While we've been busy over the past few days following the proceedings on Dhaulagiri, where it appeared that we'd see the first summits of the season in the Himalaya, a team of Sherpas have earned that distinction on Manaslu instead. According to The Himalayan Times, five men went to the top of the mountain as they completed the task of fixing ropes to the summit. Later, they were also joined by a pair of foreign climbers who claimed early season success too.The Sherpa team consisted of Karma Gyalzen Sherpa, Nga Tashi Sherpa, Damai Sarki Sherpa and Dawa Chiring from Seven Summit Treks, along with Phurba Tashi Sherpa from Mountain Experience. The group reached the summit at 9:54 AM local time, radioing back to Base Camp that they had indeed reached 8163 meters (26,781 ft).
Not far behind the Sherpa squad were a pair of climbers from Himalayan Experience. That team announced that in addition to placing two of its Sherpas ( Phurba Tashi and Nigma Sona) on the summit, two clients also reached that point. Those men are Dan Home from the U.K. and Frank Seidel of Germany.
Now, with the ropes in place, the path has been set for other teams to soon follow. Manaslu is crowded this fall, with more than 255 foreign climbers currently in Base Camp. Most have just started their initial acclimatization process and are still a few weeks away from starting their actual summit push. While others, like the Adventure Peaks squad, have been on the mountain a bit longer than most, and have now been all the way up to Camp 3 as they adjust to the altitude. That should put them in a good position to potentially launch summit bids in another week or so, weather permitting of course.
In contrast, Adventure Consultants are currently in C2 on the mountain and will head back to BC today or tomorrow. They'll have at least one more rotation before they start to think about a summit push of their own, which would put them about a week behind the Adventure Peaks team.
Finally, over on Dhaulagiri, Carlos Soria and his team are nestled back into Base Camp as they rest and recuperate from their recent attempt on the summit of that mountain. They were turned back due to high winds and poor visibility, but hope to launch another attempt as early as later this week. For now though, they sit and wait and watch the forecasts.
More to come soon.
