Mountain: Dhaulagiri
Route: North East Ridge
Country: Nepal
Height: 8167 meters/26,795 feet
Dates of Expedition: September-October, 1990
Overview of climb: We went with the idea of climbing the East Face. It was a great opportunity for us to climb with Danius, whom George and I both knew from our climbing trips with the Soviet teams of the seventies. It was a small team, with a great objective: everything I always wanted.
Team Members: Nuru Sherpa(Sirdar), Lhakpa Dorje(trek leader), Carlos Buhler, George Lowe, Danius Makauskas
Lasting Impression:
The ascent was brutally cold. It was the coldest climbing I've ever done. Due to my sickness, and Dainius' knee injury early in the trip, we two couldn't make our summit bid until late October. George climbed with Nuru, but reached the summit alone in mid October while Dainius and I recovered our health. With winter cold enveloping the range, Dainius, Nuru and myself made our ascent to the top on Halloween Day, October 31. I have never had to dig deeper for motivation to climb than when I returned from Muktinath (where I had been recovering from bronchitis) to BC in order to ascend Dhaulagiri. During the descent, tragedy struck. Though we three summited together, Dainius disappeared descending the exposed and tricky summit ridge, probably from a fall that neither of us saw or heard. Nuru and I both suffered serious frostbite during the descent. I didn't climb for a year after Dhaulagiri.
