HIMALAYA NEWS

Please Scroll down for our most recent news of 2003 expeditions. 

News Page sponsored by:

Daniel Mazur, climber of 7 of the world's 14 highest "8000 metre peaks" including Everest and K2. Photo by Scott Darsney

Climbing Magazine has published an article about Daniel Mazur, one of our leaders. Please purchase the issue: May 1st, 2003, Issue No. 221. Available on newsstands now. Thanks to Matt Stanley, and John Climaco. Please "click" here to view the article, and then return when you have finished. Thank You.

Tim Boelter, filming John Arnold climbing on Cho Oyu, the sixth highest peak in the world. Photo-D.L.Mazur

A NEW CHO OYU DVD FEATURING DAN AND FRIENDS IS NOW AVAILABLE. Please "click" here to learn more:  See a clip from the NEW DVD, and then return when you are finished. Thank you.

Do you know of anyone who might like to host a Himalayan Charity slide-video show throughout the world during December 2003, or January, February, and December 2004? Please get in touch!! email: summitclimb@earthlink.net

During December of 2003, or January, February, and December of 2004, one of our leaders, Daniel Mazur, is planning lecture tours throughout the world, to raise funds for two important charities: the Mount Everest Foundation, building schools and hospitals and doing environmental projects in the Mount Everest Region of Nepal and Tibet, and the Boukreev Fund, building schools for girls and boys in Pakistan, and sponsoring young climbers exchange programs in Britain, Europe, and Kazakhstan. In 2003, Daniel  presented 22 lectures in England/Wales and Colorado/New Mexico. Please visit the "Lectures" page to learn about what we have done and are planning for the future.

AMA DABLAM SUCCESS, OCTOBER 2003, ASIA'S MOST FAMOUS ROCK-ICE-SNOW CLIMB, EASY-TECHNICAL:

SPRING 2003 SUMMIT SUCCESS ON 7161 METRE PUMORI, NEPAL'S MOST CLIMBABLE 7000 METRE PEAK:

AMA DABLAM SUCCESS, OCTOBER 2002:

We believe this expedition placed the oldest man on the summit of Ama Dablam, Paul Mitterbacher, age 65, from Austria.

During the month of October, 2002, we launched our International Ama Dablam 2002 Expedition, organized by SummitClimb.Com under the leadership of Daniel Mazur, Rex Dougherty, and Jay Reilly, all assisted by the People and Government of Nepal, Parivar Trekking of Nepal, Patagonia.com and Ozark Gear, missing our friends at Blue Sheep Adventures. We are proud to report that fifteen members have reached the summit of 6856 meter Ama Dablam. Also, five of our expert sherpas did reach the summit, as well. We set up five camps along the South West Ridge. Base Camp on October 4th at 4575 meters, Advanced Base Camp on October 6th at 5400 meters, Camp 1 on October 14th at 5750 meters, Camp 2 on October 17th at 6000 meters and Camp 3 on October 20th at 6300 meters.

The following members summited.

21st October: Tom Lannamann, Stuart MacCrimmon, Andy Prentice, Ian Prentice and Jon Briggs, with Tek Bahadur.

22nd October: Markus Staehelin, Jay Reilly, Mick Long and Paul Mitterbacher, with Lakpa Sherpa and Galu Sherpa. We believe Paul Mitterbacher is the oldest man to have summitted Ama Dablam, at age 65.

24th October: Ken Stalter, Tom Taplin, Randy Murphy, Patrick Bernier, Roland DeBare and Daniel Mazur, with Jangbu Sherpa and Shera Sherpa.

In general, route conditions were superb, with excellent granite and hard snow. The weather on the lower mountain was warm and pleasant. On the upper mountain, it was very cold and windy. Wind chill on the summit was substantial. An unusually large amount of snow on the upper mountain also made climbing difficult for the first summiteers. We benefited greatly from a strong Sherpa staff and superb Base Camp, trekking, and Kathmandu support courtesy of Parivar Trekking of Nepal. We had outstanding relations with the other teams, and cooperated well, in setting the route and sharing the camps. Everyone got along perfectly. 

With old rope remaining from previous years (we tried to remove as much as possible), and plenty of use of this year's ropes, the route, especially between camps 1 and 2, was not always in absolute perfect condition. Still, we did our best to maintain all possible safety procedures and managed to escape with only a few minor mishaps, and neither serious injuries nor accidents.

