Ama Dablam Expedition 2023

My Ama Dablam adventure started yesterday. I had to take to train to Frankfurt Airport and surprisingly the train arrived "kind of on point" with only 15 minutes delay.
 I was happy I could find a free seat and leave my luggage as close to the doors as possible coz they changed the train and my reserved seat didn't exist.
 Once arrived on the airport I tried to get to Terminal 2 as direct as possible since I'm travelling with 2 large and heavy dufflebags, a trekking backbag and another small, lighter dufflebag. Must have looked very funny if you saw me walking around buried by my duffles.
 It turned out that my luggage was heavily overweighted but nobody bothered me with any additional payment. Instead they wished me wonderful holidays.
 I guess it was worth to pay the extra prize for the buisnessclass-ticket. I'm afraid this will be different when I fly back from Kathmandu as I remember them to be very strict about the weight in previous years.
  But back to reality, I knew the german railway might have problems so I planned my departure well ahead of my flight so I really could enjoy the quite lounge with its food, beverages and excellent Wifi. I could finish all my work and get "into the adventure" mentalwise.
 The first flight to Doha was wonderful and close to perfect. I had a window seat, the food was delicious, I even got one of my favourite Belgian beer and Swiss chocolate by the end of the flight. I'm not yet into the english speaking world yet so I had a lot of funny conversations with the flight attendants about the distributed pijama or how to pronounce my name correctly. After that I got confused about the selection of olive oils they wanted to serve, because you normally don't expect a better selection than in a normal restaurant, right?!

After diner, I took advantage of the seat turning into a bed within seconds to get some sleep. But my brain was still running on highspeed so I ended up lying there with closed eyes and calming down a bit.
 After arrival a priority bus brought us buisness passengers directly to the terminals, without having to go under security inspections or so.
 
 And this is where I'm sitting now, writing this first blog entry. Having a view you would never ever expect in an airport. Looking up from my computer I'm seeing a real forest with waterfall sounds. You definitely should have a stroll through all the terminals here if you'll be stuck here for a while on a layover. I only knew the terminal with the famous giant teddy sitting around but I have no clue which one that is.

At the moment I'm beyond excited for the advengture ahead, hoping I will be having a group as gread as on Aconcagua. It's easier to get through tough times on the mountains when you have no connections and the only ones to cheer you up is your group. But I have to be a little bit more patient to get to know the group tomorrow.
 If you want to know more about the trip, check out the company's homepage www.mountainguides.com/amadablam , all written in English.

We are in Lukla!!!
 But all I can say, it was definitely a longer way than planned.
 We all managed to getup on time and departed exactly at 2 in the morning towards Manthali. The drive was smooth as drehe driver drove very cautious and calmly and the weather forecast for Lukla looked great. It‘s only since last year that you don‘t fly from Kathmandu anymore coz the airport just got too busy during high season.
 We Justusse the first departing flight when we arrived in Manthali but first we had to eat our breakfast outside of the airport.
 While eating, we were observing the chaos in the airport. So much crowd rushing around, waiting, trying to understand what the workers try to tell them. Shortly after it was on us to jump into this chaos. We had to weight our duffles and our carry-ons and bring the duffles to security control where they found some forbidden Powerbanks but not all of them. Waterbottles, knives or hiking poles didn‘t seem to be any issue at all…
 Security control,for the passengers got even funnier. The men’s queue was a million times faster than the women’s. We had to open the bag, show everything in our pockets and she inspected every boarding card for a loooong time. Maybe she didn‘t like the “any” seat…
 
 After that we happy to be in the waiting room and excited about the flight to come soon.
 We didn‘t think we would sit there for 9,5 hours in total and for nothing. Thank god we didn‘t have any clue about what to come and how long the day will gonna be.
 at 11 o‘clock we got the information that they have to stop flying into Lukla because of high winds. Some of us used the opportunity to leave the building to turn back to the breakfast place to have lunch in the fresh air.
 4 hours later it seemed like they can restart the departs. I used the men security without any problems this time to end up waiting for another hour. Shortly after we heard some engine nose so we we sure we will be next to fly out because our duffles were already loaded on the plane. The only things missing were the pilot and the passengers.
 Some. Of the other airlines already cancelled their flights due to technical reasons and a pilot who wasn’t allowed to work longer as his shift was already over.
 We knew we would be on the second flight from our airline, but they only had one pilot. The plan was that he flies to Lukla, comes back, flying to Lukla with us again and coming back to Manthali for the night. But his shift was already almost over, so they also cancelled our flight last minute and we ended up waiting again. This time for Phunuru to find a hotel with 14 empty beds. As we all know, he is a genius he came back after 10 minutes with even an Organizer transportation to the hotel.
 
 shirtly after we ordered some diner in the hotel restaurant, all ready to go to sleep right after diner. There was only one problem: they only had 2 cooks that never cooked for 14 people at one time. So we had to wait another 2!!! Hours to get the food. Phunuru tried to keep the mood high with purchasing oranges on the market but as soon as the plates were empty, everyone was up for bed.
 
