Manaslu Expedition

You land at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu (1,400 m), where our representative meets you in the arrivals hall and drives you to your hotel in Thamel.

Rest is the only item on today's schedule. Unpack and lay out your equipment tonight — it is inspected tomorrow, and Kathmandu is the last place anything can be replaced.

Your leader calls at the hotel in the evening to introduce themselves and set tomorrow's plan. Overnight in Kathmandu.

A full working day. Your leader takes the forty-seven day plan apart stage by stage — the approach up the Budhi Gandaki, base camp, the acclimatisation, the summit and the reserve days — and then goes through the route itself.

The equipment inspection covers boots, crampons, harness, ascender, belay device, screwgates and down clothing, item by item. Anything missing or unsuitable is bought or hired here today.

Our office lodges the Manaslu Restricted Area Permit and the conservation permits, which require your passport, photographs and a licensed guide named on the paperwork. Overnight in Kathmandu.

The formal side of an expedition. The team attends the briefing at the Department of Tourism with the liaison officer, where the royalty permit is issued, the regulations are read out and the waste-management deposit is registered.

Meanwhile the expedition cargo is weighed, sealed into barrels and dispatched to the road head, where porters and pack animals take it up the gorge.

The afternoon is free, and it is the last one with hot water and restaurants for six weeks. Overnight in Kathmandu.

West out of the Kathmandu valley on the Prithvi Highway, then north at Dhading Besi onto a rough hill road that follows the Budhi Gandaki upstream.

The tarmac gives out at Arughat and the last three hours are a jeep road cut into the gorge wall — slow, dusty and spectacular, with the river a long way below.

Machha Khola (930 m) is a strip of lodges beside the river at the road head. It is subtropical, hot and green, and about as far from an 8,000 m peak as Nepal gets. Around 8 to 9 hours. Overnight at Machha Khola.

The walking starts. The trail follows the Budhi Gandaki north through a deepening gorge, crossing and re-crossing the river on suspension bridges and traversing sections cut into the cliff.

It is warm, humid work through rice terraces, millet and bamboo, past the hot springs at Tatopani and the village of Dobhan.

Jagat (1,340 m) is a compact village of stone-paved streets and slate roofs, and the checkpoint where the Manaslu Restricted Area begins — permits are checked here and a licensed guide is required from this point. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Jagat.

North up the gorge, which narrows sharply above Jagat and stays narrow. The trail climbs and drops repeatedly on staircases cut into the rock, crossing the river on high bridges.

Somewhere around Philim the country begins to change: the rice gives out, pine appears, and the first mani walls and chortens stand beside the trail.

Deng (1,860 m) is a handful of houses on a shelf above the river, and the first village that feels Tibetan rather than Nepali hill country. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Deng.

Steadily up the gorge through pine and fir, past mani walls with carved stones stacked by generations of villagers, and across the river several more times.

The gorge finally opens above Ghap, and the walking gets easier as the valley widens into the Nubri.

Namrung (2,630 m) sits behind a stone gateway — a genuine entrance arch to the upper valley — and is the first village of the Nubri proper. The houses are Tibetan, the language is Tibetan, and Manaslu appears ahead for the first time. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Namrung.

Up through barley fields and pine forest to Lihi and Sho, villages of flat-roofed stone houses with prayer flags on every roof and yaks in the lanes.

The valley opens further and the mountains come out: Manaslu ahead, Ganesh Himal behind, and the Naike and Larkya peaks beginning to show.

Lho (3,180 m) is one of the finest village positions in Nepal. The Ribung Gompa stands on a bluff above it looking straight up the valley at the north face of Manaslu, and the sunset from its courtyard is the reason most people remember the place. Around 4 to 5 hours. Overnight at Lho.

A short day with the mountain in front of you the whole way. The trail climbs through Shyala, a village in a bowl with Manaslu, Ngadi Chuli and Himal Chuli around it, and then contours to Samagaon.

Samagaon (3,530 m) is the largest village in the Nubri — several hundred flat-roofed stone houses, a big gompa, potato fields and a great many yaks. The people here are Tibetan by origin and the border is a day's walk north.

It is also the base for everything above: Manaslu Base Camp, Birendra Tal and the Pungyen Gompa are all within a day. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Samagaon.

