Queue on Manaslu

I had a déjà vu. When I saw the pictures of the queue of people who climbed up towards the summit of the 8163-meter-high Manaslu this fall, I winced again. Just like in 2012, when Ralf Dujmovits, Germany’s most successful high-altitude mountaineer, photographed the queue of Everest summit candidates on the Lhotse flank. How the pictures resemble each other! No wonder, since Manaslu has turned more and more into “Fall’s Everest” in recent years: Several hundred mountaineers pitch up their tents in the base camp, the route is secured up to the summit with fixed ropes. And if the weather is fine, it’s getting narrow at the highest point.

More than 200 summit successes, one death

Crowded summit

According to the newspaper “The Himalayan Times”, at least 120 foreign climbers and more than 100 Sherpas accompanying them reached the summit of the eighth highest mountain on earth this fall. One death was to be lamented. A 43-year-old Czech is missing. After his summit success, his trail was lost.

Soria fails for the ninth time

The other eight-thousanders offered in the catalogues of commercial operators this fall were much less crowded. While in Tibet low double-digit summit successes were reported from Cho Oyu and Shishapangma, the highest point of Dhaulagiri, located like Manaslu in western Nepal, remained untouched this fall. Two and a half weeks ago, a 24-year-old Sherpa was killed in an avalanche on this eight-thousander.

Soria has to return once again

“I have never experienced Dhaulagiri with so much snow and so dangerous”, said the Spaniard Carlos Soria on desnivel.com after he had abandoned his expedition. The 79-year-old tried his luck on the 8167-meter-high mountain for the ninth time. Next spring Carlos wants to return to Dhaulagiri once again. Apart from this mountain, only Shishapangma is still missing in his eight-thousander collection.

Too much snow on Dhaulagiri

“The tropical storm from Pakistan, which had been raging here in the Marshyangdi Valley for more than 48 hours, left a lot of snow on our route for which we had worked so hard,” wrote the German mountaineer Billi Bierling, who made her way back to Kathmandu with the team from the Swiss operator “Kobler & Partner”. Also the Spaniard Sergi Mingote, who, after his summit success on Manaslu, actually wanted to attach Dhaulagiri, packed up because of too high avalanche danger.

Manaslu (l.) and Pinnacle East (r.)

The first summit success of the fall season on the eight-thousanders is reported from the 8,163-meter-high Manaslu. Dawa Sherpa from the Nepalese expedition operator Seven Summit Treks writes on Facebook that four Sherpas of their team have fixed the ropes up to the highest point. Besides Mingma Tenjing Sherpa, Gyaljen Sherpa, Tenjing Chhombi Sherpa and Temba Bhote, the Spaniard Sergi Mingote and the Brazilian Moeses Fiamoncini reached the summit. Mingote confirmed the summit success – also on Facebook – and added: “I am fine.” Last summer, Sergi scaled Broad Peak and then K2 in Pakistan, without using bottled oxygen. After Manaslu, the 47-year-old professional climber wants to tackle the eight-thousander Dhaulagiri even this fall, also located in western Nepal.

Almost 200 foreign summit aspirants

Now that the fixed ropes are laid up to the summit, there should be lots of success stories from Manaslu in the next few days. Almost 200 foreign mountaineers have been granted permits for this season to climb the eighth highest mountain in the world. This continues the trend of recent years: Among the clients of commercial expeditions, Manaslu has turned into “Fall’s Everest” in terms of popularity.