 This morning we had to get up at 4.45h, exactly the time the rooster was heard and only half an hour later we were in the airport chaos again.
 The security lady was the same so it took the female a little. It longer to go through security, but this time we ended up being called for boarding only some minutes later.
 As today is the holiday of the engines they first blessed the plane and made a little puja. Shortly after the puja finished, we could board and depart towards Lukla.
 Right after we landed we went to our Teahouse where we had a delicious breakfast and 
 I could check in in my room with direct view to the runway.
 We also made a very short hike to stretch the legs a bit. The story of the afternoon is short: strolling up and down the main road, finding a nice cafe with excellent Wi-Fi and a sunny terrace and having diner later.
 Thenplan for tomorrow is to go out on a longer acclimatization hike with lunch in a Teahouse on the way. And the day after we will be enjoying our first helicopter flight towards Khote.
 I‘m feeling perfectly fine, the group is so much fun, the guides are doing an excellent job and I‘ so delighted to be able to move. Coz I feel all I did since my departure on Thursday is sitting around somewhere to wait for something. 

I could sleep pretty good in the night, I was just so hot in the sleepingbag. I didn‘t use the provided blankets yet and I still leave the zipper wide open. We‘ll see how long it takes till I‘ be more than happy to have extra blankets.
 In Lukla, so close to the airport, you‘ll wake up the first time when you here the Sirene which assigns the departure of the first plan in Manthali. The next time you‘ll be awake when this first plane is arriving in Lukla. If you’re happy enough to fall asleep again, you will be awake when the first plane departs again or the second one will arrive. Inbetween you‘ll hear barking dogs, roosters and talking morning people. So it‘s definitely not a good place for people who like to sleep in.
 I started the day with packing the duffle and backpack that everything is already ready to depart tothetze helipad right after breakfast.
 The trail to the pad is as short as the excitement for the flight was high. Some of us never have flown with a helicopter and already waited for today since the trip started.
 I can still remember my first flight from Aconcagua Basecamp to the road so I was full of excitement too. We could carry our bags directly to the helipad and even could stay right there in the middle of this flight madness. So we could perfectly analyse all the actions from very close. I could spend days just watching the chaos. You see people coming and going, helicopters arriving and departing, mules walking around right beside the helipad and above all you still have the small planes Leroy Manthali landing on the runway next to the helipad. From time tomatiere you saw 7 helicopters on the helipad on the same time, being (in)loaded and passengers being sent from A to B.
 Our team flew in 4 groups and Phunuru already warned us about the 2 possible routes than can be flown to Khote. One over a pass which is slightly longer but more nice and the Normalroute along the river. Of course everyone opted for the longer one and the weather looked pretty nice for it. All we needed was to getobtes right pilot and for sure Phunuru made sure we got exactly the right pilot.
 Shortly after 9 am the first group could board the helicopter and flew over the pass. The others couldn‘t hold back the excitement and shortly after it was my turn to board the heli.
 Unmanaged totgeht my window seat but half of it got covered by my dufflebag. I was still able to enjoy the great view of the pass and the surrounding mountains. I could even spot our first target, mera peak in the distance.
 Phunuru himself was the ground control for us to land and the ones arriving before us were waiting for us with a huuuuge smile in their face. The third group also managed to take the route over the pass, only the last group wasn‘t lucky enough because of the clouds that came up in between. But the pilot made sure that they also enjoyed a nice flight since he fly very close over the trees and prayerflags.
 After the arrival of everyone we could take a group picture with the (still) running helicopter and the pilot before we walked to the lodge.
 Now it was time to relax, read, talk to each other or take a very short hike to a holy rock close to the village and have lunch together.
 Tomorrow will be another acclimatizing hike before we move up higher into the valley. 

