SummitPost.org

http://www.flickr.com/photos/radson/sets/72157627962672963/

Finally put up some pics from Ama Dablam last month. Absolutely glorious weather and wasn't as cold as I feared. We left camp 2 at 02:30. I didn't summit, turning around about an hour from the summit at 11am. The ol' gut feeling was telling me to descend before it got dark and I ended up making it back to camp 2 at 3pm, so maybe the wrong call.

Let me know if you have any questions.


Ama Dablam base camp by radson1, on Flickr

Brad, it's a long haul from C2. never a bad call to listen to your gut. Great pictures as usual!

Thanks Sir Alan. Shame we never had a chance to catch up when you scaled our mighty peak

Amazing pictures, especially of the campsite perched on the ridge. Thanks for sharing!
Howie

Excellent photo series, both in terms of individual quality and overall compilation. Hopefully you felt the trip was worthwhile, even if you didn't make it to every summit. This may sound daft but are the fixed ropes put in each time a group makes an ascent, or are they left there during the season?

Baarb, I think a perfectly valid question. The answer is a bit of both. There were ropes from this season and ropes from previous seasons. By the time we were on the hill between 20th and 26th November many of the ropes, even the new ones were severely compromised, especially between camps 1 and 2.

Also with regards to ropes, there were a few sections, where it was very difficult to pass a rappelling device on to the rope. Particularly on the grey tower. I had bruised thumbs from trying to get my figure 8 on to the ropes.


Thanks also howie

Beautiful photos, it looks like an amazing trip and climb.

I applaud the decision to turn around based on your gut feeling- more accidents can be prevented if people would just listen to that inner-voice. The perched camp photo is absolutely stellar.

Thank you so much for sharing Mr. Radson. I want to get out there too one day, a beautiful peak!
How cold did it get? Was it really clear and picturesque due to being post monsoon season?

Great photos. Thanks for sharing!

radson wrote:Thanks Sir Alan. Shame we never had a chance to catch up when you scaled our mighty peak

I know, it was always in the back of my mind to see you and Sandy. I think you were on AD and who knows where your lovely wife was and I changed my schedule hourly ... I am 1000% I will return to OZ one day. Until then. BTW, Kozzy was a lot of fun and I met some great people; certainly a worthy climb much less a 7 Summit.

Vitaliy M. wrote:Thank you so much for sharing Mr. Radson. I want to get out there too one day, a beautiful peak!
How cold did it get? Was it really clear and picturesque due to being post monsoon season?

Mister? Bloody hell, makes me sound like an old man :p

I think the coldest temp would have been -20c. Purely a guesstimate. There was no clouds at all so the temperature plummeted at night. Even at base camp, I would read from my iPad at night and could watch the %battery gauge just tick over as the battery drained. With no cloud, came absolutely no wind. The most we experienced was 15 knots. On summit day I had to take off my down jacket by midday as I was roasting at an exposed 6,500 m.

I wore LS baruntses with thick socks and never once had an inkling of old feet. I wore OR altitude gloves for the 2:30 departure and these were warm and dextrous enough to get up the grey tower etc before sunrise.

With regards to picturesque, from a photography point of view, I wish there had been more clouds, from a climbers view, I wish I had worn more sunscreen.