Annapurna IV 2022

Annapurna IV 2022

Departed UK 14th April

Leader Di Gilbert 

10th May

Di has sent through some amazing photos of the climb.

Sadly, the summit once again illuded us and I really thought that this year would be our year.  The ropes were fixed early to the summit, giving us our best chance, the team were all set and ready but the weather put every obstacle it could in the teams way.  At around 6400 meters the conditions forced the team to turn around and return to base camp.  A fantastic effort on a great trip…..next time!

6th May

Di called today from Camp 2.  They have had some poor weather  for the last 2 days, but they have made good progress.  The forecast now shows the weather to be improving. The team will head to camp 3 tomorrow, with an aim to make a summit attempt on the 9th.

Follow their progress on our Adventure Peaks Tracker:

6th  May

Di called today from Camp 2.  They have had some poor weather  for the last 2 days, but they have made good progress.  The forecast now shows the weather to be improving. The team will head to camp 3 tomorrow, with an aim to make a summit attempt on the 9th.

3rd May

Di called today from basecamp where it has been clear and sunny today with the cloud just building up this afternoon, a welcome change from recent days!  Graham has taken a short walk from base camp and the other team members have been resting and reading, along with washing their pants! They also saw a pine martin at base camp which was a treat. Tomorrow they will have a final rest day here before starting their climb up for the summit.

29th April

The latest from Di is they are safely back at basecamp for a well-deserved rest. The weather sounds like it has been pretty challenging with thunder, lightning, snow and strong winds but the team are in good spirits. They are there for a few days so will call on Monday for a Weather report to see if it is OK to start making the ascent to the summit.

26th April

Di called in today from Camp 1 (5500m) where the team are wrapped up in their tents as the afternoon’s thunder and lightning roll in. They did a tough carry up to Camp 2 today with lots of fresh snow. The route follows a ridge of rock, ice and snow with sections of steep climbing. After a challenging day the team are now enjoying a well-earned rest back down at Camp 1.

25th April

The team are now at Camp 1 5500m having had a rest at base camp yesterday after the previous long day carrying up to Camp 1. Tomorrow they plan to do a carry up to Camp 2 then come back down to sleep at Camp 1. The weather has been challenging with lots of fresh snow, but we are keeping a close eye on the forecast.

21st April 

Great news ahead of the team’s arrival into BC, the Adventure Peaks Sherpa team of 10 have completed the rope fixing to Camp IV on this rarely climbed 7000m Peak (7525m). The snow conditions were described as excellent by our two lead sherpas Phurba Ongel and Norbu Chhiring who after fixing ropes continued to the summit with four more of the rope fixing team to make an early summit. Purba and Norbu had previously been with us on our Post Monsoon expedition prior to Covid when the team were pushed back by wind slab on summit day. In total 30 rolls of rope have been used. We are very positive for the Annapurna IV Summit Team this time.

If you want to join our Post Monsoon Expedition departing 30^th September more information can be found at /shop/annapurna-iv/

Here are a few pictures to paint the picture for the coming weeks.

19th April 

The weather continues to be clear, calm, and sunny in the morning and cloudy, windy and cooler in the afternoon.

We went for an excellent acclimatisation trek up past Ngawal to over 4000m this morning and were rewarded with excellent views towards Annapurna IV.  The route from camp III onwards was on full display. The group cruised the day with multiple photo, water and feeding random dog stops – in essence we are maintaining the slow and steady theme to gain good acclimatisation.

This is our last day in civilisation and tomorrow we leave the main Annapurna trail for the final  2-day approach trek to Annapurna IV base camp.

Fantastic news, our Sherpa team working ahead of the group have completed rope fixing on the mountain. They found the snow conditions to be almost perfect and were able to continue to the summit! The door is now wide open for the group, how exciting.

18th April 

We made it to Hunde in time for lunch and have enjoyed a sunny afternoon of chilling out. We are now at 3280m which is the highest any of the team have been since the autumn of 2019.

Our team size has also increased with the addition of 3 Sherpas, our cook and his assistant whom decided to head off the mountain to say hello. Susan has also adopted the village dog and is hoping it will follow us to base camp – others are less enthusiastic. We will be joined by another 5 Sherpas and another cook assistant when we get to base camp.

16th April 

We have made it to Besisahar after many hours in our all terrain mini bus. We’re all shaken but not stirred and have thoroughly enjoyed the views over the 135km journey. The happy group and the famaous Marsyangdi river. The adventure is now under way!