Winter K2 Update:No Manaslu Visitors

Manaslu route winter 2020/21. Courtesy of Alex Txikon

Rumors have been swirling that some of the K2 summiteers are joining forces with the Manaslu team. We now have two of the K2-Ten saying no, absolutely no.

Manaslu: No K2-Ten Joining the Manaslu Climb

Mingma G told me directly when I asked him if was joining the Manaslu effort:

Hi Alan I am not sure where you got this news. None of us are going Manaslu. We have k2 celebration schedule till 18February organized by different organization and at government level

NIms also denied it to Rock & Ice. The rumors began when Vinayak Jaya Malla, on Manaslsu attempting  to summit with his Sherpa partner, Tenji Sherpa, posted on Instagram “Though disappointed to have to change our original approach, we have decided to wait here at Base Camp and will team up with some of the Nepali legends who recently conquered K2.”

Once again, this shows, as was demonstrated with all the false accounts during Snorri’s last K2 attempt, that information must be carefully vetted. Personally I thought it was a great story line for Nirmal Purja Purja Purja to summit all of the 8000ers in winter now that he has K2. But apparently press appearances is taking priority. Don’t blame him!  🙂

Simone Moro, Alex Txikon, and Iñaki Alvarez are at Manaslu Base Camp. Tenji Sherpa and Vinayak Jaya Malla are also at Manaslu Base Camp. They are working separately but find themselves on the mountain at the same time. It appears they are taking turn trying to fix the route, especially around that giant crevasse.

Simone gave this update:

Work in progress towards Camp 2, I watch my climber partners from Base Camp. The altitude reached today is 6350 mt. Tomorrow there is the changeover and it is our turn to find and close the route to Camp 2. Inaki, Tenji, Vinayak and the photographer Abiral will go with me. We expect to be in the higher camps for 2/3 days.

Alex added:

Nothing like Eneko’s hot food and a quiet night at BC to reset my mind in the mood of going up again. The black line you see in the photo is the path we are tracing (we don’t know if anyone has already been there before) – the red line is the usual one, where at 6.100m we find the crevasse almost impossible to cross). At the highest point marked yesterday we left a deposit with 800m of rope, poles, ice screws, two ladders … let’s see if Simone, Tenzing, Vinayak and Gelum can continue to advance

Manaslu route winter 2020/21. Courtesy of Alex Txikon
Manaslu route winter 2020/21. Courtesy of Alex Txikon

 

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything

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