Asia, Nepal, Dhaulagiri Winter Attempt

Publication Year: 1995.

Dhaulagiri Winter Attempt. Swiss Franco Dellatorre proposed to make a solo winter attempt on Dhaulagiri’s normal northeast ridge. He assumed he would be able to make use of the fixed ropes of the teams that had summited in October, but scanning the ridge from Base Camp, he determined that he would need to fix about 400 meters of new rope because most of the autumn ropes were either not visible or now hopelessly off the route. He sent a message to his trekking agent in Kathmandu to provide him quickly with rope. In the meantime, he climbed alone to 6500 meters to acclimatize. On the descent to base, he found no rope had arrived. He waited another day and still no rope arrived and so he abandoned his climb, presuming the message had not reached Kathmandu. However, when he got to the nearest village, Marpha, he found there his liaison officer—and his rope. A very angry Dellatorre claims that the liaison officer told the man who had brought the rope from Kathmandu that the rope would not be needed since the Swiss climber would be back in Marpha en route to Kathmandu on December 10, which happened to be the very day that Dellatorre actually reached his highest point before descending to Base Camp to pick up his rope.

Elizabeth Hawley