The Expedition

EXPEDITION ROUTE

Due to climatic reasons the post-monsoon season of 2009 was chosen for this expedition. It offered the largest guarantee of good weather, although the team will encountered very low temperatures. The expedition took place between the end of September and the beginning of December 2009.

In addition to the entire film equipment and the research devices all the food had to be carried. The areas along the route were either deserted or the people were so poor that they do not possess anything they could sell. Therefore we needed a minimum of eight porters that supported us. Most members of this local team were already underway with Hannes in Spring 2009 in the Manaslu area.

FIRST STAGE

At the end of September 2009 we walked along the southern side of mighty Dhaulagiri, which is the seventh highest mountain in the world (8167 m). Crossing the impressive Myagdi Gorge the expedition eventually wanted to reach “Hidden Valley” after conquering French Pass which was discovered in 1950. Unfortunately this was not possible due to bad weather and lots of fresh snow.

SECOND STAGE

From mid October we started the second stage, which lead us to Mesokanto La Pass (5121 m) and the fascinating backdrop of Tilicho lake (5000 m). Directly north of an impressive ice wall, the “Grand barrière”, we built our lakeside camp. The Kangla pass (5300 m) lead us into the unidentified high valleys of Nar. Another hardly perpetrated pass, the Teri La, was followed into the desert-like Kingdom of Mustang.

THIRD STAGE

Due to the difficult weather situation at Dhaulagiri, we decided to travel down Kali Gandaki valley and eventually reached the Base Camp of Annapurna I (8091 m) before returning to Pokhara.