We had three different weather forecast predicting good weather for 29-30-1st and even further in October when we left Base Camp.\u00a0 The weather forecast was a local forecast from Tribuvan Int. Airport, Gary Kabler from Austria and Meteo Test Switserland. T hey all where pretty similar except slight variations in wind speeds<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In stark contrast to the views of Himex, AJ and AC, Costner told me when asked if\u00a0avalanche and crevasse conditions were too dangerous to go for a summit push:<\/p>\n
No! I never seen such good conditions on Manaslu!\u00a0 The snow was very consolidated and hard, probably from the strong winds and sunny weather the previous days.\u00a0 After the 25th the weather cleared, but the wind stayed strong until the 28th afternoon.<\/p>\n
There where rumors off a big uncrossable crevasse, so we decided to carry up two ladder also. When our fixing group arrived at the spot where the crevasse should have been there was nothing major to be found and just left the ladder in the snow.<\/p>\n
Our first summit group summited on the 30th; they broke trail and fixed 300m off rope at the very end towards the summit. I went up early the next day, summited at 5 am and fixed an other 150m of rope on my descent. By that time other groups where just starting to climb the more angled slopes, just after the plateau.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
80 Summits<\/h3>\n
On September 31st<\/sup> and October 1st<\/sup>\u00a0around 80 climbers summited Manaslu.\u00a0\u00a0One of those was Daniel Trevena who was on the SummitClimb permit after that team switched from Cho Oyu. Dan Mazur, SummitClimb’s owner, was guiding a few members and had several more on a basic permit which provided basecamp meals and sleeping tents according to their website. He had teamed with Seven Summits Treks to provide the basic services.<\/p>\nTrevena described preparing to leave for his summit bid this way:<\/p>\n
Weather was super volatile and unpredictable. Lots of wind, lots of snow. Most of the major parties pulled out by the end of September citing bad weather – Himex, AC, Altitude Junkies, Kobler, etc\u2026 However our base camp was the cheap nepali one (seven summits), and we were all prepared to stay… So the final climb was quite opportunistic. I went up in bad weather so that I could position myself for a summit window if it came. Spent a few nights holding the walls up on my little BD firstlight tent, as the wind and snow came through C2-3. However this was a good thing. I was safe – had enough warm gear, food and fuel, and knew the front would be blowing all the recent fresh snow off the top, reducing the avalanche risk up high, and hopefully allowing someone to fix the route.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As they approached the summit, they improvised according to Trevena:<\/p>\n
So we all left C4 together about 2am on the 30th\u2026 The weather was perfect\u2026 There was not enough rope to fix the route, so most of it was solo\u2019ed. Those that had personal sherpa roped up with them. The few steep pitches were fixed by the sherpa, and then the rope either cut or pulled up to use again higher up. Two sherpa fixed the final (technical) pitch to the summit and the Ecuadorian and I were first to follow on top. It was unreal, and I felt great, but I didn\u2019t stay long, as I needed to get down while I was feeling strong. Man I\u2019m glad I did. By the time I got back to C4 I was shattered – it was super hot and I was quite tired and dehydrated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
One Death and One Rescue<\/h3>\n
Zoltan Benedek was on the SummitClimb permit and died after making the summit. Another SummitClimb member, Jean-Luc Br\u00e9mond had to be rescued from Camp 3 by helicopter, the highest ever on Manaslu. Both were climbing\u00a0independently on October 1, 2015.<\/p>\n
Trevena said\u00a0he saw Austrian Zoltan Benedek heading higher:<\/p>\n
When I had passed them on my way down between C3-4 they both looked like shit. Coughing blood. I stopped and talked for about 15min and told them again they should descend. They were both continuing up, so I gave them some medications for HACE\/HAPE and told them what to do, then continued my descent. So you can imagine the next day when we\u2019d heard not much from them we were pretty worried. Eventually someone radioed that they\u2019d made the summit quite late that day, and were at C4 (7500m).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
According to Costner, Benedek was strong and doing well but problems developed as he reached High Camp:<\/p>\n
