Ama Dablam had been on my radar for a long time.

It’s one of those mountains you recognize immediately. K2, the Matterhorn, Khan Tengri, mountains with a shape that makes them unmistakable. Ama Dablam has always been one of those for me.

It wasn’t actually part of my original plan for 2025.

I had already summited Manaslu, then gone across to Dhaulagiri where the expedition ended without a summit. After putting so much time into Dhaulagiri and walking away without getting the opportunity I’d hoped for, I wanted something positive before leaving Nepal.

Ama Dablam was right there.

I was already acclimatized, already fit, already in Nepal, and it was a mountain I had wanted to climb for years.

So the decision was pretty easy.

I would go climb Ama Dablam.

I climbed with my friend Lakpa Sen Sherpa.

Lakpa and I had climbed together earlier in the year on Pik Lenin, and this wasn’t really a Sherpa-client arrangement. We were two friends going climbing together.

Ama Dablam was new to both of us, which made it even better.

The trek in is one of the things I remember most clearly.

Once you leave Namche and start moving deeper into the Khumbu, Ama Dablam seems to sit above you for most of the walk. You keep looking up at this incredibly beautiful, sharp mountain knowing that eventually you’re going to be standing on top of it.

After weeks around Manaslu and Dhaulagiri, it was also nice just to be trekking again.

No huge expedition pressure. Just walking toward a mountain I really wanted to climb.

Because we had come straight from Dhaulagiri and were already very well acclimatized, there was no reason for us to spend days rotating up and down the mountain.

The plan was simple:

Base Camp → Summit → Base Camp.

We left Base Camp at around 4:00 p.m.

The first section to Camp 1 is straightforward. It’s long, around five or six hours for us, but there’s nothing especially technical about it.

We climbed that section in trekking shoes and normal trekking clothes.

By the time we reached Camp 1 it was already dark, probably somewhere around nine or ten at night.

We didn’t stop for long.

Camp 1 was where we changed properly into our technical equipment. I put on my Pioneer Camp summit suit, switched into my high-altitude boots, and got ready for the climbing above.

That summit suit was new to me on Ama Dablam and it performed extremely well.

My pack for the climb was the Hyperlite Prism, which was a good size for a fast push like this without carrying unnecessary weight.

From Camp 1, we kept moving.

Above Camp 1, Ama Dablam starts to become much more interesting.

There’s scrambling, climbing and a lot more time moving on fixed lines.

I was using my Petzl Sarken crampons, Petzl Sum’Tec ice axe, Blue Ice harness, Petzl ascender, Black Diamond Vapor helmet and Petzl Actik Core headlamp.

We moved through Camp 2 with little more than a quick drink before continuing upward.

The funny thing about climbing Ama Dablam through the night is that you don’t really appreciate where you are.

You hear all these famous names before the climb, Yellow Tower, Mushroom Ridge and the other technical sections, but when you’re moving through them in complete darkness under a headlamp, much of it simply becomes another section of rope in front of you.

You climb.

You jumar.

You move onto the next anchor.

And you keep going.

Coming from a strong rock-climbing background, I personally didn’t find the technicality overwhelming.

Ama Dablam is certainly more technical than Manaslu, Dhaulagiri or Pik Lenin, but you’re still moving primarily on fixed lines. There is a lot of jumaring and climbing, but nothing that felt especially intimidating to me.

We were moving quickly.

The acclimatization from Manaslu and Dhaulagiri made an enormous difference.

I felt strong throughout the climb.

We were moving faster than many of the teams who had started their summit pushes from Camp 2, and in some cases even Camp 3.

We climbed without supplemental oxygen.

At around 7:00 a.m. on October 27, 2025, Lakpa and I reached the summit of Ama Dablam, 6,814 metres.

There were probably around ten other climbers on top when we arrived.

Behind us, a much longer line of people was still making its way upward.

Conditions were good. There was maybe 15–20 km/h of wind around the summit and it was definitely cold once we stopped moving, but nothing extreme.

I was wearing my usual cold-weather glove system, including my Mountain Hardwear Absolute Zero mitts, which did exactly what I needed them to do once we stopped moving.

For eye protection I had my Julbo sunglasses and goggles, depending on the conditions.

We stayed for around 10 or 15 minutes.

Long enough to enjoy it, take the photos and look around.

Unfortunately Everest was hiding behind cloud that morning, so we never really got the big Everest view people often associate with the summit of Ama Dablam.

But that didn’t matter much.

We were standing on top of one of the most beautiful mountains in the Himalayas.

The descent is where I really started to appreciate Ama Dablam.

Sections that had been nothing more than darkness on the ascent were now completely exposed in daylight.

Suddenly you could see the ridges, the drops and the architecture of the mountain you had just climbed through.

It was beautiful.

But descending Ama Dablam also demands your attention.

There’s a lot of rappelling and down-climbing, and after being awake and moving for so many hours it would be very easy to make a small mistake.

On terrain like that, a small mistake can have catastrophic consequences.

So we took our time.

We rappelled carefully, checked the systems and kept moving down the mountain.

There weren’t any genuinely frightening moments on our climb, although there were several helicopter rescues taking place that day.

Watching helicopters carry out long-line rescues from Ama Dablam was impressive and another reminder that although we were having a good day, this is still a serious mountain.

I also had my Garmin inReach with me, which is something I carry as part of my communications and safety setup in the mountains.

We kept descending.

Past Camp 2.

Past Camp 1.

And all the way back to Base Camp.

We finally arrived at around 10 or 11 p.m.

Almost 30 hours after leaving.

We were completely destroyed.

Lakpa and I pretty much crashed as soon as we got back.

But I also felt incredibly satisfied.

Ama Dablam was finally done.

Ama Dablam also ended up being important for another reason.

It was one of the first mountains I properly filmed.

At the time, there was no real plan for Outdoor Pirate.

I carried a DJI Action 5 Pro and filmed the climb mostly for myself.

I put together a video and showed it to friends and family.

Their reaction was one of the things that eventually convinced me that maybe I should actually start sharing these expeditions properly.

That became part of the beginning of Outdoor Pirate.

So when I look back at the Ama Dablam footage now, it represents much more than just another summit.

It was one of the first steps toward everything I’m doing today.

WATCH THE 2025 CLIMB

Ama Dablam is one of the mountains I’d eventually love to include in Climb With Paul.

It probably won’t be where we start.

Something like Mera Peak makes much more sense as an earlier group objective, giving climbers the chance to build altitude experience and become comfortable with expedition life before stepping onto something more technical.

Ama Dablam is not a first mountain.

You should already be comfortable with:

• crampons

• jumaring

• fixed lines

• rappelling

• basic rope systems

• long mountain days

• solid fitness and endurance

But with that foundation, it’s an incredible progression into more technical Himalayan climbing.

On a future Climb With Paul departure, I would join as host and fellow climber, sharing the mountain, my expedition experience and the lessons I’ve learned from bigger objectives.

Licensed local guides and operators would manage the guiding, permits, logistics and mountain safety systems.

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