More summits on Manaslu fore summits, and over 30 on Dhaulagiri and soon on Kangchenjunga. And a difficult summit on one of the 2nd Seven Summits.
Manaslu – Summits
Update: Lukas contacted me to say the team did not reach the main summit.
Furtenbach Adventure‘s used the new route on reached the foresummit of Manaslu to put climbers on the top. Congrats to all for using this new route pioneered by Mingma G. Lukas Furtenbach took the opportunity to promote his “Flash” expeditions with this announcement:
Wow, that is what our Flash expeditions are about: All Manaslu Flash Team summited on the REAL summit (Classic team as well on real summit!) this morning in only 12 daysThat makes 100% success in our Classic and in our Flash team. Congratulations to @ruperthauer and @mingma.sherpa8848 and their team. They are now descending. They left their homes in Europe and the US 15 days ago and left Kathmandu 12 days ago. More infos when they are down in basecamp. This achievement from both teams is especially remarkable as they all stood on top of the REAL summit of Manaslu, after @mingma.g and his team were opening the route on september 27th. Thank you for his great work, that opened the way for others
Kobler & Partner noted summits but I assume they reached the fore-summit per this report.
I received firsthand, direct reports from some independent climbers who broke trail between C3 and C4 that they ended their efforts. Great effort to attempt sans Os, no Sherpa support, and carrying all their own gear in deep snow conditions.
Dhaulagiri – Summits
Multiple summits were reported on this 8167-meter/26,795-foot peak. Sadly, 83-year-old Carlos Soria Fontán on his 12th attempt had to turn back citing deep snow and his new knee replacement. He suggested he will continue trying!
Of course, Seven Summits treks overpowered the route with a team of amazingly strong Sherpas to fix the rope in deep snow to the summit with clients in tow. They posted that 21 people summited:
1. NIMA TENDI SHERPA2. TASHI SHERPA3. TENJING SHERPA4. CHO CHEOL HEE5. HE JING6. VIRIDIANA ALVAREZ CHAVEZ7. SOPHIE LAVAUD8. NAOKO WATANABE9. MATTEO BONALUMI10. SIRBAZ KHAN11. LAKPA DENDI SHERPA12. PURNIMA SHRESTHA13. LHAKPA TEMBA SHERPA14. DAWA SANGAY SHERPA15. PASTEMBA SHERPA16. PECHHUMBE SHERPA17. PASANG RINZEE SHERPA18. MARCO CAMANDONA19. PIETRO PICCO20. TIM BOGDANOV21. WALDEMAR DOMINIK KOWALEWSKI
1. TSENG KO-ERH (TAIWAN)2. NIMA GYALZEN SHERPA (NEPAL)3. DAKIPA SHERPA (NEPAL)
Pioneer Adventures said seven climbers from their team summited and noted that Mr. Sanu Sherpa summited his 11th time for a double summit of an 8000er.
1. Ms. Piyali ( First Indian Women to climb without Oxygen)2. Ms. Baljeet (First Indian Women to climb Dhaulagiri)3. Mr. Palkesh4. Mr. Sanu Sherpa (leader of rope fixing team)5. Ms. Pasang Lhamu Sherpa (First Nepalese Women to climb Dhaulagiri)5. Mr. Pema Tshering Sherpa6. Mr. Danuru Sherpa7. Mr. Pemba Nurbu Sherpa
Hungarian climbers are having a good run as well. Hungarian climbing journalist Laszlo Pinter from Hohatar tells me that the Hungarian Csaba Varga summited without O’s and his trip has been quite a rapid one:
– he departed from Hungary on 12th September and arrived at base camp on 17th
– went up to C1 5900 on 19th
– on 21st left for 2nd rotation, spent 2 nights at C2 6450, and tagged C3 before descending back to BC on 24th
– started his summit rotation on the 28th. C2 on 29th, C3 on 30th
– started summit push at 11 PM on 30th and reached the summit in the footsteps of the SST crew in an 11-hour slog.
He has not used bottled oxygen and did not take high-altitude porters nor guides. This was his 5th 8000er, all without O’s. Further, that two more Hungarians are starting their summit push now:
– David Klein (you might remember his name, he has 4 successful 8000er ascents including the first and only Hungarian ascent of Annapurna, plus 9 (!) tries on Everest without O’s – with a high point of 8700 m)
– and Szilard Suhajda, the first and only Hungarian to have climbed K2, without O’s in 2019
– They have been climbing together as a pair since 2017. Their long-term goal is Everest without O’s, now they would love to have success together on
Dhaulagiri (they were together on K2 but David had to turn back from C3 because of gastro problems, so Szilard continued alone and succeeded). They are a bit more conservative with strategy. They also do not use O’s and porters. They earned their respect in 2019 on K2 when they made their first rotation to C1 before the fixing sherpas, and left in their climbing rope as a fixed rope to help the fixing sherpas, later everybody used their rope.
Kangchenjunga – Progress
Over on Kangchenjunga, the Alpenglow team said they are ready for the summit push but we have no current updates os of this post.
2nd Seven Summit – Dyky-Tau
Of note is that Garrett Maddison of Maddison Mountaineering summited Dykh-Tau in Russia with his team and Russin guide support. First-hand reports from climbers on the team said it was extremely technical and very difficult. This is a great video from Tokyo Hutte in 2018.
Congratulations to all the climbers and all the world’s Hills this season.
Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything
