Ama Dablam | 2016 SW Ridge

A Switzerland expedition to Ama Dablam in 2016 via SW Ridge, led by Xavier Carrard. Summit reached on 31st October 2016. 2 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 9247
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID AMAD16323
Peak ID AMAD
Year 2016
Season 3
Host Country 1
Route 1 SW Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Switzerland
Leaders Xavier Carrard
Sponsor Swiss Ama Dablam Expedition 2016
Success 1 False
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 -
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach -
Basecamp Date -
Summit Date 2016-10-31
Summit Time -
Summit Days 0
Total Days 0
Termination Date 2016-11-02
Termination Reason 14
Termination Notes Abandoned above C2 due to overcrowding on route and messy fixed rope situation
High Point (m) 6100
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 2
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 2
Summit Members 0
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,C1,C2(31/10,6000m),xxx(31/10,6100m)
Route Notes Laure Mariethoz was a client of Xavier Carrard. They hoped to make the climb in alpine-style. Team left C2 (6000m) at 10:30 pm, but gave up just above C2 at 11:15 pm due to overcrowding and awkward system fixed ropes in place. Carrard says about 20 other climbers left C2 about at same as they did. Xavier Carrard (email) - 5 Feb 2017 October 11, 1998 On that, my dream had came true. I'd reached the summit of Ama Dablam with Jean François. It was our first Asian summit and it was a gift of nature; there were no fixed ropes, no Sherpas hauling client's affairs. We were in high altitude, on our own, and we understood both the privileges and the risks. October 24, 2016 "I should have guessed," I said to myself. When we arrived in base camp for Ama Dablam, a sort of Himalayan Matterhorn, we found 32 expeditions of 8 to 15 members each. It looked like a small town. With my client, Laure, we felt instantly out of place. We realized quickly that we were not likely to mix well with the business of high altitude climbing. This was unfortunately confirmed by the events that followed. October 31, 2:30 pm We've been waiting for an hour at the foot of the Yellow Tower. A Sherpa/porter is trying to encourage his client to move. He pulls and pushes, trying to haul the client up 30 meters of vertical climbing to Camp 2. It's a lovely pitch of a French 6a for free climbing (no grade proposed for hoisting oneself up fixed ropes). October 31, 10:30 pm I leave Camp 2 at 6000 meters. I just passed a piton hammered about 20% in, attached to an orange fixed rope. The next point is made up of two pitons, one put in upside down but the second is solid, and still attached to the orange rope. I start to want to turn back. The next point is a stake knocked into a crack upside down, attached to a boulder frozen into another crack surrounded by ice. This poor protection is financed by the 32 expeditions in place, and there are 20 dimwits who all left Camp 2 at the same time, never asking a single question, neither about the morals and ethics, nor about the security. They just jumar up the rope to the highest point possible. October 31, 11:15 pm I go back to Laure with a heavy heart tell her the news. We can't do this. I'm her guide, responsible for her security, and we cannot go up this rope. On top of it, Laure wanted the challenge of climbing a real summit in the Himalayas, not to jumar on fixed ropes to the top of a 6000 meter peak. We wanted the physical, psychological and emotional challenge of a climbing adventure, and we were as far away from that as one could get. We didn't even have the option of the normal route, seeing the number of people going up and down and the same badly fixed ropes everywhere. I was heartbroken to have to make this decision, but her dream of climbing under these conditions could easily have turned into a nightmare. November 1, 12:15 am Back in Camp 2 there are now 10 tents in place, some hanging out over the edges and all fixed together by a web of fixed ropes and bits of cord. We slide into out sleeping bags. I turn around and around the decision in my head. It's hard to accept that while we might make it to the summit, we'd be playing around the most important thing in guiding: security. When I think of the people we've passed since yesterday on this ridge, I'm certain that they never noticed neither the odor of the rocks, nor the iciness of the snow. They aren't worried about the honor of climbing a sacred mountain, just pulling on the orange rope or the blue one