Ama Dablam | 2006 SW Ridge

A Spain expedition to Ama Dablam in 2006 via SW Ridge, led by Guillermo Mateo. Summit reached on 19th January 2007. 7 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 5559
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID AMAD06403
Peak ID AMAD
Year 2006
Season 4
Host Country 1
Route 1 SW Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Spain
Leaders Guillermo Mateo
Sponsor Ama Dablam Winter Expedition 2007
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 -
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries Colombia
Approach -
Basecamp Date 2007-01-16
Summit Date 2007-01-19
Summit Time 1730
Summit Days 3
Total Days 5
Termination Date 2007-01-21
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 6814
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 2
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 7
Summit Members 1
Member Deaths 1
Total Hired 0
Summit Hired 0
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired True
O2 Used False
O2 None True
O2 Climb False
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep False
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits -
Campsites BC(16/01,4600m),CI(17/01,5800m),C2(18/01,6000m),Smt(19/01)
Route Notes Mateo and Garcia went to South Face but found most of it bare rock, not possible for them to climb, so they went to SW Ridge with other members. Spanish Ama Dablam expedition, Winter 2006 - 25 Jan 2007 Mateo went for the summit on 19 January alone. Two others, Gallego and Pardo, went with him from C2 as far as the site for C3, but no camp was established there, so the other two went back to C2. They were not in good condition to go higher, according to Garcia; there were very strong gusts of wind, and it was too cold, they felt; Mateo did not agree that the weather was too severe. Members watching him from base camp (and filming him with a video camera) saw him go to the summit at about 5:30 pm or so. He had said that he expected to descend after dark using his head lamp, stopping in C2 or bivouacking above it. They also saw him descending, but they saw him coming down the West Dace, not the team's SW Ridge route. They cannot understand why he descended the face. There had been two big avalanches down the face coming from the Dablam, one late in the morning and another around 1:30 in the afternoon. They watched as he started down the West Face, and then about 50 meters below the summit, he fell. He had stopped moving down for a minute or two and then suddenly fell. Garcia says it is likely he was blown over by a strong blast of wind. He fell all the way to the bottom of the West Face, which meant that he was certainly killed in the fall. No attempt was made to recover his body because of the grave avalanche danger. Waiting for him in C2 were Gallego and Pardo. Teammates in base camp informed them by walkie-talkie of Mateo's fall, and they descended to base camp the next day, the 20th. The climb was over. Carlos Gallego, Jonathan Pardo, Jesus Gutierrez, 28 Jan, 2007 Gallego, Pardo and Mateo went for the summit on 19 Jan directly from C2 without fixing any ropes and without pitching C3. They wanted to climb in alpine style as much as they could, and to carry as light loads as possible above C2 in order to move quickly and get to the summit and back as early as possible. The three climbers reached the site for C3 at 3:30 pm, and here Gallego and Pardo decided it was too late to continue to the top and return to C2 safely (although all three had headlamps with them), and it was too cold and windy to continue up. But Mateo was obsessed with his determination to go to the summit immediately, despite the fact that they had plenty of time to return to C2, rest a couple of days, and then make a summit bid. (They were not scheduled to leave Nepal until 16 Febuary). Mateo said it was not cold or windy or too late, and he was going up. He was a very experienced Himalayan climber, and they thought maybe he could succeed. Gallegeo and Pardo do not know why he started his descent via the West Face. Perhaps he decided he had no time to reach C2 on the ridge without fixed ropes and thought he could find a better place for a bivouac on the face, maybe in one of the crevasses above the Dablam (big serac). What caused him to fall? Perhaps he moved over to fixed ropes left there by a Japanese team in the autumn to cut some of it for use in his descent, and misstepped. But they don't understand why hadn't taken with him the rope that Pardo had in his backpack. Was he so obsessed with getting to the top that he rushed off without it? (And without any food?) Or perhaps he lost his balance, or was blown off balance, while working looking down the face to see a crevasse suitable for his bivouac.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Monterosa Treks
Commercial Route True
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2458736
Year 2006
Summit Success True
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) sw ridge

Members

7 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Xavier De Viala M 1964 Spain Climber Barcelona, Spain Software engineer Details Other expeditions
Carlos Miguel Gallego Martinez M 1957 Spain Climber Toledo, Spain Hotel manager Details Other expeditions
Ramon Emilio Garcia Garcia M 1960 Spain Climber Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain Dentist Details Other expeditions
Jesus Gutierrez Gomez M 1954 Spain Climber Becerril de la Sierra, Madrid, Spain Construction worker Details Other expeditions
Guillermo Mateo Yeste M 1958 Spain Leader Madrid, Spain Alpine instructor Details Other expeditions
Jonathann Pardo Orozco M 1984 Colombia Climber Bogota, Colombia Forestry engineer Details Other expeditions
Francisco Sanchez Panades M 1969 Spain Climber Arenys de Mar, Barcelona, Spain Real estate administrator Details Other expeditions

References

1 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
AMAD06403 CLIM - - - 39:72 (May 2008) -