He was basically in the same Base Camp, although in a different dining tent. Also I talked with him in Camp 3 & 4 and when I was coming down from the summit.<\/p>\n
Zoltan was climbing together with Jean Luc another base camp only member from Dan Mazur’s team. They decided to go up a little earlier as us, because in the earlier weather forecast there was a small chance the weather would improve on the 28th and give them a chance to climb to C4 on that day. Later this didn’t happen and they hold off in C2 already and spend an extra night there.<\/p>\n
Zoltan was heaving a bad cough in C3 and he came to me to ask for some medicine. I gave him some cough medicine and told him to take it easy. I also told him there is still enough time to go down and try after a few days again, but he said he was fine and wanted to go to C4 the next day. The next day he and Jean – luc arrived in C4 in a good time and carrying all their own gear. I talked with him in C4 a bit, but he seemed ok. Also I talked with him again around 7am in the morning on his summit push when I came down from the summit. Besides him having a bad cold I didnt notice anything strange with him and he summited in about 2:45hr from C4 without O2!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I reached out to Dan Mazur to understand what happened but Mazur did not respond.\u00a0Costner continued with his observations:<\/p>\n
One of SummitClimb’s Sherpa’s urged him to go down and offered him help to carry his stuff down. Zoltan was very clear about this: he didn’t want any help or support!\u00a0 Also he offered him emergency oxygen for the night, but that was also refused by Zoltan and he send the Sherpa away<\/p>\n
Later in the morning Jean-Luc was helped by the Amical and Czech team; the Amical team gave him oxygen & Dex (Czech didnt have any), he was also in a bad state.\u00a0 By that time Zoltan was already dead……….we send a rescue team up for Jean-Luc, they carried him down to C3 where he was picked up by Helicopter. Two days later another rescue team carried down Zoltans body and also flew him (Jean-Luc) down by Heli from C3.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Bulgarian climber, Boyan Petrov gave me this report of his observations of both Benedek and Bremond.<\/p>\n
Zoltan was my closest tent neighbor in the Manaslu BC. He seemed quite athletic and experienced in all our talks, which we had.\u00a0I met him for the last time on 30.09. at about 300m from C4. He looks very tired but still moving.<\/p>\n
On 1.10 he climbed Manaslu without O2 and sherpas (I am not sure about this!) and went back to C4 late that day together with the french Jean-Luc Br\u00e9mond. Both were very exhausted from the climb.<\/p>\n
At night, Zoltan died in his sleep (most probably due to pulmonary edema+ exhaustion) and Jean Luc woke up in a very bad condition. The sherpas who were nearby put him on oxygen in the morning of 2.10. Then they called BC and Dawa Sherpa from the Seven Summit’s team initiated a heli evacuation action.
\nMeanwhile, the sherpas assisted Jean-Luc and slowly brought him down to C3 at 6900m. A helicopter came in the early afternoon and successfully took him down to Kathmandu. As far as I understood, he lost only several tips of his fingers.<\/p>\n
The body of Zoltan was taken down to C3 on 3.10 and later that day was evacuated to Kathmandu.<\/p>\n
The sherpas told us that Zoltan had bloody sputum already in C3 in the morning before starting for C4 on 30.09. On the summit push, both with the french, they were very very slow.<\/p>\n
It is a sad story, both climbers were on the brink of dying but nevertheless decided to push for the summit and only Jean-Luc was lucky to survive afterwards.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Lessons<\/h3>\n
I think there are multiple takeaways from this year’s Manaslu season. These are my opinions and are intended not to\u00a0make any judgment on any individual or organization.<\/p>\n
Large guide services are more conservative by design.<\/strong><\/p>\nAs we have seen on Everest and now Manaslu, the long time experienced operators tend to be more conservative than the\u00a0young new companies. A lot of this is related to liability. Many members have sued operators for not getting them to the summit.<\/p>\n
The lower price guides based in Nepal or other countries where the litigation laws are not as established, seem not to factor into their business model i.e. pricing, lawsuits, settlement or refunds to maintain satisfied members. This allows for lower prices to their members.<\/p>\n
There also\u00a0comes an expectation of summiting when you climb with a service that has a history\u00a0of summiting and charges more than the lower costs outfits. SummitClimb\u00a0charges $7,950 for their basic services while Himex asks $22,000.<\/p>\n
