Dhaulagiri Archives

The mountain cleanup project expedition team spent today acclimatizing in Muktinath, visiting the area’s sacred shrine, and taking in the views of the surrounding Himalayas! Everyone is in great spirits and looks forward to continuing their move towards base camp tomorrow. Expedition leader, Terray Sylvester, checks in with this dispatch from Nepal:

Hello! This is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Annapurna (8091m/26,545ft) and Lhotse (8516m/27,940ft) expedition plus cleanup – today is March 24th.

Today we acclimatized above Muktinath (3762m/12,343ft) here in the Mustang region of Nepal. We started by going up to the famous Muktinath Shrine which is very sacred to Buddhists and Hindus, and then we hiked another few hundred meters up into the hills.

It was a beautiful day with excellent views of Dhaulagiri (8167m/26,795ft)! It was really fun and spectacular to visit the Muktinath Shrine where there are 108 sacred fountains that people bath in, and two pools that people bath in as well.

So now we’re just resting and tomorrow we’re looking forward to moving up to Thorong Phedi where we’ll spend the night tomorrow evening! We’ll be in touch.

Climber, Nelly Attar approaching Muktinath. (Photo by Terray Sylvester)

Sirdar Aang Phurba Sherpa bathing in the sacred fountains of Muktinath. (Photo by Terray Sylvester)

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions. Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

The mountain cleanup project expedition team is coming ever closer to their first climbing and cleanup objective, Annapurna 1. Navigating their way through the Kali Gandaki River Gorge, the team enjoyed an exciting and scenic drive with views all around of towering cliffs and the river below. A few days of acclimatizing is planned for the team over the next few days as the team prepares to continue higher on the way towards Annapurna! Expedition leader, Terray Sylvester, checks in with this dispatch from Nepal:

Hello! This is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Annapurna 1 (8091m/26,545ft) and Lhotse (8516m/27,940ft) expedition – today is March 23.

Yesterday we drove from Pokhara (822m/2,697ft) to the little town of Jomsom (2743m/8,999ft) on the border of Mustang, just to the west of Annapurna 1 and to the east of Dhaulagiri (8167m/26,795ft). The drive was very scenic! The Kali Gandaki River Gorge is one of the deepest gorges on the planet because it’s between two 8,000-meter peaks. We had a great dinner last night and we woke up this morning to clear, sunny skies and excellent views of Nilgiri North (7061m/23,166ft) and Tilicho Peak (7134m/23,406ft).

From here we drive to Kagbeni (2804m/9,199ft) and then we’ll trek up to Muktinath (3762m/12,343ft). We’ll acclimatize for the next few days before heading over to Annapurna base camp (4130m/13,549ft) where we’ll start preparing for our climb and also start picking up trash. This expedition is a combined climbing and trash cleanup trip!

So, all is well here and we’ll be in touch tomorrow!

Members of the team at breakfast in Pokhara.

Views of Nilgiri North and Tilicho Peak from the team’s tea house in Jomsom!

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions. Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

Tag Archive for: Dhaulagiri

Acclimatizing in Muktinath

Through the Kali Gandaki River Gorge