Tom Halton, member of @BMC had a dream to climb mountains. He had climbed many mountains but his big dream was Ama Dablam, Nepal
He signed up for a one to one training course with a very experienced mountaineer, to learn about alternative methods of abseiling if the usual gear is lost.
Tom travelled to Nepal in April and this is what he wrote on his return:
‘Unfortunately it was an especially difficult season on Ama Dablam this year with challenging conditions and an incident where another climber fell around 20 meters above me.
I turned back just 100 meters from the summit which was definitely the right decision because some of the ropes had frozen underneath the blue ice.
I’m very proud of how far I reached and I intend to return in October and try again with hopefully safer conditions.’
‘I climbed it rope-solo so without climbing Sherpas or climbing partners but I was attached into the fixed ropes with an ascender to catch a fall. I basically used the fixed ropes as a top rope belay but free climbed the route.’
Well done Tom, sounds like a good decision to descend.
Jack Bloor Race & Fund 