BACK TO DHAULAGIRI

One more time we are walking towards one of these majestic mountains in Nepal. Gradually, we get higher through these green valleys, full of vegetation and humidity. We are going towards Dhaulagiri (8.167 m), slender mountain which already pushed me back in 2006. In that occasion we were not lucky, and when we were near the summit we had to give up our dream. Time passed, we have been to other summits, and now it is Dhaulagiri’s turn again. Javier, Marta and myself left Pokhara few days ago, to go to Beni, through a road in a very bad condition. Once there we started walking and today, after three days walk, we are already at 3000 m. We travelled across this long valley, and we are now two days away from the base camp, which is located at 4700 meters. News we receive from there are not very good. There is a lot of snow and porters cannot reach the base camp. Tomorrow we will go up to 3500 meters, to the “Italian Camp”, where other groups are there waiting for weather conditions to improve. So far it seems it is not going to change soon. It rains everyday, which means that it will be snowing in the base camp. It seems that the only solution will be to get a helicopter which takes us up to the base camp. We do not like this idea. On one hand its high cost and on the other one, the risk of these helicopters. I still remember the helicopter accident we had when leaving the Dhaulagiri base camp back in 2006. We miraculously saved our lives on that occasion, after the helicopter crashed into the ground when taking off the base camp. We will see how things are tomorrow, and we may have to take this risk again. Anyway, it does not look good. If snow does not let us reach the base camp, it is easy to imagine how much snow there must be in the mountain. This adventure has just started. Let’s hope things work out well for us in this expedition that we have just started.
Carlos Pauner