Climbing Ama Dablam: Top Outdoor Adventures Awaiting You

I can't say enough about Top Himalaya Guides (THG)! Extremely knowledgeable and experienced guides with a genuine passion for the mountains. Our lead guide Sonam did a great job of managing expectations and ensuring that we stayed healthy and happy throughout the expedition. We were fortunate to summit all of our objectives including Ama Dablam, which was an experience of a lifetime. I highly recommend THG for any Himalayan experience and will definitely be using them again when I return to Nepal!!

I had an amazing experience with Tshering’s experienced and highly qualified team including guide Sonam Shalaka and Sherpa Thomas Vechayba. I really enjoyed the concept of acclimating for Ama Dablam by doing the Everest Base Camp trek via Gokyo Lakes and climbing a number of peaks along the way, including Lobuche, rather than the typical repetitive climbs from base camp. It is always my preference to climb with local guides who intimately know the mountain and local customs and this was a perfect example of the benefits of that rather than going with a large group of westerners. Explore-Share always does a great job of facilitating those connections. This was an outstanding experience all around and I would gladly recommend Tshering and his team for any mountaineering experience in the Himalayas.

As some famous mountaineer once said about his Sherpa climbing partner, Jyamchang belongs to a new generation of Nepali guides who really love to climb. For them, mountaineering isn’t just about business. And that’s the reason why we got along very well whilst attempting the ascent of Ama Dablam in April 2017. We were lucky enough to be able to meet beforehand in Chamonix for a thorough check-up of the equipment and a briefing on the various logistics. I found him to be that kind of straight-to-the-point, smiling and organized person I was hoping to have as a guide and partner for an ambitious climb above 6000 meters, which I had only performed once before (on Island Peak). We met at the airport in Kathmandu and joined a good friend of mine and his trekking guide, who accompanied us during the acclimatization trip across the 3 passes and on to EBC. This gave us plenty of time to get our bodies accustomed to altitude. Jyamchang and I performed a daily health check-up to monitor the effects of altitude, a routine which I found to be very professional. We had agreed during our first Skype discussions that we were going to climb alpine style. That is minimum logistics, no fixed ropes etc. The idea of climbing a difficult mountain such as Ama Dablam without these facilitating artefacts strongly appealed to me, and I appreciated that Jyamchang pushed for this approach of the climb. This was not just pulling the client to the top of the mountain and then collecting the summit bonus. Unfortunately, due to poor weather conditions the day before summit day, we were unable to reach the summit. However, I found that Jyamchang’s attitude during the difficult descent with rapidly degrading weather conditions, and another party that we had to help descend, was again showing a professional and competent approach to the mountain environment. All in all, we had a great time in the beautiful surroundings of the Khumbu valley and may be climbing together again in a future expedition. I can strongly recommend Jyamchang for trekking and climbing elsewhere in the world (Jyamchang also guides in Norway). Martin, 32 - Belgium

After a year and a half of planning, a new attempt was made on Ama Dablam. This time a third person joined the climbing party. Acclimatisation on Lobuche gave us a foretaste of what the numerous pitches on Ama Dablam's steep terminal slopes would feel like. Good weather conditions and a swift Alpine style climb to C1, C2 and finally the summit concluded this project. Thank you so much Jyamchang for guiding us up there! The timing of the climb (before Autumn's commercial expeditions), choice of porters and additional logistics were once again very professional.