with, in some cases, a Sherpa who changes their jumar for them at each point. Even as stressed as I am, I start to feel more sure about my decision. I speak with shame: Sir Edmund Hillary must be turning over in his grave. What do we have left of these magnificent conquests: Everest and Ama Dablam? These are a chain of fools to human vanity, colored puppets attached to their orange or black or green ropes, totally aided by their Sherpas. These marionettes might make it to the summit, but they will still never know the aroma of granite or the cold of the ice. Yesterday on the way up to Camp 2, I'd promised Laure a few beautiful pitches of climbing on perfect, red granite, memories from my time there in 1998. And what do I find instead, but a brand spanking new blue fixed rope, Sherpas loaded with tents, sleeping bags and hiking boots for their clients. What does a Sherpa need with 3 pairs of boots? Laure has hiked from the base camp with all her gear: her shoes, sleeping bag, clothes and material. And if she can't climb the beautiful pitches I'd promised her, it's not because she's too tired but that the mountain is covered with porters, fixed ropes and marionettes hanging onto the ropes for their lives. It's a sad failure of Himalayan climbing. And the worst of all that is that we, the mountain guides, are partly responsible, adding another layer to my shame. November 1, 7:30 am Laure and I leave Camp 2, her dream broken and she is certainly very disappointed. But she says herself that she's was disappointed as soon as we arrived to see in what state the sacred mountains have been mistreated, abused and disrespected. November 5, 7:30am, Lukla airport We run into a team that we'd passed on the Ama Dablam ridge, taking the same plane. We look at each other and I look down at their shoes, Scarpa 6000s. They're wearing them to reduce the weight of their bags. "Poor guys" I think, but then a little unkind thought comes to mind, "At least for once, they’re carrying them themselves." A second look confirms that the shoes are nearly new. They weren't used to hike up to Camp 2, but were part of the loads carried by the Sherpas. They're proud of climbing their summit, but they never used their own boots to get across the long moraine between Camps 1 and 2. I don't know if I can stand being on the same plane with them. The UIAGM guides: The whole hike back I've been turning around the sad realization that we're, the guides, are partly responsible for the commercialization of these mountains. I ran across 3 or 4 Nepalese proudly wearing the UIAGM badge, slap in the face. If we, members of this international organization, are incapable of preserving mountain climbing ethics in the face of profits, no one else is going to do it for us. And it's probably too late to do anything about it. And one more memory of this trip: I run across an Englishwoman working as a guide with a group of clients, on the same mountain with these 1500 meters of fixed ropes. Here's what our conversation consisted of: Me: "So, you’re a guide?" Guide: "Yes and no." Me: "What does that mean?" Guide: "Here I'm a guide, because I can work in the Himalayas, but not in Great Britain. I'm not a guide there." Me: "Ah, I see. It's true the mountains in Europe are more dangerous..." sarcasm dripping from my voice. How are we doing to protect our profession, our knowledge, ethics and history, from agencies taking clients to the top of the highest summits of the world with no idea of what ethics dominate this environment, and by faux guides? And on top of it, in countries that are part of the UIAGM? A certain minority feels there is a real violation of these sacred peaks. There’s a bit of hope in the tentative of the south face on the Lagunak ridge, attempted by a group of young guides from the Haute Maurienne in France. Maybe the next generation will make better decisions.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Expedition Himalaya permit (Snowy Horizon?)
Commercial Route True
Standard Route False
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference -
Primary ID -
Checksum 2462544
Year 2016
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) sw ridge

Members

2 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Xavier Leon Carrard M 1970 Switzerland Leader Confignon, Geneva, Switzerland Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Laure Agnes Odile Wuilleret Mariethoz F 1976 Switzerland Climber - - Details Other expeditions

References

1 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
AMAD16323 - - http://www.atypeak.com/Site/ - - -