The Dashain festivities are one of the longest celebrations in Nepal and traditionally, this shifting holiday marks the beginning of the fall commercial climbing season. This year, however, the activity on the 8,000m peaks is nearly over, after an intense summit week on Manaslu, Dhaulagiri, and Cho Oyu.
Manaslu, in particular, has seen a flood of summits. Excellent weather and good snow conditions at exactly the right time have resulted in one of the most efficient summit seasons we remember: no casualties, no serious accidents reported, two ski descents, and well over 600 summits in just eight days.
The summit area of Manaslu at dawn. photo: Sabin Bhattarai/AGA Adventures
Huge numbers of summits each day
This year didn’t feature an all-time high number of foreigners on Manaslu, but it might break the record for overall summits. Daily rates have been huge, and the weather window was exceptionally long. According to the latest update from Nepal’s Department of Tourism (September 23), they had issued a total of 374 permits for Manaslu, compared to 407 permits in 2022.
However, since the rope-fixing team opened the trail to the summit (and everyone now goes to the true summit, since Jackson Groves’ revealing 2021 drone images), group after group of climbers of climbers have followed. Imagine Nepal — a medium-sized team — has put over 40 clients on top, and the number of Nepalese guides is probably even higher.
Crowds during the summit push. Photo: Prakash Gurung
Good timing
Nature and logistics combined to provide nearly perfect timing. The rope fixers did their work in rough weather during the last days of the monsoon and summited just as an extraordinarily long weather window opened. Teams had a whole week of blue skies, little wind, and excellent, safe snow conditions.
However, the great conditions prompted everybody to go up at almost the same time, creating queues in the technical sections and the summit area, as the videos below reveal:
No deaths, many airlifts
We have had no news of any serious accident on Manaslu. However, there were many helicopter airlifts from the mountain’s higher camps, including Camp 3 at almost 7,000m. Carlos Soria and his team were among the very few (if not the only ones) this season to openly admit they needed an airlift down from Camp 3, but such operations happened almost daily, sources like Adriana Brownlee of AGA Adventures told ExplorersWeb.
“Some are definitely necessary, and it’s great that the safety net is there for people who are really in trouble,” she said. “However, I believe companies need to carefully assess their clients before letting them going on a summit push, so they know 100% they are strong enough to go up and back to Base Camp.”
A high-altitude airlift on Manaslu, photographed by Mexican guide Ricardo Lugo.
Long queues and helicopter airlifts have become the norm on commercialized mountains. So has the massive use of oxygen, even on lower 8,000m peaks such as Manaslu. Oxygen allows a wider range of clients and prevents frostbite for those waiting in long lines.
The summit week
Brownlee said that the exceptional weather was decisive in so many summits.
“It was rainy and snowy at the beginning of the season, which is pretty normal, but then came a great long weather window,” she said.
Climbers on the way to the summit of Manaslu on September 25, after the first crowded days. Photo: Sabin Bhattarai/AGA Adventures
Brownlee summited the 14×8,000’ers as a client at a young age (she is 24 now) and now runs her own company with partner with Gelje Sherpa. This was their first fully outfitted Manaslu expedition, with their own Base Camp, staff, supplies, and guides. Their small group of seven clients summited on September 25, including Adriana’s father Tony Brownlee (without supplementary oxygen).
Regarding the crowds, she explained that the key is to be patient and let the first big waves pass.
“There were many big groups in the first days, and they had to deal with long queues,” she said. But when they launched their own final push last Thursday, the fifth day of the summit window, the biggest teams had already finished.
“Our summit day turned out perfect, with great weather and without long queues,” she said.
Records
Some age records fell on Manaslu this season. Eighty-six-year-old Carlos Soria became the oldest person to summit an 8,000m peak, while Nima Chhiring Sherpa became the youngest Manaslu summiter at 16.
There were two ski descents: Bartek Ziemski of Poland completed a no-O2 ski descent of his 7th 8,000’er. Alasdair McKenzie of France also skied down, using oxygen.
Some noticeably fast expeditions, using plenty of oxygen, also took place. Lhamu Sherpa, 28, of Nepal, reached the top four days after leaving Kathmandu. That was fast, but Artem Gurshtein of Russia was even faster. He showed up in Base Camp and immediately started up and summited, completing his trip in 44 hours, according to The Tourism Times.
