Makalu | 2019 Makalu La-NW Ridge

A Ukraine expedition to Makalu in 2019 via Makalu La-NW Ridge, led by Taras Pozdnii. Summit reached on 15th May 2019. 37 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 10301
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID MAKA19102
Peak ID MAKA
Year 2019
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 Makalu La-NW Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Ukraine
Leaders Taras Pozdnii
Sponsor Seven Summit Treks International Makalu Expedition 2019
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 Australia, Belgium, China, India, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, USA
Approach Trekking from Num & Heli to BC
Basecamp Date 2019-04-14
Summit Date 2019-05-15
Summit Time 0650
Summit Days 31
Total Days 42
Termination Date 2019-05-26
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 8485
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 3
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 22
Summit Members 12
Member Deaths 2
Total Hired 20
Summit Hired 13
Hired Deaths 1
No Hired False
O2 Used True
O2 None False
O2 Climb True
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep False
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits -
Campsites BC(4800m),ABC(5700m),C1,C2,C3,Smt(15-16,24/04)
Route Notes Seven Summit Treks Makalu expedition was a combination of several independent teams (1-5 climbers each). Seven Summits provided transportation, base camp facilities and various levels of high-altitude support (oxygen, high-altitude porters, tents, etc) as required and contracted for by each team. The individual accounts for each team are given below: Taras Pozdnii (Ukraine) Appr: Trekked via Num Camps: ABC(21/04,5700m),C1(26/04,6420m),C2(27/04,6620m),C3(13/05,7480m), xxx(15/05,8230m) Left: 26/05 Hired: 1 Term: Abandoned on 15/05 due to slowness, lack of time and oxygen. Started from C3 at 9:20 pm on 14/05. His Sherpa was going very slowly and was weak. It took them 7 hours to reach 7800m from C3. Pozdnii changed his bottle of oxygen at 7800m, his Sherpa going down from there. Pozdnii continued alone. He reached the French Couloir at 8230m. He calculated his oxygen would not be enough for summit and to go back, and decided to turn around. He turned around at about 9:42 am and was back to C3 at 1:30 pm. Pozdnii says the deceased Indian Dipankar Ghosh summited on 16/05. Going down he got lost in a storm and died at 7800m-7900m. He was alone and hasn’t been found yet. Oxygen: Used from C3 to HPt and down to C3. Hired: Keshap Gurung (7800m), Gorkha Brad Johnson (USA) William Mattison (USA) Sarah Strattan (USA) John Jacoby (Australia) April Mayhew (USA) Appr: Trekked Tumlingar via Num Camps: BC(14/04,4700m),ABC(17/04,5700m),C1(24/04,6200m),C2(26/04,6700m), C3(13/05,7400m),Smt(15/05,8230m) Left: 19/05 Hired: 2 Term: Success by Johnson, Strattan, Jacoby Hidalgo died in C2 in the night of 7/05-8/05. He was found dead in his tent in the morning at 11:30 am. His body was brought down by Sherpas on 09/05 and flown to KTM on 10/05. Autopsy showed that he might have died of HACE. The team initially wanted to take another, easier route than other teams. They started to fix ropes for their route, but later ropes were buried in the snow and they ended up doing same route as other teams. The team started from C3 at 8:20 pm on 14/05. Johnson was the first to summit at 06:50 am. Jacoby, Strattan and both Sherpas summited between 7:30-7:45 am. Totally clear summit day, some cirrus clouds, little wind. All back to C3 at 1 pm. Mattison turned around at 6900m on 13/05 because of diarrhea. Hired: Dendi Sherpa Tawa Sherpa Jonas Lohaus (Belgium) Appr: Trekked via Num Camps: ABC(21/04,5700m),C1(01/05),C2(02/05),C3(14/04),Smt(16/05) Left: 19/05 Hired: 1 Term: Success by Lohaus and Phurba Sherpa. Lohaus summited at 10:20 am and Phurba Sherpa summited 30 minutes later. Started from C3 at 6:40 pm on 15/05. Good weather on summit day. High winds in the afternoon. Back to C3 at 4:30 pm. Lohaus together on summit with deceased Indians Dipankar Ghosh and Nayaran Singh (from Indian Army team). Oxygen: Used by Lohaus and Phurba from C3 to summit and down to C3. Hired: Phurba Sherpa Chang Yuan-Chih (China) Lu Chung-Han (China) Appr: Trekked via Num Camps: ABC(21/04,5700m),C1(24/04),C2(28/04),C3(12/05),C4(13/05),Smt(15/05) Left: 18/05 Hired: 1 Term: Success by Chang and Lu Members started together from C4 at 9 pm. Chang summited at 8:30 am and got back to C4 at 2p m. Lu summited at 11 am and got back to C4 at 4 pm. It was a good day, fair weather, just a bit windy. Lu summited without supplemental oxygen. Their Sherpa abandoned summit attempt at 7700m on 14/05 because he didn’t feel well. Oxygen: Used by Chang from C4 to summit and down to C4; not used by Lu Hired: Dafuri Sherpa (7700m) Vibeke Sefland (Norway) Allie Pepper (Australia) Appr: Heli from Namche Camps: