Here’s another epic climb in what’s turning out to be an epic season in Nepal. The Russian team led by Andrey Vasiliev has reached the summit of Manaslu today at 1 pm local time after an exhausting alpine-style climb up the Southwest Face.
The climb took five days of struggle up a new route in cold temperatures and at times fierce winds.
Single summit push
Vasiliev, together with Sergey Kondrashkin, Natalia Belyankina, Kirill Eizeman, and Vitaly Shipilov, reached the southwest side of Manaslu last week. They were already acclimatized, having summited via the normal route days earlier. So, they started up right away, over much wilder and more difficult terrain, with no support, ropes, or broken trails. They were completely alone on the mountain.
Andrey Vasiliev, at left, and his team in a temple during the approach trek to Manaslu. Photo: Andrey Vasiliev
Major feat
There is only one route on the Southwest Face of Manaslu, opened by Reinhold Messner in 1972, in a dramatic no-oxygen ascent that took the life of his climbing partner, Franz Jaeger. It follows a line on the left side of the face and then joins the peak’s long summit ridge to the highest point. Several expeditions have repeated Messner’s route (also known as the Tyrolean route) over the years, but no one has ever attempted a direct route up the center of the face.
That was Vasiliev’s original plan, but dangerous conditions forced the climbers to find an alternative on the left side, where Messner’s route is located. However, according to the brief descriptions sent over InReach by the expedition leader, they have opened a new route to the summit ridge, where their route joins the Messner/Tyrolean line.
The Tyrolean or Messner route avoids the center of the face and gains the ridge to the west. Photo and topo: Animal de Ruta
Every inch a struggle
On October 17, the team reached 6,900m and checked their chosen route, which looked in good condition. On October 20, they made it to 7,500m and spent the night in a snow cave. The following morning, as usual, they checked themselves for frostbite and, when all was well, they carried on. That day, October 21, they climbed just 200 vertical meters. However, the summit was by then too close to give up, as Vasiliev texted to Mountain.ru:
“We reached the ridge at 7,700m and traversed some difficult terrain.
From there, we hiked the classic route.
Tomorrow, we’ll summit.”
Vasiliev’s tracker on October 21, as he and his team reached the summit ridge of Manaslu. Map shared by Mountain.ru
Tough descent ahead
Mountain.ru has shared Vasiliev’s latest InReach message: “We went to the top and just returned to the tent. Tough. Wind is crazy up there.”
We’ll hear more details once they return safely to Base Camp. They will need to hurry, as the winds are increasing throughout this week:
Forecast for Manaslu, showing gale-force winds from the west and southwest for the next seven days. Chart by Meteoexploration.com