We are also proud to have donated a computer to the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), courtesy of Rudy Zuber of Switzerland and Kevin Donovan of Texas. We look forward to future co-operation between mountaineering expeditions in Nepal and the SPCC, the Guardians of the Highest Place on Earth.

For our next phase of the expedition, Tom Lannaman, Daniel Mazur, Jangbu Sherpa, and Lakpa Sherpa will begin climbing the rarely seen and little known North Ridge of Ama Dablam on 1 November, in just a few days. Please stay tuned to EverestNews.com for the latest dispatches of their progress on this extremely difficult ridge.

Our Sincere Thanks to all of the loved ones, family members, friends, charitable donors, sponsors, our excellent dedicated staff, internet providers, media hosts, Alpine Club and mountaineering membership organizations, the Nepalese people and Government, our agents, and those too numerous to mention who are making these expeditions possible in a careful and efficient way, with absolute respect for the local people and environments.

We look forward to our return to the HOTEL NEPA to visit Bidya Sagar Tuladhar, in Thamel, Kathmandu.

At this juncture, we would like to offer a prayer courtesy of Doctor Robert Davidson, a friend of Ken Stalter's:

"My child, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; they will be life for you, a (Dablam) ornament to grace your neck. Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble; when you lie down...you will not be afraid, and your sleep will be sweet." Proverbs 3:21-24(NIV)

Om Mani Padmi Hom (Hale to the jewel in the lotus.) -Buddha

Ps. We wish to extend further thanks to Miki and Rolf and everyone at Amical Expeditions, for their fine cooperation, also we wish to thank for their excellent cooperation: Anselme Baud, Frederic, Sebastien, Florence, Alexia, Guillaume, Vincent, and all of our superbe amis Savoiards - Morsinaise  

NOJIN KANSA SUCCESS, MARCH 2002: Daniel Mazur of Bristol and Seattle, together with Jon Otto of Chengdu, China and Washington DC, our 9 member team made a first western ascent of the 7200 meter Tibetan peak: Nojin Kansa. We were from America, Briton, France, Greece, and Korea, making the first non-Chinese attempt of this peak located 100 kilometers south of Tibet's beautiful and historic capital city: Lhasa. The climbing research backing up this claim was done by Daniel Ferrer. Needless to say, being in such a remote area, we saw no other climbers in Tibet this season. We were a group of new and old friends, among them Jean-Christophe Van Waes from France, Richard Fullerton from London, Michael Doyle from Virginia, Daniel Mazur from Seattle, Brian Mertes from New York, Andrew Bruske from Seoul and Detroit, Dimitri Koutsogiorgas, and Antoni Sykaris from Athens, and Martha Johnson from Seattle, whom we had known since 1995.

My strongest Nojin Kansa memory was of March 20th, burned into my memory banks, when I will never forget spending a frightening night in an Ozark tent in the 6700 meter high camp with one of our members who was suffering in extreme pain from one of the worst cases of altitude sickness I had ever seen. The previous day we had made a challenging 1200 meter ascent up a semi-technical snow-ice and rock face. In the tent brewing tea, I was feeling ok, if a bit shaky from the big ascent (there had been no place to make an intermediate camp), but my friend, on the other hand, was getting slammed by altitude sickness. We spent a harrowing night in the wind buffeted tent, on the high 6700 meter plateau of Nojin Kansa, and my friend was crippled by a vice-grip headache and, due to a somersaulting stomach, was unable to keep anything down, and kept vomiting into a tiny zip lock bag that I was holding. At one point, as my friend lay there moaning and writhing in pain, I panicked and prayed to every god I could think of. Perhaps that worked, as eventually my friend began to improve a tiny bit. We took Diamox, drank water, and my friend tried some Dexamethasone tablets toward morning. Feeling shaky, and counting our lucky stars for making it through the night, my friend and I completed the many rappels down the snow ice and rock face, which brought us out of danger.

Richard Fullerton from London, and Michael Doyle from Virginia, in the company of Pemba, one of our very tough Tibetan high altitude climbers, headed for the summit. It was a beautiful sunny and windy morning, and Richard, not feeling well, turned around at the halfway mark, but Michael Doyle continued on with Pemba, reaching the summit around 4:00 pm on 21 March, and became the first non-Chinese person to reach the summit of Nojin Kansa. During the ascent, Michael sunburned his lips so badly that they turned into a mass of black scabs and 3 weeks later, still looked as if they might benefit from amputation. Nevertheless, for the next few weeks, Michael fairly danced the jig with joy, through a well-deserved sense of pride in his accomplishments.