BC(26/04,4800m),ABC(27/04,5700m),C1(01/05,6100m),C2(02/05,6400m), C3(14/05,7500m),xxx(15/05,7700m),Smt(24/05) Left: 18/05 (Pepper); 26/05 (Sefland) Hired: 0 (first attempt); 1 (2nd attempt by Sefland) Term: Abandoned on 15/05 due to tiredness (1st attempt) Success on 24/05 by Sefland and Nima Dorje at 8 am. Acclimatisation rotation touched 7000m. On summit rotation HPt team left C3 at 7 pm. Weather was good and conditions favourable. When they reached 7700m at 9:30 pm, Pepper made the call to go down as she was tired and Sefland went down with her. They returned to C3, slept there and the following day the descended to BC. After the first summit attempt, Sefland decided to stay and attempt the mountain again with supplemental oxygen and Sherpa. Pepper left 18/05 and took a helicopter from Hillary BC on 20/05. Second summit attempt by Sefland: C2 21/05 6400m C3 22/05 7500m Smt 24/05 by Sefland and Nima Dorje Sherpa at 8 am (Josette Valloton summited at 6 am). On summit push, they started from C3 at 6:30 pm on 23/05. Weather was good. Straightforward climb. On the summit they spent about 15 minutes on the summit and descended to ABC, where they arrived at 11 pm. On 26/05 she left BC by helicopter to Tumlingtar. Nima Tenji’s death: Just before they headed out of C3 for the summit push, Sefland was called to have a look at a sick Sherpa at C3. He was in the rescue team. Sefland saw that he had HAPE, he thought that he should have medication and gave him Nifidepine, but the other Sherpas refused for Nima Tenji to take any more medication. She told them that he had to go down immediately and they agreed that Nima Tenji would go down as soon as possible with support. Sefland was ensured that he would go down; however they did not go down. Nima Tenji survived the night and they left C3 to descend rather late in the day. On her way down, Valloton saw the Sherpas go down on the snowfield between the two rockbands; she thought that he was not very well. She asked him whether he needed help but he declined. When Sefland came down from the summit, she saw a bunch of the recovery team Sherpas at the top of the 1st rock band and this was probably where Nima Tenji had died. When Sefland caught up with them, she saw Nima Tenji was dead. He had no oxygen. His body was dragged down a few days later and flown to Tumlingtar. Dipankar Ghosh, the individual Indian who died on 16/05 after summiting, was apparently seen just above C4 due to a flashing head torch by Eva Martinez from Mexico. Sherpas were allegedly too tired to go back up to rescue. He was about 300m above C4 on the traverse. Oxygen: Not taken, not used by Pepper (and Sefland on first attempt) From C3 to top to C2 by Sefland, from C4 to top to C2 by Nima Dorje Hired: Nima Dorje Sherpa Raluca Uzum (Romania) Appr: Trekked via Num Camps: ABC(22/04,5700m),C1(28/04),C2(12/05),xxx(14/05,7300m) Left: 18/05 Hired: 1 Term: Abandoned on 14/05 due to coldness and bad weather. Uzum turned around at around 8:30 am on 14/05 because she was cold and was worried about her health. Oxygen: Not taken, not used Hired: Lakpa Sherpa [Lakpa Wongdi or Lakpa Thindu?] Josette Valloton (Switzerland) Appr: Trekked via Num Camps: BC(19/04,4800m),ABC(21/04,5700m),C2(29/04,6400m),C3(15/05,7500m), Smt(24/05) Left: 26/05 by heli Hired: 1 Term: Success by Valloton and Chhangba at 5:30 am. On summit push, Valloton and Chhangb started from C3 at 6:30 pm on 23/05. Weather was clear, but very windy to start with. Straightforward climb. On the summit, they spent about 2 minutes on the summit and descended to ABC, where they arrived at 4 pm. Valloton had intended to summit without oxygen and had actually reached C4 (7800m) on 15/05 without O2. When she descended back to BC she met Sefland, who had changed her plans to summit without oxygen, so Valloton joined her in her idea. Oxygen: Used C3 to top to C3 by Valloton and Chhangba. Hired: Chhangba Sherpa (also summited on 14/05 with the rope fixing team) Richard Hidalgo (Peru) Camps: BC(15/04),C2(07/05),xxx Term: Abandoned on 07/05 due to Hidalgo's death. Nepali Times, 09/05/2019 In the morning of May 8, 2019, according to the information received from the basecamp, Richard had hiked to Camp 2 on May 7, 2019, along with Sherpas who were ascending to the peak to fix the ropes. At approximately 9 pm, Richard and the Sherpas had left for their personal tents after the meal. Then after the Sherpas returned to Camp 2 after fixing a rope on the mountain. On not seeing Mr. Hidalgo, they had gone to his tent only to find him no longer alive. Oxygen: Not taken, not used Return KTM: After a bit of back and forth with the family, Richard's body was taken to the Teaching Hospital on 10/05 for post-mortem.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Seven Summit Treks
Commercial Route False
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2462978
Year 2019
Summit Success True
O2 Summary Used
Route (lowercase) makalu la-nw ridge

