Nicholas Rice: Manaslu Dispatch

2009 Solo Manaslu Expedition

Dispatch Forty-three: May 5th, 2009

Day Forty-three: Forecast Hopeful; Summit Window in Sight

Today, after waking up early to a beautiful morning, the Russians came to my tent with good news about the weather. There was a window forecast to open up around the 10^th, as we had expected. I hope in the coming days that we will receive a more detailed forecast with regard to the wind speeds on the summit. For the moment, we plan on remaining in bas camp till the weather stabilizes and then head directly to Camp II, move our Camp III 200m higher and summit from there. We probably won’t establish a Camp IV on the ridge as the camp is extremely icy and subject to high winds. After lunch, we sharpened our ice tools and crampons then headed down to the Andalucian camp for a visit. They intend to start up for the summit tomorrow (even though the weather is horrible right now; a snow storm with lightning, and the route may be erased by tomorrow morning if it continues) and will hopefully summit on the ninth. After a brief chat, we headed back to our base camp, made dinner, and went to bed.

Photos: Left: Base Camp; Right: Camp II in Stormy Weather