Dhaulagiri

Dhaulagiri is the setting for a defining episode in Anatoli Boukreev’s effort to sustain his mountaineering career after the breakup of the Soviet Union: on October 8, 1995, he climbed the mountain alone, without supplemental oxygen, and reached the summit in seventeen hours and fifteen minutes. The ascent followed the collapse and revival of other expedition plans, and its success helped return him to Kathmandu with renewed prospects for work as a guide.

A Search for an Expedition

In 1995, Boukreev had accepted an invitation to join a Kazakh expedition to Manaslu, a mountain he had not yet climbed and one of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks. The expedition was planned in memory of Kazakh climbers who had died during a 1990 attempt. Boukreev trained for the climb, but the team could not secure the funds it needed, and its leader, Ervand Ilinski, postponed the attempt until spring 1996.

Rather than remain in Almaty waiting for another opportunity, Boukreev flew to Kathmandu. He hoped to find guiding work or join an expedition to an 8,000-meter peak, but no guiding jobs were available when he arrived. He then encountered Georgian climbers he had previously climbed with in the Pamir and Tien Shan ranges. Unlike the Kazakh team, they had secured funding for a planned attempt on Dhaulagiri and invited him to join, provided he paid his own expenses and a proportionate share of the Nepalese government’s permit fee.

The Georgian Expedition and Solo Push

The invitation reflected a changed mountaineering economy. With state support receding after the Soviet Union’s breakup, Boukreev accepted the costly arrangement despite his limited personal resources. The Georgians also worried that his participation might obscure the public credit for a team success: they agreed that he would climb with them until the final push, when they would separate. Their concern, as the account presents it, was national pride and politics rather than ordinary competition between climbers.

On October 8, Boukreev made his own push to Dhaulagiri’s summit, alone and without supplemental oxygen. The ascent took seventeen hours and fifteen minutes and, unintentionally, established a speed record for the climb. Its form—an independent final effort after joining the expedition—echoed the conditions of his invitation: he had shared the approach with the Georgians, but the summit bid became his own.

Return and Consequences

Boukreev returned to Kathmandu on October 20 and immediately resumed looking for work. He also planned to continue discussions with Henry Todd of Himalayan Guides, who had verbally offered him a job. The previous May, Boukreev had guided Todd’s successful expedition on Everest’s north side while Todd remained at Base Camp recovering from a back injury. Impressed by Boukreev’s success, Todd wanted to secure his services for a 1996 expedition on Everest’s south side, via the Southeast Ridge.

Dhaulagiri therefore occupies more than a place in Boukreev’s climbing record. The ascent came after one expedition had been postponed, when he had no guiding position in Kathmandu and accepted a financially demanding invitation under conditions shaped by national politics. His speed-record push demonstrated his high-altitude ability; his return to Kathmandu connected that achievement to the practical work of finding a place in the next climbing season.