Members

37 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Taras Pozdnii M 1989 Ukraine Leader Bila Tserkva, Ukraine Trekking company owner Details Other expeditions
Muhammad Ali Sadpara M 1976 Pakistan Climber Sadpara Village, Skardu, Pakistan Alpinist Details Other expeditions
Yuan-Chih Chang M 1988 China Climber Taipei, Taiwan Trekking guide Details Other expeditions
Haytham Mahmoud Elmasri M 1982 USA Climber Redondo Beach, California - Details Other expeditions
Dipankar Ghosh M 1965 India Climber Kolkata (Calcutta), India Computer and stationary supply business Details Other expeditions
Richard Leopoldo Hidalgo Jara M 1967 Peru Climber Cabada, Lima, Peru Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Muharrem Aydin Irmak M 1966 Turkey/USA Climber New York, New York Artist Details Other expeditions
John Nicholas Jacoby M 1965 Australia Climber Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Professional adventure racer, organizer of adventure races Details Other expeditions
Brad Allen Johnson M 1955 USA Climber Ridgeway, Colorado Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Jiang-Hong Li M 1965 China Climber Urumchi, Xinjiang, China Businessman (runs a mountain resort) Details Other expeditions
Jonas Stephan Raymond August Lohaus M 1967 Belgium Climber Kapellen, Belgium Primary school administration staff member Details Other expeditions
Chung-Han (Ago) Lu M 1983 Taiwan Climber Taipei, Taiwan Teacher of outdoor activities Details Other expeditions
Eva Martinez Sandoval F 1966 Mexico Climber Tlalnepantla de Baz, Estado de Mexico, Mexico Secretary Details Other expeditions
William E. (Billy) Mattison M 1957 USA Climber Vail, Colorado Ski patroller Details Other expeditions
April Marie Mayhew F 1977 USA Climber Ridgeway, Colorado Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Alessandra Kate (Allie) Pepper F 1975 Australia Climber Katoomba, NSW, Australia Outdoor activities instructor Details Other expeditions
Kia Noosh Ravanfar M 1984 USA Climber Santa Rosa, California - Details Other expeditions
Alfredo Rivera Macias M 1957 Mexico Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Vibeke Andrea Sefland F 1973 Norway Climber Oslo, Norway Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Sarah Elizabeth Strattan F 1988 USA Climber Vail, Colorado Alpine guide & ski patroller Details Other expeditions
Raluca Cornelia Uzum F 1969 Romania Climber Bucharest, Romania Physician Details Other expeditions
Josette Valloton F 1964 Switzerland Climber Arolla, Valais, Switzerland Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Keshab Gurung M 1979 Nepal H-A Worker Laprak-4, Gorkha - Details Other expeditions
Chhangba Sherpa M 1997 Nepal H-A Worker Makalu-5, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Dorchi Sherpa M 1980 Nepal H-A Worker - - Details Other expeditions
Lakpa Dendi Sherpa M 1974 Nepal H-A Worker Gudel-9, Solukhumbu - Details Other expeditions
Lhakpa Thinduk Sherpa M 1963 Nepal H-A Worker Walung, Makalu-9, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Mingma Temba Sherpa M 1998 Nepal H-A Worker Makalu-5, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Ngima Dorchi Sherpa M 1993 Nepal H-A Worker Makalu-5, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Ngima Wangdak Sherpa M 1994 Nepal H-A Worker Makalu-6, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Nima Dorje Sherpa M 1981 Nepal H-A Worker Makalu-3, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Nima Tenji Sherpa M - Nepal H-A Worker Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Pemba Tashi Sherpa M 2000 Nepal H-A Worker Makalu-9, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Phurba Sherpa M 1990 Nepal H-A Worker Makalu-5, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Sangay Phuri (Sangay Furi) Sherpa M 1970 Nepal H-A Worker Makalu-9, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Sona Tendu Sherpa M 1960 Nepal H-A Worker - - Details Other expeditions
Tawa Chhiri Sherpa M 1979 Nepal H-A Worker Charwo, Sotang-6, Solukhumbu - Details Other expeditions

References

3 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
MAKA19102 - - http://www.dreamwanderlust.com/news/remains-of-dipankar-ghosh-and-narayan-singh-recovered-on-makalu-now-at-camp-4 - - -
MAKA19102 - - http://www.dreamwanderlust.com/news/dipankar-ghosh-untraceable-on-makalu-since-last-evening-agency-talks-about-his-survival - - -
MAKA19102 - - http://www.dreamwanderlust.com/news/shocking-sherpa-died-on-rescue-mission-of-dipankar-and-narayan-on-makalu - - -