought this would be one of the peaks that can be done so well without Sherpa support, if you have 6-8 people split into 3 or 4 teams of two. Climb up, set up camp, come down. Next team goes up, repeats.

Nowadays it's hard to get 6-8 climbers together with the suitable skill, experience, time and money, all at once, to do something like this. It tends to be individuals joining guided trips or pairs joining BC-only commercial trips.

Set up three or four Camps, equip it all, go for the summit when weather is good.

Oof, so much hard work! Better to pay some poor locals to do that for you

I've had at least six friends attempt, or climb, Dhaulagiri - two succeeded, three failed and one died. Many years nobody gets past C2 and most need some fixed rope to C3. Heavy snow above C2 seems to be a common problem, especially in years with little manpower. Off the top of my head I can think of four avalanche deaths in this region - Ginette Harrison, Chantal Maudit, and two Spanish guys camped next to my friend, all(?) in tents hit by avalanches.

Maybe things are done differently these days?

Very.

The other thing to note with Dhaulagiri is that the true summit is a long way (west) along the summit ridge from where the normal NE ridge route comes up to it. It has become obvious in recent years that over time many climbers have not gone all the way and stopped on an intermediate top. It looks pretty tough going at that altitude, narrow and exposed at 8000m. For this reason many now traverse up right from the top of the ridge and cross the large slope under the northern side of the summit ridge, not cresting it until closer to the summit. Easier terrain and less exposed, though probably more avalanche danger.

kevin trieu wrote:I was heavily researching Cho Oyu but couldn't come up with an outfitter that offers a low cost basic service package and be reliable. Dan Mazur and Summit Climb came up in my research but after speaking with a few climbers that have used his service, I decided that it wasn't the best fit. He has very low number of returning climbers. Seven Summit Trek is a cheap and sometimes reliable local outfitter but they never replied to any of my emails. I also had a friend that have used them on several climbs talk to Tashi or Mingma (the owners) in Kathmandu and still no replies. I gave up on them. Let me know what outfitters you guys come up with and the price for Cho Oyu.

There aren't too many companies offering Cho Oyu in the Spring season, since most companies offer an Everest trip and are too small to operate expeditions to Everest and Cho Oy simultaneously. This Spring, the only two big outfits on Cho were SummitClimb and Jagged Globe. There were only something like 5 expeditions total at ABC if I recall correctly. SummitClimb was a disappointment to me. They don't pay for their own weather forecasting service, they tend to rely on word of mouth around base camp from other teams who do. That didn't work too well this Spring season because Jagged Globe quit the mountain rather abruptly (none of the clients got to Camp 2 as far as I know) and the quality of the weather forecasts dropped off drastically.

Occasionally western guiding companies advertise it, but rarely actually do it.

Adventure Consultants is supposedly doing it next spring.

Dan Mazur and Summit Climb came up in my research but after speaking with a few climbers that have used his service, I decided that it wasn't the best fit. He has very low number of returning climbers.

Many climbers like his trips. It depends on how much help you need. Services are generally more basic and cheaper than other companies.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

After much thought and consideration, we have decided that Pakistan in the summer would be a better choice. The time constraints and the low chance of success/high degree of danger on Giri were the big factors.

We are talking to Karokoram Tours Pakistan, who our friends just had a VERY good experience with on G2 (summitted) this season.

Right now 2 of us are committed. The prices are for a minimum of 4. They are very competitive.

We are undecided on Broad Peak or G2. My partner and I intend to climb another peak afterwards if anyone wants to discuss that.

Is anyone interested in more information?