Ama Dablam, Various Ascents in the Post-Monsoon. One-fourth of all the expeditions in Nepal in the post-monsoon season went to just one lovely 6812-meter peak in the Everest region. Mount Ama Dablam. Altogether 70 people from 14 of the season’s 19 Ama Dablam teams reached its summit (three men even went to the top twice), sometimes struggling through waist- deep snow for over two and a half hours to gain 200 vertical meters (655 feet) to reach the top. This was not quite a record-breaking total number for Ama Dablam, but it was an impressive accomplishment given the snow conditions. Those who feared that there would be problems with over-crowding on the narrow ridge were pleasantly surprised that almost everyone got along well together. “We were like a big family” at Base Camp, said an Austrian leader, Roland Mattie. All the summiters followed the standard southwest-ridge route.

Elizabeth Hawley