Despite the fact that a number of commercial teams have wrapped up operations for the fall climbing season in the Himalaya, some climbers still have work ahead of them and are hoping to nab summits before they head home. This is the case on Manaslu in particular, which has been an active mountain so far this fall. It seems the weather there has improved over the past day or two and a new window is set to open. That has launched a new round of summit bids with climbers hoping to top out in the next few days.ExWeb is reporting that the remaining teams on Manaslu left Base Camp on Sunday with the hopes of taking advantage of good weather that is suppose to start today and run into the weekend. Amongst those teams is an expedition from the British Army and a group led by Adventure Peaks. Those squads are due into Camp 3 today and are looking to go up to the summit either tomorrow or Thursday. There are another couple of teams that are still in BC as well after having just wrapped up their acclimatization rotations. They'll hope for another window next week as well.
While we're on the subject of Manaslu, Alan Arnette has returned from Nepal and posted his final trip report to his blog. It is a detailed and lengthy read that is definitely worth your time as it not only shares good information about a climb on this particular mountain but excellent insights into a Himalayan expedition in general. Alan also posted the video below which will take you through the climb as well, starting in the busy, chaotic streets of Kathmandu and going all the way to the summit of the mountain.
Over on Shishapangma, ExWeb is also reporting that teams are giving up their summit bids due to the high danger of avalanches on that particular mountain. Heavy snows on the upper slopes have made things dangerous and unstable, which has forced all the climbers to abandon their attempts. There were only a couple of summits on Shisha this fall and it has been one of the more elusive summits of the season.
Things aren't looking great on Lhotse either where high winds and snow continue to hit the mountain. The Italian squad remains in Base Camp even as the clock ticks towards the end of their expedition. The two climbers have already sought an extension but at the moment things are not looking good. They have had little chance to acclimatize at altitude and there is still a lot of work to be done before they could even think of attempting the summit or skiing back down. Their reports indicate that winds are howling at 80-90 km/hr (50-56 mph) in BC and are worse higher up the slope. For now, they sit and wait for an opportunity.
That's it for today. Hopefully more new soon!