Today is Saturday and another acclimatisation day. This time we could choose between a short hike to the lake and a long one to a viewpoint. As I felt perfectly fit I aimed for the long hike like most of our group. Unfortunately Mutthu and Esha didn’t feel,well this morning, altitude sickness made it hart for them to eat or sleep. So they tried to hike to the lake to get at least some movement today. Rajan didn‘t feel well as well that‘s why he joined them.
 The rest of us, 12 in total, went for the long hike. The trail was mostly steep, so we had a very slow pace but could enjoy the fantastic views surrounding us. The higher we got the more mountains pooped up behind the ridges. Every now and then we stopped to drink a little bit  to get rid of the 2 Liters we should have brought on the hike.
 At around 100m below the viewpoint the guides let us hike in our own pace for the last bit. The second they told us, Dean started his engine and kind of run up the hill. I managed to increase my pace a little bit too without having any issues caused by the altitude. This fact gives me a little bit more confidence for the climb of Ama Dablam. Dean will be in the Ama-team too and Frits as well.
 Dean was on Manaslu last year trying to reach his lifegoal of climbing one 8000m. Unfortunately the weather- and snow-conditions were very bad in 2022, so he has to turn back at camp 2. He is for sure the strongest of our group and I have no doubt he will reach the summit of Ama Dablam without any problems. Frits isn‘t the strongest when it comes to hiking down a hill, because he doesn‘t feel comfortable when his feet aren‘t put on the floor solidly. But I‘m pretty sure he will be able to reach the summit too.
 So back to our acclimatisation hike: all of us reached the viewpoint without any issues and we used the time to make funny pictures and enjoy the stay for half an hour. After that we hiked back the same way, which was a 700m drop back to the teahouse. Luckily we ordered our lunch right after breakfast so we didn‘t have to wait for lunch when we arrived back at the teahouse. I ordered a soup this time because I just can‘t eat so much during the day and then eat again in the evening.
 Some of us spent the afternoon with sleeping, reading or taking advantage of the Wi-Fi. Stu, Kelly and I forced us to do some yoga class outside in the last sunrays. One of Stus friends is a yoga instructor and she sent home a whole routine for us. It was nice to stretch the muscles and given the good feeling we decided totredest this every second day from now on.
 At 17h it was time for another round of Cambio, a perfect activity to ignore the cold and to shorten the waitingtime till they heated the oven. I wasn‘t lucky at all at the game since I collected point after point. That sucks because the one with the least points wins the game.
 I had veggie-fried-rice for diner but I had to give away half of it because it was just too much tonest. Thank god Justin and Stu are always in to eat all the food remaining so that we never have any food waste at all.
 After diner is before Cambio, so soon after having finished dinner we were playing again but still no chance for me to win anything. So I went to bed kind of depressed.
 This morning we had to pack our duffles again, because it was time to move higher up The Valley. According to Phunuru it would take us 2,5h of hiking with 2-3 breaks. These numbers turned out to be pretty accurate as it only took us 10 minutes longer to get to Khare.
 But we could also enjoy the views on the lake during our hike.
 The lake is special in terms of being related to a tragic story of flood and landslide. He used to be much bigger and situated in the moraines in earlier times. But around 15 years ago a gigantic piece of the glacier fell down the steep hill so that the moraine broke down and a huge water-rock-dirt-avalanche flowed down the Valley. One part of Tagnakh and half of the village of Khote was destroyed by this tragic event. It‘s hard to imagine looking down to the small lake remaining.
 Phunuru told us at breakfast that the next teahouse will be very nice and cozy with a sunroom, heated blankets and delicious food. I wasn‘t that sure if he told us the truth but you know what? Everything was 100% true. We enjoyed a delicious lunch in the warm sunroom and every bed really has a heated blanket that you can switch on.
 I can barely believe this Luxus as we are on 5000m. I‘m pretty sure we‘ll have a comfy night here, at least there is some hope for it.
 There are a lot of groups on mera peak right now so I have to share my room for the first time. But there won‘t be any problem as Kelly seems to be a nice roommate.
 After having settled down in the room I enjoyed the free time stretching outside and writing this blog. I can‘t wait for the dinner, but I‘m pretty sure we‘ll have another round of Cambio first. Let‘s hope for some good cards for me this time.

On summitday we were supposed to walk in 2 groups. The info at dinner was: wake-up call group 1: 00.30h, go-time at 1.30h. Wake-up call group 2: 1.30h, go-time 2.30h. The goal: being at the summit at the same time.

Reality? Totally different than planned. The start of the unplanned happenings came at midnight. One of us had a very low Oxygen-saturation and wasn‘t able to answer any questions. They put him on oxygen right after they realised. Isha slipped on the way from the toilet to her tent and had serious pain on her right hip. The ill member had to be brought down to Khare as fast as possible, and they decided that Isha will join them. Phunuru and Chirrin short-roped him down while he was on 4l oxygen. Isha was following and it took them 4.5h to be back down in Khare. In Khare Mutthu was totally surprised when she discovered the 4 in front of her room. As all of them felt better in the morning they could have breakfast together in the Teahouse.

All these happenings caused some delay, so that Doug - who was always ready before time - had to wait for more than 30 minutes in the freezing cold until the first group finally started the summitpush. The first group was a rope with Ang Karma and Chiwen and a second rope with Doug, Rajan and Justin.

The second group didn’t know about all that. Kelly didn’t feel well when we were being waken up, she had nausea and a strong headache which she tried to control with meds. I felt okaying but my legs were powerless. Despite to that I at least wanted to try to start the summitpush as I though5 we‘ll have enough guides on the mountain. Shortly after that thought, Stu told us about what happens previously in group 1.

The second group also formed to ropes, I was with Pemba and Frits and Stu guided the rope with Dean, Chris and Kelly. We also had delay, we started at 3.00h as things just take longer in this altitude.

After breakfast we thought it wasn‘t that cold that night, but as we had constant wind, even with the hardshell, it was freezing cold. My fingers got cold fast, even the handwarmes or mittens didn’t help very much. Despite the fact that I had cold toes too, I kind of enjoyed the ascent.

