It was pretty easy going at first... for about 10 minutes. Then, the trail leapt upward crazily steep, and for the next four hours and about 2500' we picked our way through scree, boulders, and along ledges that must have been terribly exposed, but fortunately it was too dark to see. Ahead and upward stretched a line of twinkling headlamps, until they merged with the twinkling stars themselves.
Shortly after dawn we reached "crampon place" where we finally stepped off the hateful rock at the very top of a sharp ended ridge (the last 30' "protected" with a loose and worn out polypropylene hand line) and on to blessed glacial snow. We fitted our crampons and roped up into two rope teams of 4, and for the next hour threaded our way through a field of open crevasses, actually stepping over one gap about 3' wide.
At the base of the head wall we traded ice axes for ascenders, and spent the next hour or so jugging ourselves up 100 meters of 60 degree snow and ice to the summit ridge.
Once on the summit ridge we faced another 30 minutes of jumaring up the knife edge ridge to the summit, the slopes plunging away on either side at more than 60 degree for hundreds of feet.
And finally, on the dining room table-sized summit, stunning views of Ama Dablam to the south, Cholatse and Taboche to the west, the massive Lohtse Shar and Lohtse herself to the north, and 8500 meter Makalu standing guard to the East, all seeming so close as to be touchable. Only Everest is missing from this panoply of Himalayan giants, hidden by the closeness of sister Lohtse.
Successful climbers included Jim Ronning, Donovan Pacholl, Mark Koss, Mark Rosolowski, Sandra Volk, and Dick Durant. Time up: 08:30; time Down: 04:00; elevation gain Base Camp to summit: 3,400'; summit elevation: 20,305'.
Namaste,
Jim Ronning
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