Spring climbing season on Dhaulagiri just got a lot more interesting. The 8,167m peak in Nepal is hosting not one but two skiers hoping to climb and then descend on skis — and the rope-fixing team is already pushing toward the top.
Makalu Lakpa, climbing leader of 14 Peaks Expeditions, reported from Camp 1 that the rope fixers were 400m above Camp 3 and moving toward the summit. Once the route is fixed, summit pushes from other teams typically follow within days.
The big name on the mountain is Andrzej Bargiel, the Polish skier with a track record few can match: he has skied from the summits of several 8,000m peaks, most famously K2 in 2018. He has posted photos from Dhaulagiri Base Camp, though the timing of his own summit push remains unclear. Given his history on 8,000m mountains, most observers expect him to be moving when conditions allow.
Bargiel won't have the mountain to himself. Spanish mountain guide Borja Real is also on Dhaulagiri, in Nepal since mid-September, with a bigger challenge in mind: he plans to climb without supplemental oxygen and ski all the way back down to Base Camp. His presence only came to light via the Alpymon blog — a reminder of how many quiet, high-stakes expeditions slip under the radar each Himalayan season.
Dhaulagiri is a serious objective even without skis. At 8,167m it's the seventh-highest mountain on earth, and its steep faces and objective hazards make it one of the less-frequented of the 8,000ers compared to Everest or Manaslu. A successful ski descent from near the summit would be a significant mountaineering achievement; doing it without bottled oxygen, as Real intends, rarer still.
For travellers, the story is a window into Nepal's autumn climbing season and the growing culture of ski mountaineering at extreme altitude. Even if you'll never clip into skis at 8,000m, the Dhaulagiri region is a spectacular and far quieter alternative to the Annapurna Circuit, with trekking routes through the Dhaulagiri massif and views that rival anything in the Himalaya. And if you happen to be in the region in the coming days, keep an eye on expedition updates — a summit-and-ski bid on one of the world's highest peaks is unfolding in real time.
ExplorersWeb
