Ama Dablam | 2010 SW Ridge

A Switzerland expedition to Ama Dablam in 2010 via SW Ridge, led by Joelle Brupbacher. Summit reached on 31st October 2010. 1 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 6921
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID AMAD10326
Peak ID AMAD
Year 2010
Season 3
Host Country 1
Route 1 SW Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Switzerland
Leaders Joelle Brupbacher
Sponsor A Swiss on Ama Dablam
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 -
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed True
Countries -
Approach -
Basecamp Date 2010-10-12
Summit Date 2010-10-31
Summit Time 1200
Summit Days 19
Total Days 21
Termination Date 2010-11-02
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 6814
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 2
Fixed Rope (m) 20
Total Members 1
Summit Members 1
Member Deaths 0
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(12/10,4500m),C1(14/10,5700m),C2(30/10,6100m),Smt(31/10)
Route Notes Brupbacher came to Ama Dablam and left Nepal without her presence being recorded for the Database. Marty Schmidt, on the mountain at the same time, called attention to her on his return to Kathmandu, and was certain she had not summited. In an email on 15 December, she said she had reached the summit on 31 October. That meant she was the first to get to the top this season: the next successes were on 2 November. She said she occupied C2 at 6100m on the 30th, and at 3:40 am of the 31st, she left camp for the top with members of a group from Him Ascent (** see below), but they turned around before summiting. She went on to the summit at about 12:00 hours in "very windy, snowy" weather and returned to C2 at about 4:00 pm. Schmidt, who summited on 2 November, said in Kathmandu on 5 November he met her as he was going up and she was coming down. She told him that she'd summited on the 31st. Schmidt said it was a stormy day with one foot of snowfall. She had followed the fixed ropes to the top; when Schmidt summited, he said, the final 70 meters to the top had not been fixed; he and Sherpa had to fix that section. He had found no tracks in the snow to the summit. What he had found was Brupbacher in his tent at C2, which forced him to share it with her, which did not please him. She had occupied other people's tents, he said, and had no ice axe. Adrian Ballinger, the leader of another expedition, agreed on 10 November with Schmidt's statements. He and a member of his Ama Dablam team were certain that she gotten no higher than the Yellow Tower at 6000m on 29 October. She used their tents. In response to follow up questions, she wrote on 24 December, "I am not surprised that there has been a dispute around my summit success as I think there were some people who did not like me, which I could feel. After the Italians had left base camp, I shared the kitchen with Asian Trekking. We had made arrangement that I could use their tent as Camp 2. However it was occupied when I got there and I was happy that I could share a tent with two Sherpas (one of them from Asian Trekking). From 31st October to 1st November I shared another tent but this time with Marty Schmidt -- to put it mildly, Marty did not really become my friend." [Marty Schmidt's trekking agency was Himalayan Guides. The trekking agent for the only Italian group was Baruntse Treks, and their team left BC on 9 November to return to Kathmandu, one week after she had left. Ballinger's expedition was looked after by Mountain Experience.] Brupbacher continued, "I had deposited an ice axe at Camp 2 but when I got there it had gone and thankfully I had taken another ice axe from BC." "I can imagine who is doubting my summit success, but there were enough people who saw me the whole time from C2 (from BC you can see the climbers from above Camp 2 to the summit)." Asked to name who had seen her, she replied that there were two Spaniards with her in C2, one of whom was named Joaquin; one of them climbed to just below C3 with her but turned around. She was sure his name was Joaquin because he reminded her of the handsome Joaquin Cortez. [No Spaniard with that name was amongst any Ama Dablam team's members.] When asked again about tents, she answered on 20 January 2011: "Asian Trekking's Sherpa and his client (an Iranian woman [Ms. Maryam Saei Parsa] offered me to use their tent at C2. It saved me carrying up my tent. When I arrived at C2, Asian Trekking's tent was already occupied by a few Sherpas (I have no idea from which agency they were) and did not want to share their tent with me. A short while later Marty Schmidt arrived at C2 and he was looking for a place to sleep and the last free space was taken by me in the tent of Adventure Consultants." Fixed rope: 20m just below C2. **Ed. notes: Most likely referring to the Himalayan Guides group led by Zachary Poulton (see AMAD-103-32). Jorge Corominas (Spanish) joined a Spanish women's team (Rosa Real) on Ama Dablam on October 30-31.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Cho Oyu Trekking
Commercial Route True
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2460166
Year 2010
Summit Success True
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) sw ridge

Members

1 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Joelle Catherine Brupbacher F 1978 Switzerland Leader Muri, Bern, Switzerland Computer scientist Details Other expeditions

References

0 recorded references.