The Sherpa rope fixers summited 8,163m Manaslu yesterday, September 20, just before 8 pm. With the normal route now fully prepared, many teams are on their way up from Base Camp.
The six-man team included Chhiring Bhote, Pasang Sherpa, Hira Bhote, Tashi Sherpa, Karma Sharki Sherpa, and Lakpa Sherpa, according to Nepal’s Expedition Operators Association (EOA). This year, instead of choosing the lowest bid among private companies to take care of the ropes, the EOA has organized the rope-fixing team directly.
Heavy traffic ahead
This opens the way to hundreds of climbers, most of whom can attempt the summit this week. Several teams have completed their acclimatization, and forecasts predict good weather for the next few days, with sunny mornings, low to moderate winds, and some snowfall in the afternoon. By last week, a record 371 foreigners had obtained a climbing permit for Manaslu.
Hourly weather forecast for Manaslu summit by Meteoexploration.com
Early summits
In the last decade, Manaslu has become the most popular 8,000m peak of the fall season since Chinese authorities have been restricting permits for the previous favorite, Cho Oyu. Since then, companies in Nepal have tried to fix the ropes and set the camps as soon as possible so that the Sherpas can move on to other peaks. Last year, the first summits occurred on September 18. By contrast, 10 years ago, the first summits were on September 30.
This year, other, much less crowded 8,000’ers are also in play. A Seven Summit Treks team is currently fixing ropes on Dhaulagiri, while Denis Aleksenko and Artem Tsentsevitsky have done their first acclimatization round to Camp 1 on Makalu. News is expected soon from Tyler Andrews and Andrzej Bargiel on Everest.
