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Manaslu 2003 featuring Dan Mazur
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Manaslu, at 8163 meters, is the eighth highest
peak in the world. It is located in the
west-central part of Nepal, and our team will
climb it by the original route. We will be
climbing during the "spring" or " pre-monsoon"
season, when the hazards of weather and snow and
avalanche are traditionally at their lowest. Dan
Mazur Jeff
Justman will be co-leading this expedition, his
reports are here. |
Dispatch Nine: May 12th, Dear EverestNews.com, This is
Wil Seelye writing from the Manaslu expedition: Today
dawned bright and clear, Jeff, Shane, Taylor, Arnold
(trying to me the first Dutch person to reach the
summit of Manaslu), and Bruce left camp #1 early
heading for camp #2. The Sherpas are ahead of them and
are searching for the equipment cache that is between
camp #1 and camp #2, so far no luck. Jeff indicated in
the 9am radio call that the snow is deep and the going
is slow. Bill and I (Wil) returned to basecamp where
Dan and Clay are getting ready to head to camp #1.
Bill and I will stay here a few days and head back up,
together with Galu Sherpa, I got very sick in camp #1
last night and had to come down, hoping a few days
rest will do the trick. We should find out this
afternoon the condition of camp #2, nobody has been
there since the storms moved through, we are keeping
our fingers crossed. Spirits are high and we are
having a great time, Taylor, Arnold, and Bruce sang
Johnny Cash songs last night....the Sherpas were
amused. The weather seems to have turned and the
mornings are perfect for climbing, the afternoons can
get stormy, but all in all much improved. Zoot Zoot
for now. -Wil
Thanks a ton for listening, from all of us at
SummitClimb.com
This
is Bill Stephenson, from the Manaslu expedition.
I'm
writing with some news about a terminated summit
attempt.
May
10th found me alone in camp 1 with Tenzing Sherpa
(while everyone else was in basecamp or down in the
medieval village of Sama) and perfect weather so, what
the heck, we decided to go for it. The previous two
weeks had seen daily snow, sometimes with 24 hour
accumulations of two feet, so we were expecting
difficult conditions. Luckily two Sherpas from the
expedition took off early and started breaking trail
to camp 2 at 22,000 feet, at times wallowing up to
their waists. They held the lead for the entire 3,000
feet. I think there was some pride involved in this
amazing display of strength. Tenzing later informed me
that one of the men was famous among Sherpas and had
summitted numerous 8,000 meter peaks. Thank God for
good luck. It was good to be out front moving towards
the summit although still two or three days away. It
was a stellar blue sky day with Manaslu East above me
and the Ganesh Himal across the valley. This was one
of those days you dream about when back in the States
thinking about your future expedition. Our first goal
was "cache camp" where I had buried all my high
altitude equipment in the snow and marked it with
wands. We arrived at the little plateau and surveyed
the white expanse. Where are the wands? They're
buried. Can we locate the cache without them? There is
a problem. The snow and wind have changed the
landscape and our reference points are different.
Without the gear my expedition may be over. We make
our best guess and begin digging. The old snow layer
is five feet down and the wands are only three feet
long. In the first pit we miss any sign of the cache
or our old camp. The same with the second pit. The
clouds have now moved in and it's snowing heavily.
It's getting late and there is only enough time to get
back to Camp 1. If we find the cache we can spend the
night but if we can't find it we are stuck out at
22,000 feet with no bag, tent, or down suit. We turn
tail and descend in the near whiteout.
Note
EverestNews.com is covering this expedition, along
with numerous other 8000 meter expeditions this
Spring 2003 exclusively.
 Dispatches
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