Manaslu's Ascents

Manaslu towering over Samagaon and the Pung-gyen Monastery photo Ian Wall

Manaslu, the Mountain of Spirit

Manaslu 8163m, also known as Kutang is the eighth highest mountain in the world and the seventh highest in Nepal.

In the 21^st century it is sometimes difficult to imagine the Manaslu district, 66 years ago. A time before many of the small hill villages of the area were developed or before the well established trails and the network of roads and bridges made access a lot easier.

Manaslu's mighty northwest face photo Ian Wall

In 1950 with the borders of Nepal open and foreigners welcome the famous British explorer H.W. Tilman arrived with the intention of leading a small expedition into the Annapurna Massif. In those days the only approach was by foot from Kathmandu, a trek of over a week. Their expedition used Manang as the base from which they pushed into the valleys and mountains of the surrounding area. It was while on an exploratory trek up the Dudh Khola to Bimtang that Tilman saw the giant peak of Manaslu, however this was not their priority. They returned to Manang and focused on Annapurna IV, eventually, after three months of climbing the expedition aborted. Looking for an alternative project Tilman along with Jimmy Roberts returned to Bimtang and Roberts went on to cross the Lakya La and then descended toward Samagaon. It was from here that he reported that there was a possible direct route to the summit of Manaslu via the great plateau ‘which we discussed with the dispassionate calm of men who have no intention of trying it’ Tilman later commented. 

The Japanese then took an interest in Manaslu and in 1952 sent a reconnaissance expedition in the post monsoon season to explore the possibilities of summating via either the north or east faces.  In 1953 the Japanese return with an expedition lead by Y. Mita, they established base camp in Samagaon, however their attempt on the east face failed at around 7750m. 

Approaching the Larka La photograph Ian Wall

In 1954 another Japanese expedition approached Manaslu, this time via the Buri Gandaki. However, once they reached Samagaon they were met by a group of hostile villagers who blamed the Japanese for upsetting their gods during the 1952 expedition that eventually resulted in the gods sending down a large avalanche that destroyed the Pung-gyen Monastery killing eighteen people. The expedition had no alternative other than to withdraw from the area and so descended to Ganesh Himal. In an attempt to appease the local community the Japanese made a large donation to rebuild the Monastery.  In 1956 the Japanese again returned to Manaslu and despite an ongoing mistrust from the locals they succeeded on the 9^th May when Gyaltsen Norbu and Toshio Imanishi, members of the team lead by Yuko Maki, also known as Aritsune Maki, summated. They were followed on the 11^th by K. Kato and M. Higeta. The Japanese did not return to Manaslu until 1971. Their route is now the established normal line of ascent.

David Snellgrove, a well known scholar spent seven months exploring mid-west and central Nepal in 1956. He visited the Manaslu area via the Buri Gandaki River, he then followed it northward eventually crossing the Larka La and descending down into the Marsyangi Valley via Bimtang.

The two summits of Manaslu seen in the early morning sun photograph Ian Wall 

Manaslu received little attention between 1954 and 1971 when the Japanese returned this time under the leadership of A. Takahashi. On the 17^th May K. Kohara and Motoki succeeded in making the third ascent and via a hard new route on the Northwest Spur. A Korean expedition also attempted the Northeast Face led by Kim Ho-Sup, tragically Kim Ki-Sup fell to his death.

Camp 3 photograph Billi Brieling

The pace of expeditions visiting Manaslu began to gain momentum and in 1972 a Tyrolean expedition led by W. Nairz placed R. Messner on the summit via a route on the South Face. His climbing partner F. Jager had decided to retreat below the summit. Messner pushed on, summated but during the descent he got lost in a storm but eventually found his tent. This he expected to be occupied by Jager, but no, it was A. Schlick and Horst Fankhauser who had arrived from Camp 3. Immediately the three climbers realized that Jager was still out on the mountain. Schlick and Fankhauser went out into the night’s storm to try to find Jager who they could hear crying for help. Sadly many hours later only Fankhauser returned Schlick and Jager died in a blizzard unable to find their way to the tents at Camp 4. On a South Korean expedition attempting the Northeast Face four Koreans including the leader Kim Ho-Sup, a Japanese climber, Kazunari Yasuhisa and ten Sherpas were killed by an avalanche on the 10^th April. A Spanish expedition lead by Jaume Garcia Orts aborted their attempt at 6100m.

In 1973 the original route was successfully repeated by a German expedition, G Schmatz, S. Hupfaurer and Sherpa Urkien Tshering. The Japanese returned in 1974 when a Women’s expedition led by Kyoko Sato attempted the East Ridge but having failed to summit they turned their attention to the original line on the north-east face where N. Nakaseko, M. Uchida, M. Mori and Sherpa Janbu summated on the 4^th May, sadly one team member died as a result of a fall on the descent between Camps 4 and 5. This was the first successful climb of an 8000m peak to be made by women. In 1976 a joint Persian-Japanese group lead by Brig Gen M Khakbiz successfully climbed the normal route.

