Monday, September 26, 2011

Manaslu - Climbing Strategy


MANASLU EXPEDITION - CLIMBING STRATEGY


I will climb Manaslu with no Guide, Porter, or Sherpa. I will be self-sufficient, meaning that I will need to carry up to the mountain all my belongs: Tent, Gas, Food, Personal Gear ...
I have estimate that my bag pack should weight ~28kg.

Instead of carrying 28kg in once, I will do carry. Or in other words, I will carry about 15kg of gear up to half way between each camp. Then I will depsosit the gear on the snow and attached it to a secure snow picket that I will place.

It is a totally different technic that my previous climb which will allow me to 1/ carry less in once, 2/ insure a good acclimatization as I will go high during the day and sleep low at night.


Altitude Chart





4 comments:

  1. Hi Sophie,

    Be careful up there on your own. Tons of fresh snow and high avalanche danger presently.

    From Himex's 26/9/2011 newsletter: "On Sunday morning, the Camp II team started their descent back to base. “It is pretty precarious up here as it must have dumped about 70 to 80cm of fresh snow,” Adrian said over the radio. The most difficult section of the descent was the so-called Hourglass, which is a steep section that covers about 200 vertical metres between Camp I and Camp II."

    Best wishes and be safe,
    Ken

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  2. Hi Sophie,

    Right now, it looks like the best summit window for Manaslu will be October 4th or 5th, leaving base camp on September 30th or October 1st. Hopefully, you can use Himex's fixed ropes before their sherpas clear them after their summit attempt.

    The following is an excerpt from Himex's 29/9/2011 dispatch. Take care and be safe up there, Ken.

    Himex Summit Attempt: The first group, which was the second group last time, will be leaving base camp for their summit attempt on Friday. “We are switching the groups around as last time’s second group has been at base camp for one day longer, which means they are more rested than the fist group,” Russell explained his strategy. The second group, which will be our ‘Walking with the Wounded’ team, including Ken the cameraman and Sergey the skier, will be following on Saturday to reach the summit on 5th October.

    Of course, we have to see what the route is like and hope that the Weather Gods will finally be good to us and let us reach the summit in fine and calm weather. But before that the Sherpas need to look at the route and make sure that it is safe for our team.

    The following climbers will leave base camp on 30 September to attempt to reach the summit on 4th October:

    Wallace Chambers
    David Craven
    Makoto Fujikawa
    Pierre Godof
    Herbert Hellmuth
    Kristine Kravcova
    Noboru Kudo
    Rumiko Saito
    Yoshiki Sakai
    Voldemars Spruzs
    Billi Bierling
    Ryuseki Hiraoka
    David McKinley
    Jaime Avila

    The following climbers will leave base camp on 1st October to attempt to reach the summit on 5th October:

    Francis Atkinson
    Christopher Gwilt
    Andrew Hawkins
    Martin Hewitt
    Karl Hinett
    Manunora Rai
    Jaco Van Gass
    David Wiseman
    Henry Chaplin
    Ken Sauls
    Sergey Baranov
    Brian Warren
    Adrian Ballinger

    We will keep you posted on how the members are doing on their individual summit days and will send an update once they have reached the safety of one of the high camps.

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  3. WOW Sophie, I had no idea you were going solo! .. you brave woman!!.. please be careful, our thoughts are with you always. Safe trip on the way down. I wish someone could keep us posted though ...
    All the best, you go girl!
    hugs
    Vanessa

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  4. Sophie,

    Wish we knew how you are doing up there. I hope all is going to plan with a summit for you in the next few days.

    Take care, be safe and may the mountain gods be with you!

    Ken

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