Last ascent to Camp 1

South Tyrolean climber Tamara Lunger and her Italian team partner Simone Moro have finished their expedition to the eight highest mountain on earth. They had planned to climb not only the 8167-meter high main summit of Manaslu but also in one push the 7992-meter-high Pinnacle East. “It started off as a winter expedition and is ending as a spring one only by the calendar and not because of the weather conditions. I wrote ‘ending’ because this is the final decision taken by Tamara and myself over the past few hours”, Simone wrote from base camp at 4800 meters. “We have used up all our patience, optimism,  experience and shrewdness, but for this year Manaslu remains for both of us a dream we have decided to postpone.”

Six meters of snow

Snow, snow, snow

Yesterday both had climbed up to Camp 1 at 5700 meters. “We found nothing of our camp or deposit, we calmly accepted the last signal that the mountain and events had given us. Here there are another six meters of snow, the temperature is rising and so I think in about a month’s time everything will be stable and it may be possible to ascend.” Too late for the Italian team and until then too dangerous due to the permanent risk of avalanches. For this reason, Tamara and Simone had already fled Manaslu in early March. After three weeks in the Khumbu area, both returned to base camp by helicopter.

Know when to stop

“I think that Tamara and I have really done everything to give the weather and the mountain time to cover itself in snow and have it blown away by the wind”, Simone wrote. “This waiting period however has changed nothing and we have lost lots of climbing equipment and spent hours and whole days shovelling snow.” Now it’s quite enough. But Simone and Tamara leave the mountain without frustration. “We are fully aware that during these two months we have experienced magical moments of pure fun which gave us great satisfaction”, says Tamara. “We had patience, we were motivated, but sometimes it is necessary to know when to stop.”