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We
enlarged our BC, which is situated on the snow, and
anchor all tents to make them storm proof. To get
water (we have no water stream here), we build a
snow-melting installation. Our team, 16 climbers, 3
high altitude porters and 4 cooks, need 180-250
liter every day. We put snow all over a 6x8 meter
dark blue plastic cover and from 9 AM we get a
constant stream of water in our water container. The
record on the day with the most sunshine was 360
liters. We save a lot of kerosene by not using
stoves to melt snow.
On
April 21st we could start moving, we ascended to
Camp 1 (5600 m). Half of the group went with Sepp on
skies, and the "walkers" went with me.
Everyone carried a part of his personal gear while
the Sherpas and Qudrat carried tents and
way-markers. The route to Camp 1, from a technical
point of view the easiest part of the entire route,
is a very nice hike with beautiful scenery and we
had a clear morning sky. You ascend gradually
with the Manaslu Northeast face on your left side.
Only the last 100 meter are a little more steep.
Camp
1 (5600 m) is situated on a peninsula out of the
Northeast face glacier, which has many crevasses and
seracs. After our second ascend on the afternoon of
April 23rd. Camp 1 had 10 tents and a toilet. In
contradict to BC where the sky turned gray every
afternoon we were here above the clouds the entire
afternoon. Everything went well this afternoon and
the coming night. We planned to descend to BC after
this night for acclimatization. But the most of us
felt so good they wanted to ascend to Camp 2
together with the 3 porters. Gianni and Dieter,
leading most of the time, and Sepp, Petra, Hannes
and I went up. Most of the others climbed just a few
hundred meters above Camp 1 to improve the
acclimatization. It was a long route and, though we
were not sure to find a good site for Camp 2, we
enjoyed the beautiful weather. We ascended 1000
meters to find a good campsite just near a 40 meter
wide crevasse. At 6600 meters we put up a tent, on
the spot of the already successful Norwegians, and
left the other carried gear in it.
It
was a beautiful day, far above us clouds in a clear
sky. We were, together, looking for a safe campsite
on this huge mountain face We are to early to high
and we have to take more time from now. It is 11
days after we left Katmandu and now we are sitting
together and talking for two hours on 6600 meters.
But when the snow started to become to soft we
descended to Camp 1 to spend another night.
While writing this report on April 24th, another 3
porters ascended with the last tents for Camp 2.
Than we have everything in Camp 2 to spend the night
for acclimatization. However we will stay a couple
of days in BC to rest. We are ahead of our
acclimatization schedule so we should take a break.
Last
week, on April 21st, at 9.30 AM, the first climbers
reached the summit of Manaslu: two
Sherpas, Dawa Tsering and Chilu Pemba and two
Norwegian brothers Sven and Jon Gangdal [and Andrew
Lock]. Congratulations !! We will benefit from
their recommendations and experiences. They gave us
also their fixed ropes in exchange for a large
donation for the construction of a school building
in Samagaon, near the basis of Manaslu. We will
do.
Best
regards from Manaslu,
The entire expedition team and Ralf Dujmovits
Alle
Bilder © AMICAL alpin - © Christine Kopp
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