Most of the time, I don‘t really know what I think during an ascent. This time it was roughly “when will the sun rise?” “Who could still be awake and think of me?” ”will I have to count my steps at a certain point on this summitpush?” ”how many altitude meters did we already climb?” ”When will we have the next break?/ I don‘t want to have any break coz it‘s even colder on the breaks”. 

Sometimes I didn’t think much or told to myself what I have to do: step, breathe, step, pole, breath, and so on. I never came to the point where I felt I had to start counting my steps but I was extremely happy when the sun started to rise. This means we were coming close4 to the summit. The negative about it: if you are stupid enough to look up you would see the route which means you would see a very very very steep trail leading to the summit. I have no idea why I thought the climb would be gradient or why I thought the 600am wouldn‘t be that much of a problem. Speaking of a summit which is roughly 6400m high.

The first hour of our ascent nothing special happened, each and everyone following the reopening front of them. From time to time Pemba made too big steps, so that the rope in between us was too tense. I told him on the first break and he could adapt immediately. Shortly before sunrise, after 2 hours of climbing, Justin crossed our way coming down the mountain. 

Followed by his 30minute wait before they started the climb, Doug was still freezing his ass off. Justin made him wear all his heavy puffy stuff and even moving up the mountain wouldn‘t help. So Justin had to turn back to us, so that Pemba could return to highcamp with Doug. Rajan who was on the same rope had to follow, which means he had to climb down some part of the mountain to meet us and climb up the same route after having changed the rope.

After the change we had the following situation: Pemba and Doug heading down to highcamp being welcomed with hot tea, myself, Frits, Rajan and Justin on a second rope going up the mountain.

The clue of this Rochade: being secondhand on the rope with Rajan behind me, who got slower and slower the higher we got, meant we often had a lot of tension on the rope. If you ever climbed on a rope in the middle of two people, you know that there is either tension in front or in the back of you all the time. This way of climbing is both exhausting and frustrating at the same time.

Shortly before the summiteers had our last break, only 25am under the summit. Chiwen and Ang Karma, the leftovers from the first group were about to climb these last meters which shows once more the perfect IMG-time management. At home the 25am would have been a one minute walk, here it takes you another hard 15 minutes.

The views on the summit - like so often on a summit - were incredible: Cho oyu, Ama Dablam or Everest, Lohtse and Nuptse, all of them without any clouds in front of blue blue sky.

In front of all these giants I didn‘t forget to put the prayerflags or making the mandatory unicorn-picture. Of course we also took some group-summit-picture of us in front of all these beautiful mountains. In total we spent about 15 minutes on the summit, before we headed back down to highcamp.

Compared to the ascent, the time to descent to highcamp is pretty short. It only took us 1.5 hours without any inconveniences. Arriving at camp we were again welcomed by hot tea and soup and I enjoyed the second half of the coke. The main goal now was to gain some energy back, to pack our stuff and leave onto Khare.

Funny that I didn‘t have problems with energy while Kelly was so destroyed that she sat in the tent and forgot what she had to do. She was just so so tired. It took us about the same time to be ready to leave as we needed coming down from the summit.

I tried to find a nice pace to follow for Doug and Kelly because I know how much easier it is when you just have to follow some shoes. Specially in such a high altitude and the level of tiredness they were into. After 2/3 of the glacier I had to leave them behind as Yi really bad to pee.

I already had this feeling at highcamp but whoever wanted to use that toilet there, it was definitely not me. There were absolutely no rocks on the glacier and my level of tiredness too low to not care and pee in the middle of the open range. So I ended up almost running down the glacier, trying to reach the rocks as soon as possible. That my mountain boots didn‘t feel very comfortable without the long jons or people would see me as a crazy running ibex being hunted by mountain lions, was totally ignored by me at that time.

I finally found my personal peespot as soon as I reached the rocks at the end of the glacier right at time. After that I could pace myself down to walk further until crampon point where I could get rid of the crampons. The next 15 minutes on the rocks until changing into the trekking shoes we’re much harder than expected as I realised how much pain I feel on my lower legs due to the mountain boots. It seemed like having a full blather on a glacier for an hour is even more comfortable than walking in these boots for one more minute. But I reached the point where i could get off these boots and managed to walk back to Khare another hour with my beloved trekking shoes.

By the way: the mountain boots and crampons could we leave behind at the changingpoint. It‘s part of the IMG-logistics that there was a Sherpa to carry them down to the teahouse.

From changing shoes to the teahouse I could join Stu and Dean and Phunuru welcomed us with a hug and a big smile. The rest of our group followed within the next hour, tired and happy to be back “home”. The summitpush has officially been closed.

Mutthu and the others who already have been in Khare weren‘t there anymore, they went further down to Tagnakh after their breakfast to recover better in lower altitude.

The celebration of the summit succes was very different. Rajah went to bed Immediately, I ordered Popcorn, lemon-ginger-tea and Wifi, others a beer or a hot chocolate.

