Dhaulagiri remains unclimbed this spring

Dream Wanderlust | May 26 , 2018

Dhaulagiri (8167m) remains unclimbed this session. Climbers around the world including Carlos Soria, Christopher Manning, Nicholas Rice, Ryan Kushner, Debasish Biswas and Waldemar Kowalewski had attempted Dhaulagiri this spring. All the expeditions had to be abandoned due to unfavourable weather. Veteran climber Carlos Soria already announced his abandonment on the mountain. Canadian climber Christopher Manning, who teamed up with US climbers Nicholas Rice and Ryan Kushner for their approach also did the same. As per the versions of the co-climbers and Sherpa, Indian climber Debasish Biswas, Polish climber Waldemar Kowalewski and the team may have reached upto 7800m on 19th May. Christopher with Ryan Kushner however had reached up to 7600m. Rest of the climbers were somewhere below 7600m. "I reached 7600m, turned back with Ryan Kushner because of weather. 9 remaining climbers continued to 7800m," Christopher Manning said to Dream Wanderlust. As Christopher explained about the reason behind none of the climbers being able to reach the summit, he said "Seven Summits quitting early after Carlos Soria gave up. We had great weather, paid for ropes to summit but they packed up and went home. Left everyone stranded but still we almost summited. Poor management and dedication to the rest of their clients/teams on the mountain. 2nd reason, bad weather early on in the month of May."

Dhaulagiri

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On 19th May, 9 climbers including Indian climber Debasish Biswas had approached summit from Camp-3. As per the previous report, it was speculated that they had reportedly reached the summit. However confusion regarding their summit claim began to gain ground once they came back to Base Camp.

Later, Debasish Biswas and Mingma Sherpa, the head of Seven Summit Treks expressed their confusion about the climbers reaching the actual summit. They said "it was close to summit but not the actual." However, any claim of reaching summit is subjected to approval. Dhaulagiri remains unclimbed unless the claim is approved.