Dhaulagiri

My first Himalayan 8000+ experience was an expedition to Dhaulagiri in 1991.

The expedition was successfull in putting one climber, the expedition leader Søren Smidt, on the summit. For me it was a great experience on one of the really big giants and it convinced me that I could get to the summit on an 8000 meter peak in the future.

In an alpine style attempt I climbed with Jan Mathorne to 7800 meter, establishing 2 camps on the way and setting up summit camp at 7800, before waking up next morning and realising that storm would keep us from getting to the summit in this attempt. Our expedition leader was more lucky one week later in crowning our expedition with success when he reached the summit in somewhat dubious weather.

Time was running out for us and the monsoon arrived, destroying further plans for summit attempts. But it was a great experience and wetted our thirst for more expeditions to some of the major Himalayan peaks.

The view from camp 3 on the NE ridge at 7000 meters	Dhaulagiri seen from the French Col on the trek to basecamp