Led by Andrey Vasiliev, the Russian team has endured even tougher conditions than expected, including a sitting bivouac in a snow cave yesterday at 7,500m. Nevertheless, they continue to advance up Manaslu’s Southwest Face and might even summit today.
Normal route to acclimatize
They used a smart strategy by acclimatizing on Manaslu’s normal route. Eventually, conditions were so temptingly good that they summited the peak without bottled oxygen during the massive summit push. (Check Sergey Kondrashkin’s summit video below).
Once acclimatized, Vasiliev, Kondrashkin, Natalia Beliankina, Kirill Eizeman, and Vitaly Shipilov trekked to the southwest side of the mountain and set up Base Camp on October 12.
New route or Messner’s line
They hoped to attempt a new route up the center of the face. However, Vasiliev admitted to ExplorersWeb that if conditions were too dangerous due to avalanche risk, they had a Plan B. They would do the 1972 Tyrolean route, opened by Reinhold Messner and rarely repeated.
Left to right, Sergey Kondrashkin, Andrey Vasiliev, Natalia Beliankina, and Kirill Eizeman. Photo: CVitaly Shipilov
Last week, the team set off from Base Camp and crossed an icefall at the base of the mountain. On October 16-17, they traversed the glacier on top of the icefall, then considered their options. On Saturday, October 18, they started up the left side of the Southwest Face toward the summit ridge, from which they would continue to the top. That is similar to the Tyrolean route, but it is not yet clear whether Vasiliev’s team is following Messner’s route exactly or opening a variation.
Ten more pitches
On Saturday night, the team set their highest camp at 7,050m, and fixed some pitches ahead. “Tomorrow we will need 10 more pitches to reach the ridge,” Vasiliev wrote over InReach.
The Tyrolean or Messner route on the Southwest Face of Manaslu avoids the center of the face and gains the ridge to the West. Photo and Topo: Animal de Ruta
The plan was, apparently, to top out yesterday, but conditions did not favor them. The climbers just had time to reach the summit ridge at last light. They improvised a bivouac and endured an uncomfortable night. “We cut out a hole in the snow and found shelter from the wind,” Vasiliev reported.
‘We keep going’
Today, the team leader sent an SMS over his tracking device that read, simply and defiantly, “We didn’t freeze through the night, so we keep going.”
They are now on the summit ridge, close to the summit. If the weather holds, they should make it soon. It is not clear which line they will choose for their descent.
