Dhaulagiri

Dhaulagiri (धौलागिरी) is the Nepali name for the mountain which comes from Sanskrit where धवल (dhawala) means dazzling, white, beautiful and गिरि (giri) means mountain. ==Geography==

Looking north from the plains of India, most 8,000-metre peaks are obscured by nearer mountains, but in clear weather, Dhaulagiri is conspicuous from northern Bihar This lasted until 1838 when Kangchenjunga took its place, followed by Mount Everest in 1858. Dhaulagiri I stands to the east of the range which bears its name. Its sudden rise from lower terrain is almost unequaled—it rises from the Kali Gandaki River 30 km to the southeast, while the South and West faces rise precipitously over . Such is its vertical relief that despite being closer to Cho Oyu and Mount Everest, it is the only one of the Nepali eight-thousanders whose prominence parent is K2, over away. The south face of Gurja Himal in the titular massif is also notably immense. The rock layers found at the summit of Dhaulagiri, as well as Everest, are made up of limestone and dolomite formed at the bottom of the ocean. The summits of the other Himalayan eight-thousanders are made up of granite that was formed deep underground. ==History==

• 1809 - Captain William Webb calibrated the height Between 1950 and 2006, 2.88% of 2,016 expedition members and staff going above base camp on Dhaulagiri I died. On all 8,000 metre peaks in Nepal the death rate was 1.63%, ranging from 0.65% on Cho Oyu to 4.04% on Annapurna I and 3.05% on Manaslu. • 1953–1958 – Five expeditions attempt the north face, or "Pear Buttress", route. • 1959 – Austrian expedition led by Fritz Moravec makes the first attempt on the northeast ridge. • 1969 – American team led by Boyd Everett attempt southeast ridge; seven team members, including Everett, were killed in an avalanche. • 1982, 13 December – Two members (Akio Koizumi and Wangchu Shelpa) of the Japanese team led by Jun Arima of the Academic Alpine Club of Hokkaido University reach the summit. By the world calendar, winter begins 21 December, so this was not winter but a very-late-autumn-climb. However, the climb was done under a winter climbing permit, which the Nepali government issues for climbs beginning on or after 1 December. • 1984 – Three members of the Czechoslovak expedition (Jan Simon, Karel Jakes, Jaromir Stejskal) climb the west face to the summit. Simon died during the descent. • 1985 – Polish expedition led by Adam Bilczewski set out to conquer Dhaulagiri for the first time in winter. After seven weeks of dramatic struggle against hurricane-force winds and temperatures below −40c°, Andrzej Czok and Jerzy Kukuczka achieve the first winter ascent on 21 January. • 1986 – A mostly Polish expedition puts up a second south face route, on the left side of the face connecting with the southwest ridge route. They go above 7,500 m but do not reach the summit. • 1988 – Soviet mountaineers Yuri Moiseev and Kazbek Valiev, in cooperation with Zoltan Demján of Czechoslovakia, succeed in climbing the southwest buttress. This 3,000-metre ascent, with difficult technical climbing at 6,800–7,300 m, was acknowledged as the year's best achievement at the UIAA Expedition Commission Conference. • 1993 – Russian-British team puts up the direct north face route. • 1995 — Anatoli Boukreev, speed ascent, record time 17 hours 15 mins, base camp to summit. • 1998 – French climber Chantal Mauduit and Sherpa Ang Tshering die when an avalanche strikes their tent on the Northeast Ridge. • 1999 – On 24 October, British climber Ginette Harrison dies in an avalanche on Dhaulagiri. == See also ==