Dhaulagiri; name is derivative from Sanskrit “Dhavala” means “White” and giri is “Mountain”. The Mountain was displayed by British surveyors in India in the early 1800s and was mapped by one of the secret Indian evaluator.
After four more expeditions failed, eight members of a Swiss expedition conquered the summit in 1960. The Swiss expeditor first ascended Dhaulagiri in 1960. The climb followed a roundabout route around the mountain from Tukuche, over Dhampus pass as French Col, to approach the summit from the North-East Col.
Tragedy struck in 1969 when an avalanche killed seven members of a US expedition on the East Dhaulagiri Glacier. The Japanese in 1970s, the Americans in 1973 and the Italians in 1976 summited.
Being one of the world’s 14 above 8000 meter high mountains, demands the best quality of technical equipment and highly motivated technically sound climber’s team. It has typical weather conditions which is very difficult to predict. The wind velocity is tremendous in this area, almost from afternoon to the dawn it is windy continuously .There are high passes to cross like French pass ht, 5360 meter and Dhampus pass 5258 m to reach Base Camp. We set our base camp at 4740 meter on the Chhonbardan glacier below the rocky knob.
After establishing base camp there will be fixing four camps. The Advance Base Camp will be set up at 5,300 m which is used for depositing the stuff. Camp I will be established at 5900 meter, Camp II at 6400 meter, Camp III at 7200 meter and Camp IV at 7500 meter and onto summit. Ascending from Camp I to Camp II requires stretches of steep climbing. Then the climb heads towards west ridge with steep climbing to reach Camp III. The climb now moves to the East Ridge to reach Camp IV. We will have to be very careful climbing over as we have to receive strong wind whilst climbing. We then push to attempt the summit from Camp IV.