Autumn 2014 | Lhotse South Face, Makalu SE Ridge, Shishapangma Attempts and the Busy Mountains

It’s time for a Korean attempt on mystifying South Face of Lhotse, a British Military tri-services team on Makalu’s challenging SE Ridge, and several expeditions to favorite post-Monsoon mountains - Manaslu and Cho Oyu. Carlos Soria will make another attempt to complete the ascent of Shishapangma. The autumn climbing season kicks off as climbers start their march towards BCs.

Lhotse South Face

Korean team hoped to climb the challenging south wall of Lhotse, last autumn; however, excessive snow restricted them to BC. This year, the team led by Sung Taek Hong left for Nepal on August 22nd. They flew to Lukla on 27th and were expecting to start the trek to BC, today.

The team intends to climb a route, which follows Yugoslavian 1981 route at bottom, then goes right to join French 1990 line in middle section and eventually, following Jerzy Kukuczka’s path to the summit.

Korean planned route estimated in black.

Makalu

Eight men from British Military and 6 Sherpa will be heading to Makalu with the aim, “to place at least two members of the expedition on the summit of Makalu via the South East Ridge (Ed: first climbed by Y. Ozaki and A. Tanaka in 1970) and for them to return safely to Base Camp.”

Led by Colin Scott, the team will be leaving for Nepal in early September.

Shishapangma

Spaniard Carlos Soria will be leaving for Shishapangma, next week. If successful, it will be his 12th eight-thousander. Previously, he reached Shishapangam Central Summit in 2005, and was forced to abandon his climb near C3 due to bad conditions, last year. Soria is oldest person to climb K2 (at the age of 65), Broad Peak (68 years), Makalu (69 years), Gasherbrum I (70 years), Manaslu (71 years) and Kangchenjunga (75 years).

Andrea Zambaldi, Benedikt Böhm and Sebastian Haag have dodged the rains and landslides of Nepalese monsoon, and are done with bureaucratic complications related to entry in Tibet. In Nylam, they were able to acclimatize a bit, by hiking up a 4400m hill. The Italians can now concentrate on their mission to “speed climb Shishapangma and Cho Oyu, and complete the distance between the both basecamps on the bike and in running shoes – within 7 days.”

Danish mountaineer Bo Belvedere Christensen will also be attempting Cho Oyu and Shishapangma, this season. On Shishapangma, he will be on South face.

Carlos Soria on Shishapangma in Autumn 2013.

Cho Oyu

On Cho Oyu, there will be multiple climbers and commercial expeditions. Italian mountain guide Luca Montanari will be leading the team of Luciano Dal Toè, Samuele Santagiuliana and Bogdan Velev. They will be flying to Nepal in a couple of days.

Polish mountain runner Andrzej Bargiel will be going for speed ascent on Cho Oyu and Manaslu, with fellow climbers Grzegorz Bargiel, Darek Załuski and Marcin Kin.

Another Polish climber Olek Ostrowski is currently on his way to Kathmandu for ‘Cho Oyu Ski Expedition’.

Finally commercial teams including Summit Climb, IMG and Adventure Consultants Expeditions will also be on the mountain.

http://m.ak.fbcdn.net/sphotos-a.ak/hphotos-ak-ash3/7650_527677820604484_1738794170_n.jpg
Route up Cho Oyu; source: Satori Expeditions

Manaslu

Arnold Coster is leading an international expedition to Manaslu this season, with members from the Netherlands, UK, Canada, Australia, USA, Poland, Korea, China and Nepal. The team is expected to start BC trek on September 2nd.

Altitude Junkies team also consists of climbers from all parts of the world. “Several of our Sherpas are already at Manaslu base camp establishing our campsite for the team members arrival in early September” Phil Crampton, the expedition leader, wrote a week ago.

Finally, Markus Brand will be leading Amical Alpin Manaslu expedition starting tomorrow.

Here is full list of expeditions, this autumn.
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