Ama Dablam
— — the mother and her necklace of ice.
Not only on a wall.
“The peak the Khumbu Sherpas call mother's necklace, for the long hanging glacier on its south-west face. Six thousand eight hundred and twelve metres of granite and snow, standing alone above the Imja valley. The view from Tengboche monastery, with the prayer flags running across the meadow and Ama Dablam holding the middle distance, is the picture most trekkers carry home from the walk to Everest Base Camp.
Ama Dablam, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Ama Dablam rises to 6,812 metres in the Khumbu region of eastern Nepal, inside Sagarmatha National Park. The name comes from the Sherpa words ama, mother, and dablam, the ornate locket Sherpa women wear at the neck. The two long ridges that frame the summit suggest a mother's outstretched arms; the hanging glacier on the south-west face is the locket. The peak stands alone above the Imja Khola valley, south of the main Khumbu wall and west of Lhotse and Everest.
The peak was first climbed on 13 March 1961 by Mike Gill of New Zealand, Barry Bishop of the United States, Mike Ward of Britain, and the Sherpa climber Wally Romanes, by the south-west ridge from the Mingbo valley. The standard route now follows that ridge from Base Camp at 4,570 metres through Camps 1, 2, and 3 to the summit. Climbing season is October to early December and again in April. The Nepali permit fee is 400 US dollars per climber in the autumn season.
Most travellers see Ama Dablam from the trekking route to Everest Base Camp, particularly from Tengboche Monastery at 3,867 metres. Tengboche is the largest gompa in the Khumbu, rebuilt after the 1989 fire on its original 1916 footprint. The viewpoint above the monastery looks east-north-east across the Imja Khola to the peak. The standard trek reaches Tengboche on day three or four from Lukla and continues on toward Dingboche and Lobuche. No special permit is required for the trekking view.