the Dhaulagiri 2009

His name comes from Sanskrit, “Dhavali giri” – The White Mountain. Under the direction of the Swiss Max Eiselin, the eight-thousander was first climbed in 1960 by an international expedition. The route of the Erstbesteiger, the northeast ridge, is still the usual way for summit aspirants on the “White Mountain”.

Mountaineers Jürgen Greher, Rupert Hauer, Bernd Müller, Gerhard Schauenburg, Helga Söll, Alexandra Robl, Alix von Melle and expedition leader Luis Stitzinger also wanted to climb the Dhaulagiri together. The Dhaulagiri expedition was conducted by the DAV Summit Club and was scheduled for a total of 52 days. After a 10-day trek to the base camp at 4650 meters, the climb began on the Myangdi Glacier. After some tricky glacier passages, the foot of the steep northeast ridge was reached. With 3 high camps (5800m, 6700m, 7250m), the team took the demanding route, which has gradients of over 60 degrees in snow and ice as well as combined terrain, over the northeast ridge to the summit at 8167 meters. Afterwards, Luis Stitzinger, Alexandra Robl and Rupert Hauer wanted to tackle a continuous ski tour of the steep NO flank. In 2007, the Swedish skier Fredrik Ericsson managed a ski run of 7800 m altitude, the summit could not reach the summit at that time. The descent would have been the first full Himalayan eight-thousand-foot ski tour.

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