Martha Johnson completed an interesting high-altitude medicine research study on the members, which involved taking multiple measurements of each team member using a portable EKG machine, which was hooked up through wires connected to the climber's chests with stick-on electrodes, which, when removed, tore out a fair amount of chest hair by the roots with quite a loud ripping noise and a modicum of pain.

When we finally left basecamp and made the grueling, bumpy, jarring, freezing cold, day-long drive down to the beautiful and warm city of Lhasa, all of us were feeling exhausted and shattered, after spending too many days exposed to icy blasting winds from the Tibetan Plateau. Nevertheless, after touring the gilded Potala Palace, watching the debating monks at the Sera Monastery, and sleeping in our quiet rooms for half of the day, several of our expedition members and about 500 Tibetans, spent the night in an enormous Lhasa disco and dance hall, dancing our selves silly with our new-found Tibetan disco friends, learning steps to some of the most beautiful and evocative group dancing I have ever done. Nearly the entire audience were out on the dance floor with arms linked, under the watchful scrutiny of the steely eyed Chinese soldiers, who wore pressed uniforms, arms folded across chests, army caps pulled low over their foreheads, brims covering eyes, skeptically witnessing the audience's expression of joy and solidarity.

In a final "goodbye" in a classically Tibetan moment of confusion, we flew on March 30 from Lhasa to Kathmandu, but before they let us on the plane, they weighed all of our baggage and tried to charge us an outrageous $1200 for excess baggage. We argued, and complained and cajoled, and after much squawking on our part, they lowered it to $900, but still, we considered ourselves stung. At the eleventh hour, the airport staff rushed us through immigration, customs, and security, and we trotted across the runway and ran up the steps into the plane, just as they closed the doors. On the way to Kathmandu, we flew over Mount Everest, and were treated to amazing views, including a very closeup view of Everest, Lhotse, and Makalu, all of which Daniel had climbed before. 

AMA DABLAM SUCCESS, OCTOBER 2001:  In November 2001, we returned from climbing Nepal's 6800 meter Ama Dablam, a renowned rock, ice and snow climb located next to Mount Everest. 9 of our members reached the summit in all safety. It was our third successful ascent of the mountain. We were fortunate in that the weather was ideal, the team worked together well, our Sherpa climbing staff worked very hard, the food was well prepared, and the route was in good condition. Please share in our congratulations to all of the team members and thanks to everyone who helped and supported us, including our generous sponsors. Nepal is indeed beautiful now. Our condolences to the families of those who were involved in the tragedy of 11 September. The events were shocking to all of us, as we followed them on the BBC world service via short-wave radio. Our own expedition seemed to be unaffected. Nepal remained apparently peaceful, and the pleasant weather and calm conditions made our expedition especially easy.

HIMALAYA 2001 NEWS:

Himalaya 2000:  5 EXPEDITIONS IN ONE SEASON:

Comments? Please send your feedback and ideas: summitclimb@earthlink.net

To read about our five expeditions during 2000, please have a "click" at one of the headings or photos below: 

Mustagh Ata (7546m) Normal Route (7 members summit) A clear view of the New Route.
Mustagh Ata (7546m) New Route East Ridge (3 members summit) Daniel falls from near the summit, and a Slovenian climber dies.
Mount Kailas and West Nepal Trek      (3 members trek) The clouds part to reveal the summit. A football tourney ruins our plans.
Mount Nojin Kansa (7200m)                           (3 members summit Chang-Shish (5800m) Blown off the mountain by avalanches.
Cho Oyu (8201m) (6 members summit) An attempted rescue of a Serbian climber, who dies.

A Dedication: We would like to take this moment to thank Miss Elizabeth Hawley for her interest in mountaineering on the 8000 metre peaks, for her precise thinking, and her tireless compilation of mountaineering statistics. Salud!

Photo: Miss Elizabeth Hawley, who lives in Kathmandu and compiles statistics about climbing in the 8000 metre peaks of Nepal. Photographer: Daniel Mazur

Shout Outs:
This expedition would not have been possible if not for the strong efforts of: A host of generous sponsors and Elizabeth Carr, Joyce Cowan, Richard Laurence, Murari Sharma, Franck Pitula, Sue Froeschner, Martha Johnson, Dana Lynge, John Climaco, Pamela Miller, and Andrew Brash. Thank you.

Please visit and learn about our other expeditions:

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