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After
having spent a day and a half getting everything
ready in Kathmandu and attending the expedition
briefing at the Ministry of Tourism, we finally left
on April 13. After a 40-minute-flight we arrived in
Samagaon (3,550 m) in the upper Nubri valley.
As
we did not get the chance to acclimatize beforehand
we spent four nights in Nubri. We went on day trips
to nearby hills, visited the people of Samagaon and
were invited by one of the monks of the monastery
Lama Gyamtso to join a Buddhist ceremony.
On
April 15, Sepp, two of our high-altitude porters and
I climbed up to base camp (4,750 m) for the first
time. We hit the first snow at 4,350 meters and were
happy to see that a Norwegian team that had been on
the mountain for a fortnight had already broken
trail. Base camp lies in a well-protected moraine at
4,750 m and it seemed to be big enough for our
expedition group. After we made sure that we had
chosen the right spot to set up base camp, we had
some tea with the Norwegians and went back down
again.
Even
though I had planned for everybody to climb up to
base camp on April 16, I thought it might be better
for the team to acclimatize another day. So, only
Sepp, Joaquin, 75 porters and myself climbed up to
base camp that day. We pitched our kitchen tent,
storage tent and our mess tent. It was hard work,
but the weather was beautiful and we were all in a
good mood.
The
next day the rest of the team arrived at base camp
together with another 45 porters. After the porter
were paid and left, we finished setting up base
camp. Fortunately we made good progress and we were
safe and sound during the night, when it dumped
about 30 cm of snow. The next morning after
breakfast we had a surprise visit. One of the monks
from Samagaon left the village at 3am and arrived at
base camp at 8am in order to celebrate the Puja with
the Sherpas.
He
blessed our food and drink and we toasted to a
successful expedition. Now the mountaineering part
of the expedition can start. We
will probably stay at base camp for the next few
days in order to acclimatize fully and will then
climb up to Camp I.
You
will find more information in our next newsletter.
Greetings
from Manaslu
from
the expedition team and Ralf Dujmovits
Alle
Bilder © AMICAL alpin - © Christine Kopp
 Dispatches
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