Ulrike Kiefer recounts...
When towards the end of last year I was looking for a worthwhile objective for my next climbing holiday and I then learned, that I had the chance of joining a German team on Ama Dablam, that was the answer. Ama Dablam is only 6856m high, but one of the most beautiful mountains in the world and a true technical challenge. She offers corniced ridges, traverses on rock and on snow, steep rock faces of up to grade 6, an ice chute of about 3 rope lengths at 70-75deg, the ice wall of the lower serac, that is the bottom Dablam, and lots of other little surprises. However being such a spectacular mountain she doesn't come cheap.
On 22 September I arrived in Kathmandu joining up with the rest of my team: Karl, Hermann, Rob and Teresia, plus our leader Sbischek and our doctor Maria. A day later we flew to Lukla. Having heard and read so much about that flight I found it rather non-eventful. The next five days saw us walking past Namche Bazar, Tengboche and Pheriche to Gorak Shep and up Kala Pattar, a hill of 5590m, half a days walk from Everest base camp. We walked as slowly as we possibly could to give our bodies a chance to acclimatise. Maria is engaged with some research in AMS (acute mountain sickness) and she made us test our blood for oxygen saturation , take our pulse and fill in two questionnaires every day. We complied with a laugh.
From Gorak Shep we went back down again to Dingboche and up the other side of the valley to Ama Dablam base camp at 4520m. Most of the time during our walk in we had poor weather, rain, snow and thick clouds. Only once were we given a short glimpse of Ama Dablam. Everest, Lhotse and Pumori remained hidden in clouds except for a few seconds. Every day our sirdar Phutundu promised us sunshine for tomorrow, but after a couple of days he gave up his predictions. We just hoped that eventually clear skies would appear, which should have arrived already according to Phutundu, the sherpa calender and western meteorological knowledge. So we jumped with joy, when on our first evening at base camp the clouds lifted and Ama Dablam and all the other mountains around us stood there in full beauty.
The next morning we packed some of the gear and food and after the puja ritual left for camp 1 (5450m), a long and tiring walk up the moraine to a place, where the ridge steepens. Despite thick clouds the next morning we shouldered our loads, each carrying besides personal gear 50m or 100m rope. The objective was, to move as much weight as possible forward and to secure the first steep section of the ridge to where it eases again. We managed to get past the traverse and reach the foot of the Yellow Tower, where we deposited our gear. There our two sherpas Chhiring and Pinzu had fixed rope already on previous days. We returned to camp 1. During the night we had more snow, but the morning was fine. We packed sleeping bags, mats and food hoping to establish camp 2. We had found a level spot the previous day, but that was only at 5700m and we felt, this was too low. So we climbed and climbed, past our last high point until we reached the bottom of the Red Tower, a mean, near vertical rock face of grade F3/G1. Try to do this in double boots with a heavy pack at over 6000m! We were too late in the day to still attempt this and had to turn back all the way to that spot that we had rejected earlier. There was no other place anywhere on this ridge where we could have pitched one tent, let alone four. We left our things there and went down past camp 1 to base, the last hour or so in complete darkness.
By now we had most gear, food and gas where we wanted it. What we needed, was good weather. Because of the heavy snowfalls during the last few days, we decided to stay at base for three more days, before we would go up again. That would give the snow a chance to settle and still leave us two spare days as reserve. As the weather appeared to stabilise now that seemed the best solution.
Three days later we went off, climbing straight up to camp 2, bypassing C1. The next day the four men carried up rope, tents and ice gear to a point above the Red Tower, so we could start our climbing day to camp 3 with lighter packs. Next night it started snowing again – against all rules – and continued to do so all day long. We lost one of our spare days. Then the weather was fine. We quickly got past the traverse, the Yellow Tower and tricky bits on the ridge, all known to us by now. The Red Tower was hard work and had us all gasping for air at the top. Then followed an ice-chute of 70-75deg., that seemed to never end, but to rise straight into heaven. But end it did. Thereafter comes the famous Mushroom Ridge, a heavily corniced section of the ridge, that required good route finding and immaculate balancing acts. As we were now securing the route as we went along, progress was slower. I was getting a bit worried about the time, the sun was quite low and there was no place in sight, that could be used for camp. Instead we still had to get up the steep ice of the bottom Dablam (serac), above which we could expect easy ground. We arrived there as it turned dark and hurried to shovel platforms for our tents. A strong, icy wind made this very difficult, we struggled to get the tents up. It was pitch dark before all were safely inside a tent. When later that evening the wind died down, I fell asleep happy. I had no doubt, that tomorrow we would reach the summit. We had mastered all the difficult sections on rock and on ice. All that lay still ahead of us, were some 500m of fairly straightforward snow field of no more than 60deg.
But the next morning we found, that Hermann was suffering from severe cerebral oedema. There had been no warning signs the night before, but by the time we woke up, it was almost too late. He could neither sit nor talk nor respond to anything and had probably an hour left to live. Maria, our doctor, rushed to give him intravenous decadron, we dressed him and forced boots on his feet. Then Sbischek and I dragged him down the upper snowfield to above the serac, where the route steepens, while the others cleared the camp. I remembered Sbischek's words the night before we left base camp: "If anyone doesn't feel well at camp 2, he must not climb higher. If he gets high altitude sickness in camp 3, that is it. If he breaks a leg or an arm, we can bring him down in two or three days. But if he gets sick he hasn't got a chance." Sbischek climbed down first while I was lowering Hermann. We had clipped Hermann into a fixed rope as well and Sbischek pulled him with a third rope sideways to wherever he needed to be. When Hermann was at the end of the lowering rope, Sbischek set up some belay, tie Hermann to it and I would follow. Like this we got down, very slowly, but we did get down. Hermann was given more drugs on the way and he started to respond and actually help. We had asked over the radio for oxygen to be brought up and for a helicopter. At the bottom of the Red Tower we met Pinzu and one sherpa of a Swiss group, who had brought our oxygen from base. But we didn't make it down in time to 5000m, the maximum flying height of the helicopter. It was dark, when we got there. So we continued to descend to base camp. By now Hermann was able to walk. He swayed a bit like someone heavily drunk. We just had to keep an eye on him, so he wasn't falling over. He was kept on oxygen during the night at base and early the next morning the helicopter came and brought him down to Kathmandu. He was safe.
I didn't make the summit. I had put a lot of effort, training and money into this expedition. When the summit seemed almost guaranteed, I turned around and did not even look back up once that day. Still, I can't be really disappointed. I am too happy, that we managed to bring Hermann down that ridge alive.