But with this expectation and money, comes a different level of service including personal Sherpas, extra gear, better food, more oxygen – in others words the climber is fully supported and all they have\u00a0to is climb. That in and of itself creates an expectation.<\/p>\n
Independent climbers take more risks but still need support<\/strong><\/p>\nDaniel Trevena captured the thrill of climbing without the 1 – 1 Sherpa support or with a Western Guide like this:<\/p>\n
I found myself at Camp 4 on the 29th with a rag-tag mix of other opportunists. There were a few fixing sherpa, 4 members who had personal sherpa, and another 3 of us who were climbing totally independently. One was a guide from Peru. The other an Ecuadorian who is halfway through his 14×8000 project. Both smart climbers and I learned a lot. The spirit at C4 was unreal, and the setting absolutely spectacular. It was everything I wanted about himalayan climbing. There was no \u201cteams\u201d, no ego, no sherpa\/guide\/member status, just a bunch of 15 guys who all wanted the summit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
To be clear, Dan still\u00a0used the fixed ropes set up by other\u00a0team’s Sherpas and ate meals prepared for him at base camp. He carried all his own gear, didn’t use\u00a0supplemental oxygen and performed\u00a0well. He is right to be proud of his accomplishment.<\/p>\n
Independent, does not mean refusing help<\/strong><\/p>\nIt appears from first hand reports that as\u00a0Zoltan Benedek got into health trouble, he refused aid due to his preference to climb unassisted. This decision may have cost him his life. This is not uncommon on\u00a0the high mountains. The famous case of David Sharp’s\u00a0death on Everest in 2006 was another where a\u00a0climber was independent, just on a permit with no supplemental oxygen and no Sherpa support. He was incapacitated by the time aid was available\u00a0to him.<\/p>\n
Personal responsibility and experience is key when independent<\/p>\n
Perhaps the greatest lesson in all these cases is that each climber, whether independent or fully supported must learn the signs of altitude related sickness – AMS, HAPE, HACE. They must carry the appropriate drugs and know how to use them. And most importantly, they must be willing to turn themselves back when they begin to have problems or are observed by others\u00a0that they are in trouble.<\/p>\n
Operators still have a responsibility even\u00a0if their members didn’t pay for full service<\/strong><\/p>\nI have\u00a0noticed a trend on the 8000 meter mountains of low cost operators dominating the market. They offer a low price and appeal to the independent nature of climbers with the offer of no support, climb on your own and freedom to climb at your own pace. This is fine for the most experienced climbers who truly just need logistics assistance\u00a0getting on a permit and to base camp. But there are few people who meet this high bar of experience and judgment.<\/p>\n
Operators who take your money, still have a role when you get in trouble. In this case Sherpas from multiple teams apparently offered assistance to Benedek and helped to arrange the evacuation of Jean Luc. But the question is why did he get in trouble in the first place?<\/p>\n
Arnold Coster made this introspective comment:<\/p>\n
Personally I have mixed feeling about this accident; mainly as an outfitter not as a climber.\u00a0 As an outfitter should we allow members to climb unsupported on the mountain?\u00a0 Zoltan made a very clear decision from the beginning to climb unsupported and had plenty off experience to do that; as a climber I totally understand his decision.<\/p>\n
Then as an Outfitter it is hard to help these members when they get in trouble and in Zoltans case even refuse any kind off help. Should we force this people down and even use violence to do this? That is what the Sherpa had to do to get Zoltan to down……………<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Second Thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\nAs for\u00a0those who went home early\u00a0only to watch others make it, Himex climber, Greg Paul <\/a>summed up his feelings well:<\/p>\nI was satisfied that we gave it our shot and made the correct decision given the observations and information we had at the time. Good leadership and firm decision making is key to a long mountaineering career. Also, if you are a sore loser mountaineering is probably not for you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My condolences to Zoltan’s family and friends.<\/p>\n
Climb On!
\nAlan
\nMemories are Everything<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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