Climbing above Camp 3 photograph Billi Brieling

By now several expeditions were aware of the potentials offered on Manaslu and the 1980s saw many of those realized. A South Korean expedition led by Li In Jung reached the summit via the original route. In 1981 a 13-man Swiss expedition reached the summit via the normal route, in the autumn the French climbed a new route as a variation to the West Face route. The Japanese were again successful on the normal route led by Y Kato. In 1983 two Yugoslavian climbers were tragically killed in an avalanche while a Korean team succeeded on the original route and a German expedition successfully followed the 1972 Tyrolean Route in the autumn season. The first winter ascent was achieved by a Polish team led by L Korniszewski over the winter of 1983-4 following the Tyrolean Route. During the spring of 1984 a great friend to the Nepal Mountaineering Association, Alex Kunaver climbed the South Face while in the autumn season the Poles succeeded on the South Ridge and Southeast Face. Maciej Berbeka and Ryszard Gajewski climbed the normal route in winter summating on the 12^th January 1984. Jerz Kukuczka, Artur Hajzer and Carlos Carsolio made the first ascent of the east summit of Manaslu before Jerz Kukuczka, Artur Hajzer went onto summit Manaslu via a new route, Alpine style and without supplementary oxygen on the 10^th November 1986, this may well have been along the east ridge, they descended the Northeast Face. On 12^th May 1989 Alan Hinkes (UK) became the first Briton to climb Manaslu

In 1993 an Austrian expedition led by Arthur Haid placed Sepp Brunner, Gerhard Flobmann, Sepp Hinding and Dr Michale Leuprecht on the summit via the normal route, they then descended to Base Camp on skis from 7000m. On December 8^th 1995 The Second Kazakhstan Himalayan Expedition summated with Anatoli Boukreev.  In 1996 Carlos and Alfredo Carsolio reached the summit and for Carlos it was his fourteenth 8000m, summit thus becoming the fourth person to achieve this objective. The first American, Charli Mace reached the top in 1997.

By now Nepal was witnessing an explosion of commercial expeditions. If for any reason there were issues around the Khumbu peaks Manaslu was considered the obvious option and often as the first choice of anyone wanting to reach an 8000m summit in preparation for one of the larger and more difficult peaks. 

Larka Peak forms the northern most point of Manaslu's Northwest Ridge photograph Ian Wall

During the spring of 2000 Manaslu was the home to four expeditions, one was on the east face, the 'Japan 2000 Expedition' led by Yoshio Maruyama, then there three expeditions on the north-east ridge; the ETB 2000 Expedition from Spain led by Felix Maria I. Iriate; the 2000 Korean Manaslu Expedition led by Han Wang Yong, and the Manaslu 2000 Expedition from Italy led by Franco Brunello. In May 2001 Serguiy Kovalov, Vadim Leontiev and Vladislav Terzyul, the Ukraine Himalayan Expedition 2001 successfully summated Manaslu via the challenging south-east face; all climbed without supplementary oxygen. The autumn of 2001 saw three members and a sherpa from the Japan Workers Alpine Federation summating the peak via the north-east face on October 9^th. The Americans returned in May 2002, when Tom Fitzsimmons, Jerome Delvin, Michael McGuffin, Dan Percival and Brian Sato and two Sherpas reached the summit on the 13^th. Piotr Pustelnik, on his twelfth 8000m summit and Krzysztof Tarasewicz climbed Manaslu on May 17^th, 2003. However, Dariusz Zaluski, Anna Czerwinska and Barbara Drousek, who started the climb after Piotr and Krzysztof, had to turn back due to strong winds and bad weather.  Sadly the Australian Sue Fear died as a result of falling into a crevasse after her successful summit bid on May 29^th 2006 while on the 5^th October 2008 Valerie Parkinson became the first British woman to climb Manaslu.

Descending towards Camp 3 photograph Billi Brieling

In 2011 on the 4^th October Billi Bierling became the first German woman, and up to 2016, the only German woman to have climbed Manaslu. Arjun Vaipa ia young Indian mountaineer summated Manaslu on the 5^th October 2011 and thus became the youngest climber to have summated at the age of 18years. Eleven climbers were killed in an avalanche on September 23^rd 2012. On September 25^th 2014 a Polish ski-mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel set a record time climbing from base camp to the summit in 14 hours 5 minutes, he also set a record time for the round journey base-peak-base of 21 hours 14 minutes.

In 2015 just after the April 25^th earthquake Pavel Pavel Bem from the Czech Republic and Daniel De Gabai from France summated Manaslu on the 8^th May.

Manaslu's summit photograph Billi Brieling

Nepalese climbers have reached the summit of Makalu on 403 separate occasions.

Since the ascent of Manaslu by the Ukrainian expedition in 2001 when Sergi Kovalev, Vadim Leontiev and Vladislav Terzyul reached the summit via the Southeast Face all other 949 ascents have been via the Northeast Face original route and of these 949 ascents 377 have been by Nepalese mountaineers.

Mansalu is notorious for accumulating snow pack setting off avalanches and wind slab avalanches, unfortunately these conditions catch many mountaineers out resulting in the mountain gaining the reputation of being one of the most dangerous to climb, second only behind Annapurna in Nepal.

Reference

Manaslu; K Reynolds, Cicerone Press, 2000

All 14 Eight-Thousanders; R Messner, Crowood Press, 1988

Internet research 2016