Nicholas Rice: Manaslu Dispatch

2009 Solo Manaslu Expedition

Dispatch Thirty-five: April 27th, 2009

Day Thirty-five: Climb from Camp II to Camp III

Today, I awoke in Camp II to fresh snow and a windy morning. The track from Camp II to III had been erased and neither the Koreans nor I fancied breaking trail on our summit bid. We waited for the sun to warm the Camp and then headed up. I was torn whether to bring my Camp II tent up to Camp III in case my Camp III tent had been blown away, but in the end, decided that it would probably still be there, perhaps damaged from the heavy snow and high winds. When I arrived, the tent was there, but two of the three poles had been broken. One had simply split at the seam, so I splinted it, however the other was in worse shape. The elastic band that held the pole together had broken (I had replacement elastic in my Camp II tent but had neglected to bring it up). I carefully placed the pole together, splinted the broken part, and hoped the tension placed on the pole by the tent would be enough to hold it together in the high winds. After this was finished, I figured it was too late to move my Camp III higher like I had planned, so I settled in for the night. Shortly thereafter, Lina and her team arrived (they had left from Camp I this morning so were understandable tired). I went to sleep disappointed that my plans to go for the summit together with the Koreans from Camp III had been thwarted by the broken tent.