Unfortunately Doug received a message that his Mum was about to die. He and Kelly already knew about her health issues before coming to Nepal and had strategies in their mind if they would get bad news. But after being so cold on the mountain and almost being done with the whole trip, Doug just wanted to be with his Mum and fly back home as fast as possible to be able to say goodbye for good. Phunuru, our magic man, makes things like that happen. Less than an hour after, a heli landed to fly to Kathmandu with a short stopover in Lukla. Kelly decided to join Doug, so we had a very short time to say goodby to each other. In Kathmandu they were welcomed and transferred to the booked hotel and Doug could already fly out to Doha shortly after midnight.  Kelly is on the way too and we all hope badly that they make it in time to be able to say goodbye to their beloved Mum/grandmother.

The rest of the group- 7 out of 12 - tried to enjoy the dinner, before heading to bed directly. It was the last evening of the trekkers with Stu, Justin and Chirrin. They won‘t come to Lukla with us because they will hike 3 passes towards the basecamp of Ama Dablam. By the end of the dinner we celebrated the summit success with a summit apple pie. After that we all fell into our beds, happy to be finally sleeping.

That the heliflight wouldn’t take place was clear after Phunuru told us about the earthquake in the western part of Nepal. Our heli was stationed in Kathmandu for the night and they had shut down the airport for some time.

When we got the news that the heli was about to start, it was shortly before 8h, but he still hd to stop in Lukla to get some gas. So we had breakfast in Khote and hoped for the skay to remain clear.

Shortly after the first 5 boys were called to the helipaf anf after having de-loaded the heli, the chopper with the german pilot has slready disappeared at the valley.

All the girls were planned on the second flight and as we went to the helipad, I looked down the valley. All I could see was dog and clouds. No real flightweather, not even for a badss like Philipp. Phunuru seemed to be concerned too, he kept on watching his radio.

My thoughts were about the fact that I wss the only one who dien‘t have to get a flight in Kathmandu so I was really concerned I would have been left behind alone if there was only one more flight due to the clouds. That would have been extra boring, coz there were no other pwople in the teahouse.

All of a sudden we hesrd that certrain noise again,  the heli was really coming back and we made sure we hopped on the benech as soon as he had landed. I wasn‘t westher it was a good idea to jump in a heli, surrounded ba clouds in the middle of the himalayas, bit I dien‘t end with that thought as we were already up high in the air.

Surprisingly it turned out that there were less clouds than imagined, I guess we just flew a little bit deeper down nd we followed all the way down to the valley and then turned right to follow the rivet Dueh Kosi up to Lukla. It was such clear sky there that there were still planes flying around.

Safely arrived in Lukla we hoped for the third flight to be back soon and in the meantime enjoyed once again the lovely chaotic helipad in its full seing of unperfect harmony.

When the last group has arrived, we made our way back to the teahouse where we were already awaited by Phunurus daughters.

We had some lemonginger-tea, ordered lunch and then everyone was ready für the hot shower. It wss on me to start the line for the guestshower because I have the longest hair of us Ama-climbers. The floor was icecold, the air as well, the water had a max.temperature of 36 C, but I still enjoyed to wash down all the trekkkng-dirt so that the climbing-dirt could find its way.

When I was done I also did some laundry, coz the sun was shininG so nicely. Nobody told be back then that there will be heavy rain the whole afternoon. So I naively washed my clothes, hung them on the line when it started tripping a bit.

I tried to ignore the ironic jokes of the boys, I was just proud all was clean, on the line and the lunch hot.

Right now 20h later, while I‘m writing this, the cloths are still on the line and wet as hell.

But back to yesterdax: Lunch was delicious and I dinally found something I can always order: Pakoda: fine cut veggies, put in some dough and threwn in the frier. It‘s delicious and always served hot coz it‘s fried. Bye bye tomatoe soup, hello Pakoda!!

The afternoon we spent in the hinalayan cafe with chocolate cake, hot chocolate or french fries. We spent over 4h there. I also went shopping for another book about the tragic story back in 1996. this book was weitten by Sherpa Tenzing‘s son but I will only start reading at home as I don‘t want to bring a book up the mountain.

Shortly before dinner, we went back to the teahouse where I sorted my dufflebag and reduced my snacks to not bring unneeded stuff to the mountain. One bag of chocolate went to Phunurus daughters, the Toblerone to Chris and one pile of nuts I plan to leave in Lukla.

Back in the diningroom I ha a big surprise coz I saw some known faces. It took me a while to realize who I saw and why I know them. Back 2 weeks ago, a Swiss family sat beside us in Lukla having breakfast after being flown in shortly after us. This exact family was sitting in the diningroom again, despite the totally different schedule. Tgey turned around earlier and we were on our schedule so by coincidence we were back here together again we spent a nice evening together and I will for sure visit them someday, they are all just awesome.

I came to bed late this evening but fell asleep immediately after being in the sleepingbag.

Tomorrow we will be having breakfast at 8h, the planned flight will be at 9.30h, but you never know…

Despite the expected cold I‘m looking forward to part 2, Chirrin, Stu, Jason joining us again and the Puja which will take place today

We had to wake up early today, breakfast was at 6h, we wanted to start hiking at 7h. My goal was to drink at least a liter. for breakfast to not suffer that much on the mountain. 

