Ama Dablam Southwest Ridge Expedition

Khumbu, Sagarmatha National Park · Nepal

Expedition Grade26 daysAsia~£12,000 est.

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Overview

Every trekker on the Everest trail photographs Ama Dablam; almost none of them touch her. The 'Mother's Necklace' is the most beautiful 6,000er on Earth and, at 6,812 m, a genuinely technical expedition: sustained rock climbing on the granite towers above Camp 1, the airy jumar of the Yellow Tower, and Camp 2 perched on a ledge the size of a dining table with a kilometre of air on three sides. The Southwest Ridge is climbed on fixed lines in the post-monsoon window, October to November, when the Khumbu sky turns to polished glass. Above Camp 2 the route weaves past the hanging serac — the dablam itself — whose collapses have shaped the route's history; operators fix the Grey Tower and summit snowfields early. The variable that ends most attempts is not the rock but jumaring efficiency at altitude: slow parties get benighted. Expeditions run 25 to 30 days from Kathmandu with the classic Namche-Pangboche acclimatisation trek to a grassy base camp at 4,570 m that ranks among the loveliest in the Himalaya. Budget £11,000 to £14,000 with Sherpa support and fixed-line fees included. You need prior rock and ice experience at altitude — this is not a first Himalayan peak.