Norwegian climber Kristin Harila and her Nepali climbing companions Pasdawa and Dawa Ongju Sherpa stood atop the real summit of Manaslu (8,163m) on Thursday, said her outfitter 8K Expeditions.
“They summited the real peak at 2.36pm breaking the deep snow trail, effectively reopening the route to the summit,” said Pemba Sherpa, one of the founders of her outfitter 8K Expedition.
Kristin wants to beat the record of Nirmal Purja aka Nimsdai, who summited all 14 peaks in six months. This is Kristin and her companions’ 12th peak in the past 148 days.
Now, the real challenge is to obtain climbing permits for Cho Oyu and Shishapangma, both of which are climbed from Tibet.
“We have requested the Chinese government for climbing permits. However, we have not received response from them,” said Pemba.
If they succeed, Kristin along with her companions Pasdawa and Dawa Ongju Sherpa will set world record of summitting the 14 peaks in the shortest time breaking Nimsdai’s record.
The weather in Manaslu has not been clear and many climbers have return to the base camp from camp 3. About seven hundred people are waiting at the base camp for weather to improve.
Double 14 peaks record holder Sanu Sherpa’s team had stood atop the true summit of Manaslu before Kristin’s team. Sanu along with Mingma Thinduk Sherpa and their Chinese client Hu Tao summited just a few minutes ahead of Kristin.
“They reached the summit at 2.50pm local time,” said Nivesh Karki, general manager of their outfitter Pioneer Adventure.
Sanu is the world’s first climber to scale all 14 peaks above 8,000 meters twice. He achieved the feat in 16 years of his mountaineering career this summer.
Sanu has already climbed Manaslu three times (2010, 2011, 2016). “I did not know about the real summit before. So, I am going to make an attempt to reach the real summit this time,” he had told Everest Chronicle before heading to the peak.
Manaslu has been in the news this season as there has been a heavy discussion about its true summit. Last year, Mingma Gyalje Sherpa aka Mingma G of Imagine Nepal Treks led a team to the true summit of Manaslu, some 7 meters away from what was till then considered at its summit, which brought much discussion about the mountain’s true versus fore summit.
For years, what is now considered the foresummit, was considered as the summit of Manaslu with a Nepali flag and Tibetan Prayer flags marking it. The fixed rope also ended at this point.
This year, all climbers are vying to climb the true summit and the rope has also been fixed until the true summit. Himalayan database, the de facto authority on mountaineering ascents in the Himalayas, have stated that it will no longer recognize the older summit or “foresummit” as a true ascent of the mountain. They also decided that previous ascent to the fore-summit of the mountain would also still be considered as true summits.
Nepal Government, meanwhile has been mulling over this issue, and is likely to release an official statement regarding Manaslu’s true summit soon.
