With the summer season in the Karakoram now behind us, climbers are heading back to the High Himalaya in Nepal and Tibet for the fall season. While this is a much quieter time of year, when compared to the hustle and bustle of spring, there are still plenty of teams looking to bag summits in the weeks ahead.Some of the climbers have already come and gone through Kathmandu and are now acclimatizing on their mountain of choice. For example, the Himex team is on Manaslu (8156 meters/26,759 ft) this fall, and have already gone as high as Camp 1, located at 5547 meters (18,200 ft), where they spent three nights last week. While most expeditions to the Himalaya are special in their own right, this one is even more so. The team has nine soldiers from the U.K. who have suffered wounds while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, each of which are hoping to summit the mountain. Those soldiers are working with the charity Walking With The Wounded to raise funds and awareness of their cause.
Also on Manaslu are the Altitude Junkies, who welcomed all of their team members to camp yesterday. They held their Puja ceremony this morning, and will now begin shuttling gear up to Camp 1 as well, The Sherpas are expected to start that process tomorrow, with the climbers to follow on Wednesday. Team leader Phil Crampton reports that the weather has been terrible in Base Camp the past three days, with plenty of rain making it difficult to establish camp. Fortunately, their gear seems to be working well so far, keeping everyone warm and dry.
IMG has teams on both Cho Oyu (8201 m/26,906 ft) and Shisha Pangma (8013 m/26,289 ft) this fall, and those squads both reached their respective Camp 1 last week. Both teams have spent time acclimatizing at altitude and are now resting in ABC and are expected to climb up to C2 in the next few days. Meanwhile, Sherpa teams have finished establishing those Camp 2's and are now fixing ropes above those points.
Other climbers and squads are now en route to other mountains as well, including Dhaulagiri, Annapurna, and more. As of now, I haven't heard of anyone attempting Everest this fall. If you know of a team that is doing so, please forward their information on to me. Thanks!