The trail to camp is easy to describe: 90% gradient uphill, 10% fixed rope till camp 1. I tried to go on my own pace, but after a short time it got very hot because of all the thermal cloths I was wearing from the cold morning. So I got rid of these and enjoyed the perfect weather for the hike. 

In between the hike there was a section of big boulders to hike on and through and they made me feel tired after some minutes. But I just took my time so I overcame the tiredness and continued the last part on the fixed rope which I really liked. After exactly 5 hours of hiking and 6.5h in total, I arrived at camp 1.. there I first drank some icetea and ate some snacks. Soon after arrival Ngima brought some tea to the tent, and I took some time to get sorted in the tent and put the thermos on for the night. 

After that I walked up to the top of camp 1 with some prayerfulness and was absolutely blown away by the views I saw. I enjoyed the sun for several hours, closed my eyes for a bit and started to write the blog. In between the Sherpas changed my stuff into another tent, coz mine will be used by another company. Up here it‘s pretty common that the companies share their tents. So I got to sleep in a real Nimsdai-tent. 

The first restday on Thursday ended like we started it: calm and quite. Most of us tried to sleep a bit, used the wifi and I read half of a book. The dinner was too much for me as I didn‘t really move after lunch. 

On friday we could sleep in again, we planned the breakfastat a time that we cpuld wake up in a wsrm tent due to the sun. 

Unfortunately nobody told the sun so the clouds were there but the sun wasn‘t. It was no wonder that I stayed in my sleepingbag untill riiiight before breakfast. 

At basecamp we have this luxury thing called hot towel. Before every meal we get some hot towels with some eucliptus essence on them to clean our faces and hands. We also try to clean more than the faces but a shower is still missed by ll of us. 

After breakfast, us 3 climbers were going to the closest teahouse to be able to sit in a building again and have a nice hot drink. It only took us 15 minutes to go there and it was worth the walk. After that we walked back to the camp where we enjoyed another delicious lunch and waited for Phunurus family. They are on the EBC-trek since we met them in Lukla and they hiked up to the basecamp to acclimatise for the onward journey. It was nice to see the daughters again and to finally meet the wife behind Phunuru. We enjoyed a cup of tea together and then they had to hike back down to Pengboche. 

Since the weather was not perfect to stay outside, we spent the rest of the evening playing Cambio in the diningtent. 

We ate more than yesterday, as we also moved more today than yesterday afternoon. 

After dinner we talked about the last details and got answers to our last questions about our summitpush which starts tomorrow. 

We also had to choose our icedried food for the higher camps on the mountain. I decided for mac&cheese and mashed potatoes with beef. But I‘m not sure whether I really est these meals or not. 

On saturday morning, we took it essy. Frits left camp at 8h as he prefers to walk a little bit alower than we are. The rest of us hiked out of camp at 9.30h. The goal was to reach camp 1 without losing any extra energy and it took us 5.5h to do so. I‘m glad that I only have to hile the way down one more time as I like the climbing part of tomorrow much more. Then we will be climbing up to camp 2.7 which is almost 6300m high. 

But right now we are sitting in our tents, trykng to drink as much as needed to stay hydrated but not having to pee too many times during the night. 

I share the tent with Dean tonight, so that we all can sleep in tents closeby. This helps to give the important infos to the pwople fast and it‘s also easier to fill our waterbottles for the cooks Ngima and Sonam. 

Today I try to keep my nervosity and emotional side as low as possible. Bit it gets hatder and harder to not start crying while hiking, becuse I‘m already so proud of myself and I really can‘t wait to climb the Ama Dablam. 

The most important day of my trip was on the agenda today. Would I be able to go home 100 percent happy, as the saying goes, “with the summit in the bag” or not? The whole time I tried to put the summit in the background, because no matter how far I made it on Ama Dablam, I would return home stronger and with even more experience. I told many people that before I left and I meant it. When the wake-up call came at 1:30 a.m. on November 13th, I first had to realize that today was the last stretch to the summit. Yesterday, when we did most of our climbing, I had so much fun that I actually didn't want to go up the steep snow slope. But when you're so close to the summit... 

The information the evening before was that we would be woken up at 1am and set off at 2am. Somehow the timing didn't work out, because shortly after we had our tea in our hands, we heard Stu's voice: Dean, Annemie, get ready, we are leaving in 15 minutes... I was still sitting there snuggled up in the sleeping bag, mine all around Handed out 7 things that I didn't yet know whether I had to take with me to the summit. Luckily, before I went to sleep yesterday, I had already made a pre-selection, separated my snacks and emptied my backpack. Of course, Dean and I didn't manage to be ready on time, but since there was no wind, Stück and Justin didn't really freeze while waiting. I was even able to try out my pee flap from the down suit before I started running. 

