The last day at Manaslu Base Camp before our summit push. Although our acclimatisation schedule has been quite aggressive, a reasonably benign weather window has appeared which we need to take advantage of. We leave for Camp 1 tomorrow (23rd) and have 4 camps in total before summit day. If all goes to plan we’ll reach the summit on 27th and be back down in base camp the following day (28th).
We still have plenty of time, so if for any reason any of us are not feeling adequately acclimatised, we can always come back down and wait for the next weather window. There is unlikely to be a better one than this one, though: winds are predicted to be light, there’s a slight chance of snow, but the quantity is likely to be small. Although there’s been quite a lot of rain at base camp, conditions higher up have been quite dry, and the mountain is much safer than in previous years.
It’s going to be tough, but I’m intending to use oxygen on summit day, and have been to 7546m without, so am reasonably hopeful I can reach the magic 8163m with oxygen this time around, if conditions permit.
Otherwise it’s just one foot in front of the other, fingers crossed and keep going.
Summit push aborted at Camp 1 after 2 ft snow. Back at base camp waiting for next weather window. Luckily we have red wine.
Hi Mark,
Sounds just the way it should be 😉 I wish you guys all the best of luck for coming days AND a wonderful summit push !
As far as Damian is concerned … I do remember him and see your point. He also tried Ama Dablam when I was there but no success …
Take care and hope to read you soon.
Cheers mate !
Good luck Mark. Will be thinking of you!
Related to #7, they don’t know better, the RMI geidud groups up Mount Rainier usually call it good at the crater rim, 200 vertical feet and 1000 feet away from the true summit. I think RMI knows better, but expect a lot of the clients do not. No doubt it is safer to get off the clients off this peak as soon as possible, but given how far they have come, it is a shame not to get on top. One also wonders if some of the guides, who claim hundreds of ascents, count the crater rim as good ?