The following page will detail how I put this trip together.

I have wanted to climb Ama Dablam for a long time and about a year ago I decided it was time. I had a scare with skin cancer and it made me move a few things from my wish list to my to do list. Not that what I had was life or death, but it did demonstrate how fragile life can be.

I began by researching and learning as much about Ama Dablam as I could. I have always preferred to climb independently without a guide and a climbing team of strangers. My first step was to canvas all my climbing friends to see who was up for it. For a while it appeared I would be on my own and forced onto a commercial expedition, and then Angus said yes. I have known Angus for around 10 years and met him and his wife Sarah when we all worked at Outward Bound. Angus and I have climbed Mount Logan and Denali together. Angus is a solid climbing partner and I was glad he was able to join me.

During my partner search I was also researching how to put the logistics together. I had three basic choices; 1) we could join a commercially guided expedition, 2) we could hire an outfitter to put together a package for us or, 3) we could go totally independently and provide everything ourselves.

We did not want to join a fully guided trip and we did not have the time to put together an independent trip. Not to mention with only two climbers and independent trip would be a ton of work and very costly. We chose to partner with a company to provide specific services for us. More about this in a minute.

When to climb was also in question. The fall was the time to go for us so that was an easy choice. October is the most popular time to go, but it also means that this is when the vast majority of people are on the mountain. I tend to like to go at the start or end of the climbing season to avoid the crowds. We chose November as a good time as most of the climbers would be gone, we would not be in full winter yet and we would likely have some good beta from the climbers who had been on the mountain before us.

I decided that it would be good to piggy back onto an existing trip and use their permit and share their base camp services. I started speaking with Stu from Field Touring Alpine and he was most helpful. Stu is leading a trip on the mountain in October and we will basically switch places when they are done. We will move into BC as they are leaving. One of their Sherpa’s will stay and one of their assistant guides will also stay to climb with us.

I believe this has provided us with the best combination. Angus and I have an independent trip with great BC and climbing support provided by Field Touring Alpine.

Our plan is to fly to Katmandu for November 4th. We will then fly to Lukla and trek to Ama Dablam BC. From here will we climb Island peak for acclimatization and then move back to Ama Dablam for the climb. By this point I hope we are acclimatized well enough that we will be able to make steady progress up the mountain without returning to BC for the acclimatization process.

Below you will find our planned itinerary (subject to change).

5 fly to lukla, trek to phakding
6 to namche
7 rest day namche
8 acclim day namche or move (to phortse? TBA at this point and really up to you)
9 to pangboche/deboche
10 to ama dablam bc
11 rest bc
12 to dingboche
13 to to chukung
14 chukung ri acclim? Or to island BC
15 first climb day??
 and maybe.....
15 rest acclim walk
16 to high camp
17 summit and back to bc (or to chukung)
18 to dingboche/pangboche
19 to bc
20 rest
21 move to abc (really likely to c1)
22 to c1
23 to c2
24 to c3 (or go for summit from c2...very good option for small acclimatized 4-some)
25 summ and back to c3/c2
26 to bc
27 spare
28 spare
29 to namche
30 to lukla
1 return to ktm from lukla
2 spare
3 fly home