Go-time was at 2:30 a.m. and we took our first steps towards the summit. What happened over the next 4.5 hours was all at once and difficult to describe: my legs felt anything but strong. I also had that feeling on the Matterhorn, where I still reached the summit and enjoyed the experience to the fullest. So I just ignored the legs. On summit days I always try to think as little as possible about how long it would take until the sun can be seen. Actually, I try not to think at all and if I do, think about something nice. Today was the first time I calculated how long it would take me to climb 100m if I took 3 steps per minute and took a break. I came to the conclusion that this ordeal would take me about an hour, so I would have about 5 hours to climb to the summit. I hadn't taken into account that some of the steps were immensely high, meaning I sometimes had to climb a meter per step. It once occurred to me that the idiot who made the steps must be a ten-foot giant. 

Then I wondered if my toes in my right foot were okay because they felt cold. When I once looked behind me, where the piece should have been, there was no one there. I wondered if he had slipped, but at the same moment I realized that he would then have to be hanging on the rope forever. The next time I looked back he was there again, he had to change his gloves every now and then. When I arrived at the first (and last) flat part of the climb after what felt like an hour, I basically jumped onto the surface, luckily not into one of the numerous toilet places, and tried to calm my breathing. 

Stu radioed Phunuru to ask how far we were. His answer was partly reassuring. We had already been on the road for 2 hours and had almost half the elevation gain below us. But that meant that there were another 2 hours and 300 m ahead of us. And we're talking about a mountain whose gradient is almost constantly over 60 degrees on the summit day. I could never imagine anything like it before. For those who feel the same way: on summit day we ran more uphill than we did straight distance. 

Did the thought of giving up ever cross my mind? Yes, but I had already been out for an hour and I would have made it for the cat. Somehow the logical thought that I would have saved myself 3 hours of climbing never occurred to me. 

What frustrated me most about the entire climb was the stupid Ascender. To ascend a fixed rope, you need this essential piece of equipment. 

It works very simply: you thread the rope and close the clamp. If you pull on the clamp, fine teeth drive into the rope so that you can stop and sit on the rope. If you go further, you have to push the clamp on the rope in front of you. At base camp I affectionately called this “walking the dog”. At over 6500m, tired and in the dark, I started to hate this thing and my right arm. I simply didn't have the energy or nerve to put this stupid thing off my chest. But it doesn't work without it. I regularly got to the point where I sat on the rope and asked myself what that was all about. But I kept going anyway, because every step, no matter how long the pause or how few steps followed, would bring me closer to the summit. 

The frustration I felt when I discovered another one meter high step is almost indescribable. Each time I became more and more overwhelmed by the hopelessness of overcoming the step, until at some point I was faced with such a step and didn't know what to do. It just seemed impossible to overcome the thing. My heart wanted to cry, my head tried to fight back because I had already come so far. It took me several minutes to get the better of my frustration. A flash of thought hit me, some athlete hitting his head to think clearly again. I did exactly that, slapped myself on the helmet, told myself “come on” like Federer and focused on solving the problem. 

From then on, the process for the next stages was clear: illuminate with a headlamp, make a plan, carry out steps, breathe, keep walking (with a thousand breaks), analyze the next giant stage, make a plan, carry out steps, etc. 

That led me to some anchor point, by now it was already light. Stu made the mistake of asking Chirrin how long it would last. Looking up suggested that the summit was practically at our toes, but the answer was 1 hour. I just thought I could do it now, I was too close to the summit, at my “pace” there would be maybe another 200 steps or so. After a while, Stu said that there were only 40m left and that I should try to find a rhythm so that I didn't have to take breaks all the time. To be honest, he expressed similar thoughts throughout the entire climb to the summit, my unconstructive answer was always: it's not possible, I would if it were possible, but I can't. Now that I'm writing this down, I find it a little embarrassing, because both as a coach and as a teacher, “I can't” without at least trying is an absolute no-go for me. 

In any case, this time I was strangely willing to show Stu that I was really trying and lo and behold, it worked: breathing 4 times, taking a step the first time, pushing up the ascender the third time and doing the whole thing again... no idea why it worked, my suspicion is that it just wasn't as steep as the rest of the climb. Shortly afterwards, Justin suddenly came into the picture and Dean was standing there too. So I was very close to the summit, which didn't push me, but rather made me realize that I was about to climb Ama Dablam. Me, a month ago so full of doubts, a normal guy from Switzerland, not strong, not special and massively selfish, all alone in Nepal, labeled, crazy about unicorns, but brave enough to at least try. 

The emotions took me by surprise and all I could think was “don't cry, you can't breathe” and so I stood there, 10m in front of the summit and the rest of the team, desperately trying to find a breathing rhythm with which I could Rest could continue to the summit. It took several minutes and the joy I saw on everyone's faces didn't really help. 

The hugs at the top were filled with warmth, pride, joy, disbelief and endless happiness. 

I was so grateful and couldn't even enjoy the view. I saw the prayer flags and the spell was broken, the tears found their way, my body just shook and the first thing I saw behind the prayer flags was cloudless Everest. The mountain why I was standing there on the Ama in the first place, and it showed itself in its fullest beauty. To my surprise, the feeling that accompanied this thought was positive, because for the first time in my life I thought that I was 100% capable of climbing Everest. 

