Taiwanese Grace Tseng records fastest Manaslu summit without O2
Three Nepali climbers and a Taiwanese mountaineer Tseng Ko-Erh aka Grace Tseng reach the summit of Manaslu on Tuesday morning
At a time when expedition agencies are fast winding up their expeditions, three Nepali climbers and a Taiwanese mountaineer Tseng Ko-Erh aka Grace Tseng have reached the summit of Manaslu.
Nepali 14 peaks climber Nima Gyalzen Sherpa, Phurba Thiley Sherpa and Lakpa Tamang supported Grace to summit the peak without use of oxygen.
"The team stood atop Manaslu at 7:30 am local time this morning," said Dawa Sherpa, manager of the outfitter, Dolma Outdoor Expedition.
According to Dawa, Grace wanted to do a speed ascent of Manaslu without O2. "So, they left the base camp on Monday at 6:30 pm and reached the peak at 7.30 am on Tuesday morning, which sets a record of summiting the peak in 13 hours," he said.
"With this summit, Grace Tseng has now become the fastest female to summit Manaslu without supplementary oxygen," read the agency's Facebook post.
Nima Gyalzen, the newest person to join the 14 peak club, completed climbing 14 peaks above 8,000m last month while leading Grace Tseng to eight-thousanders in Karakorum mountains. Grace also completed summiting 12 eight-thousanders last month.
However, the duo had not reached real summit of Manaslu. So, the duo wanted to rescale the peak for the record despite three deaths in three major avalanches on the mountain that left 13 other injured and destroyed 34 tents in the base camp.
Seven Summit Treks, Imagine Nepal, Elite Exped, 8K Expeditions among others called off their expedition soon after the Sunday avalanche. Furtenbach Adventure and Madison Mountaineering had called off their expeditions right after last week's avalanche that killed one Nepali guide Anup Rai and injured 13 climbers.
On the same day, legendary big mountain skier Hilaree Nelson fell off the south slope, opposite from climbing side, while skiing down from the real summit of Manaslu along with her partner Jim Morrison. Her body was recovered two days after the accident.
Manaslu autumn expedition have now almost came to an end with Nepali outfitters calling off their expeditions one after another. Nepal government had issued a record 404 climbing permits this year, more than double the number of permits from last year. This season saw a record number of avalanches, death and injuries of climbers.
