Italian mountaineer Carloalberto Cimenti aka "Cala" summitted Mt. Dhaulagiri (8,167m), the seventh highest mountain in the world, on 8th October 2017 at 11 am. Shortly after his Swiss friend Matthias Koenig also reached the summit. On his way down Cala managed to ski from 7200m to 5200m. Matthias also accomplished to ski down from Camp-3, 7200m.
Three friends, Cala Cimenti, Matthias Koenig and Davide Gerlero came to Nepal with a hope of fulfilling their friend, Luca Borgoni's dream. He was a 22 year old university student who died on July 8 2017 during an expedition on the Matterhorn. His mom, Cristina Giordana became famous by discussing the thesis of Luca, who would have graduated in Biology after a few days of the accident.
Dhaulagiri was his (Luca) dream. That's why the Trio came with a photograph of Luca to place it on the top of Dhaulagiri. Italian Davide Gerlero, a great friend of Luca handed over the photograph to Cala after he decided to go down and return to the Base Camp.
On the summit day Cala went for summit from Camp-3 alone at night and reached the summit alone with the photograph and kept his promise to David. On his way down he met Matthias, who about two hours (about 3:30 am) later decided to go for summit.
The actual plan to ski descend the whole Dhaulagiri massif didn't happen. However, Cala managed to ski descend approximately 2000m on his way down. "I decided to leave the ski there to about 7600 mt. Due to a technical difficulty, the slope never exceeds 50 degrees... There is a rock cross that can be skied downhill skiing, which is a critical point, and then a steeper section on Camp-3 but feasible. We managed to make beautiful skiing from 7200m up to 5200m," Cala said.
On behalf of Luca's facebook profile, her mother wrote "Today is the 8th so I had to give a great sign of my presence. Thanks to Cala my photo reached the top of Dhaulagiri right this morning and even the hour was the right one! The excitement has been indescribable ... Thank you, because with your actions you continue to make me live."
Luca Borgoni
Cala on the summit of Dhaulagiri
Matthias on the summit of Dhaulagiri
Matthias with his ski boards
Matthias approaching using his ski boards
Ski descent on Mt. Dhaulagiri
Photo Courtesy: Cala Cimenti and Matthias Koenig
This news was revised on 26-10-2017