The others had already gathered for a group photo. So I tried to calm myself down, wiped away the tears and tried to smile so that I wouldn't have another distorted summit photo like the one from the Matterhorn. 

I had a mental to-do list for the summit: photos with the unicorns and my flag, a 360 degree video, hanging prayer flags for my late father, making a burpee video, and taking a rock with me. 

I also tried to take in the view, which I somehow didn't succeed in doing. At the summit I always know that only the easy half is done, so I always try to focus before the descent. There wasn't a stone on the snow-covered peak either, but I kind of expected that. 

I think after I arrived shortly after 7am we spent about 20 minutes on the summit of Ama Dablam, the others in the group a little more as they had to wait for me. 

Then it was time for the descent. It was always said that we would abseil as much as possible, but at the summit the motto was suddenly to secure the two slings and go down with the hand rope brake. It only had a fixed rope with a few anchor points and you can't abseil on the same rope that someone is climbing on. I resigned myself to my fate and started walking down the steep snow slope. 

Every step carefully considered and your hands wrapped tightly around the rope. Luckily we had practically no oncoming traffic, so we were able to focus solely on ourselves and abseil down properly after the third anchor point. I asked myself a thousand times on the way down how and whether I had really taken these steps. The steepness is almost even more noticeable when abseiling; the abysses that I had overcome seemed almost even more insurmountable. 

About 2 hours after the summit photos and many roped lengths later, I took the final steps into Camp 3, still happy that I had made it to the summit, but also ready to start the rest of the descent today.
 (Translated by google translate) 

 The next day I took it easy and didn't get up until just before 9:30, just in time for breakfast. There I was finally able to congratulate Dean on his successful descent. The poor guys didn't arrive at base camp until just before midnight, so they looked a little rumpled. Nevertheless, the most important thing, that everyone came back from the mountain healthy, we achieved 100%. Frits was also happy with us, which I give him great credit for. Because I can imagine that it is anything but easy to be at the base camp early, spend a day there alone and then have to watch the others climb the summit that you tried unsuccessfully to climb. 

After breakfast we had a moment to pack our duffels because the flight to Lukla was already planned this morning. I threw my things into either the climbing or trekking bag and was ready in 10 minutes. The others probably felt the same way, because soon we were all standing around stupidly in the sun. At the end of our time on the mountain there was a small thank you party with summit cake and a tip being handed over to our Sherpas. Without them, such an expedition would be absolutely unthinkable. You read this again and again in individual reports and I would like to emphasize this again. 

Ngima, Sonam, Chirrin as our mountain Sherpas and Devras and Rinsin as our culinary Sherpas did a gigantic job on the Ama Dablam. Chirrin had already been there before and with him a younger Ngima, Ang Karma and Pemba, who also stood by us in every situation on the 2-week acclimatization tour to Merapeak and took care of everything that was possible. 

At Ama Dablam the poor dragged our mountain boots, sleeping bags, etc. up. Because there was no snow in Camp 1, the water had to be carried up from the base camp. I helped with 1.5l, but that was a small amount compared to what the Sherpas carried up. Stu and Justin were in no way inferior to the locals, I don't want to know how heavy their backpacks were. But I will definitely show you where to enjoy the best massages in Kathmandu. 

At least I was able to return the favor a little bit by carrying almost all of my things from Camp 3 to the base camp myself. 

Shortly after we had eaten the summit cake and posed for the last group photo together, we heard the radio announcement about the arrival of our helicopter. We quickly dragged the duffles to a suitable landing site for Phunuru. It looked too uneven for us, but we had no idea... the pilot Laurenz landed perfectly and just minutes later I was sitting in a helicopter with Justin, Dean and Frits for the last time. I looked one last time at the disappearing base camp, caught a last glimpse of Ama Dablam, enjoyed the view of the hiking trail between Pengboche and Lukla and marveled at the narrowness of the Dudh Kosi valley. 

There wasn't as much going on on the helipad as the last few times, but waiting for the second part of the group wasn't boring. As soon as we were complete, we walked to the lodge, where the usual process awaited us: order lunch, check into our room, roll out our sleeping bag, unpack or repack, eat lunch, order dinner. In between, Stu was able to patch the holes in my down clothes with miracle tape. After lunch I went to the Himalayan Café one last time to enjoy the last rays of sunshine before the clouds rolled in. I spent the rest of the afternoon writing on my blog, so I was almost late for dinner in the dining room. This was unexpectedly packed, there were 2 strange faces at our table. As it turned out, there were 2 helicopter pilots, one of them our current pilot Laurenz, the more surprising one also comes from Switzerland. We had a fun, exciting and sumptuous dinner together before slowly snuggling into our sleeping bags for the last time. 

The plan for the next day was in my head when I fell asleep: breakfast at 6:15 a.m., the duffles already packed, walk to the airport after breakfast, fly to Manthali at around 8 a.m., drive to Kathmandu for 5 hours and then hopefully finally stay there for a long time have a shower.
(Translated by google translate)