Himalaya Fall 2017: Final Summits on Manaslu

1280px Sunrise%2C Manaslu

Good weather returned to Manaslu today, allowing the final team on the mountain to safely summit and begin their descent, bringing an end to one of the busiest seasons ever on the 8th highest mountain in the world.

Yesterday I reported that the Adventure Consultants team was stalled out in Camp 4 after high winds unexpectedly kicked up around the summit. They elected to hold tight at that position to see if conditions would improve, and today they were rewarded for their patience. The team sent the following dispatch this morning to update everyone on their progress:

“Dean has just called in from Manaslu with the fantastic news that he, Jon, Ket and Philip summited earlier this morning, along with our all-star Sherpa team Lhakpa Dorjee Sherpa, Tsering Namgel Sherpa, Nima Tshering Sherpa, Pemba Sherpa and Rinjin Sherpa. And what’s more – they are already back at Camp Four! 

He reported a stellar day that was well worth waiting for. Some light winds from the north, but all in all a brilliant day at 8163m. 

The team are having a quick break and then will continue down the mountain.”

With nine more climbers standing on the top of Manaslu, we may have a new record for summits in a single season. We’ll have to wait to see what the final number are, but at last count, more than 200 had already gone up, which was rapidly approaching the most ever.

According to reports, it was a crowded Base Camp this fall, but the teams did a good job of staggering their summit pushes and despite poor weather at time, conditions were good when the time came for the mass trek to the top. We did see a few photos that showed lots of traffic going up and down the slopes, but it didn’t appear to have a major impact on safety or timing.

With the Adventure Consultants dropping back to Base Camp tomorrow, and preparing to go home, the major commercial squads are now wrapping up operations in the Himalaya for the fall. There are still some interesting ongoing expeditions to keep tabs on, but for the most part it will get a lot quieter moving forward. We’ll still keep tabs on developments however, so expect a few more updates in the days to come.

Congrats to the AC squad on a job well done.

Kraig Becker