Ama Dablam

Few mountains are recognised from a single glance the way Ama Dablam is. Rising to 6,812 metres above the Khumbu valley in eastern Nepal, it is not among the giants of the region, yet trekkers heading towards Everest tend to photograph it more than any of them. Two long ridges sweep down from the summit like outstretched arms, and a hanging glacier sits high on the face between them. Sherpa speakers read that shape literally: the name means "mother's charm box", the arms of the ridges holding the dablam, the double-pendant amulet traditionally worn by women, which the glacier resembles. A lower western summit reaches 6,170 metres, and from certain angles the whole massif looks less like a peak than a carved throne.

Its steep faces and knife-edge ridges earned it the nickname "the Matterhorn of the Himalayas". The first ascent came on 13 March 1961, when Mike Gill and Wally Romanes of New Zealand, Barry Bishop of the United States and Mike Ward of Britain climbed the Southwest Ridge. They were members of the Silver Hut expedition of 1960–61 led by Edmund Hillary, which spent the winter in the region studying the effects of high altitude, and the climb was a bonus of that long acclimatisation. The Southwest Ridge is still the standard line and Ama Dablam is one of the most frequently permitted peaks in the Himalaya. The mountain also carries a harder memory: in November 2006 a serac broke off the hanging glacier and swept the highest camp, killing six climbers, three from Europe and three from Nepal. Since then most parties climb with two camps rather than three to stay out of the ice's path.

For those who never intend to climb it, Ama Dablam is the mountain that frames the walk. It appears again and again along the trail up the Dudh Koshi and Imja valleys, and one of the best-loved views is from the ridge at Tengboche, whose monastery is the largest in Khumbu, with Ama Dablam rising behind the prayer flags alongside Lhotse, Thamserku and Kangtega. The village of Pangboche, home to what is described as the oldest monastery in Khumbu, lies almost directly beneath it. The mountain is also printed on the Nepalese one-rupee note. The clearest weather comes in spring, April and May, and in autumn, September and October.

Getting there

The approach is on foot through the Everest region. The usual gateway is Tenzing-Hillary Airport (LUA) at Lukla, about 23 km from the mountain as the crow flies, reached by small aircraft from Kathmandu; the nearest sizeable town, Khandbari, is about 64 km away but is not a practical base. From Lukla the trail follows the Dudh Koshi river through Phakding and Namche Bazaar to Tengboche and Pangboche. Ama Dablam Base Camp, at about 4,600 m, is roughly three and a half hours' walk above Pangboche; treks that go there and back typically take one to two weeks, with rest days for acclimatisation. Climbing the peak requires a permit and an organised expedition.