Climb high, sleep low. The morning walk goes up to the Pungyen Gompa (4,000 m) on a shelf east of the village, a steep climb of an hour and a half with a full view of Manaslu's glaciers.

The gompa is named for the mountain's Tibetan protector deity and was destroyed twice — most famously after the 1953 Japanese expedition, when villagers blamed the climbers for an avalanche that killed eighteen people and rebuilt it a third time.

The alternative is Birendra Tal, the glacial lake below the base camp trail, which is gentler and equally worth the walk. Back in Samagaon for the afternoon. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Samagaon.

North-west out of Samagaon past Birendra Tal, the milky glacial lake below the mountain, and then up the moraine on a steep switchbacked trail.

It is a hard day — 1,270 m with a personal load — and the last two hours cross boulder ground with the glacier on your right and the north-east face filling the sky ahead.

Manaslu Base Camp (4,800 m) is established today on the moraine shelf: individual tents, a heated dining tent, kitchen, storage, communications, toilet and shower tents. Home for the next five weeks. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at base camp.

A day of low effort and a great deal of quiet organisation. Sleeping tents are set up properly, the mess and kitchen routine established, and the charging, water, toilet and radio arrangements explained.

Your leader runs the oxygen systems check at altitude — mask, regulator and hose fitted to your own face and hood, with flow rates and the changeover drill walked through.

The afternoon is spent walking gently on the moraine. After a week of walking up from the road head, two easy days here are what the body needs before anything begins. Overnight at base camp.

The puja. A lama comes up from Samagaon, a stone chorten is built, juniper is burned, and every piece of climbing equipment on the expedition — axes, crampons, harnesses, boots, oxygen masks — is stacked at the altar to be blessed.

On this mountain the ceremony carries particular weight. The Pungyen Gompa below in Samagaon was destroyed by villagers after the 1953 Japanese expedition, when an avalanche killed eighteen people and the climbers were blamed for offending the mountain's protector deity. The relationship between expeditions and the Nubri has been carefully tended ever since.

Prayer flags go up across the camp, rice is thrown, and it finishes with chang. Overnight at base camp.

A full working day on the glacier below camp. Every climber works through roped team travel with correct spacing, crevasse rescue with a hauling system, ladder crossings, jumaring on fixed line with a pack, changing over at anchors, and abseiling.

Crevasse work gets the most time, because the ground between base camp and Camp 2 is broken glacier and the route weaves through it with ladders in places.

Your leader watches each climber individually and keeps anyone who needs it back for the afternoon. Overnight at base camp.

A genuine rest day before the first rotation. Eating, drinking and sleeping, with a short walk on the moraine in the afternoon and nothing more.

The Sherpa team and the route-fixing crews from the expeditions on the mountain are working above, establishing and stocking Camp 1 and Camp 2 and pushing the line toward Camp 3.

Loads for the rotation are packed and weighed in the evening, and the departure time is set for around four in the morning. Overnight at base camp.

Out of camp before dawn and onto the crevassed glacier, roped and on marked line, weaving between open holes and across two or three ladder crossings.

Four to six hours of steady work with a personal load brings the team onto the shelf where Camp 1 (5,700 m) stands.

The camp sits on the glacier with the north-east face rising above and the whole Nubri valley falling away behind. It is the first night on the mountain and most people sleep badly. Overnight at Camp 1.

Up the glacier on broken ground — seracs, crevasses and fixed line — for four to five hours to Camp 2 (6,400 m).

The team touches the camp, spends an hour there and descends to Camp 1 for the night. This rotation is about the height reached rather than the night spent, and it keeps the number of loads carried through the broken ground to a minimum.

It is also the first honest look at how each climber moves on this glacier, and your leader watches closely. Overnight at Camp 1.

Down the glacier in the cold of the morning, three to four hours, moving before the sun softens the snow bridges and the ladder crossings become unpleasant.

The first rotation is complete: the team has slept at 5,700 m and touched 6,400 m, and everybody now knows what this glacier involves and how their own body responded to a night on it.

Base camp (4,800 m) by mid-morning, with a hot meal, a wash and the prospect of three days of doing very little. Your leader takes saturation and pulse readings on arrival and again in the evening. Overnight at base camp.

The first of three recovery days, and the hardest to spend well because the fatigue of a rotation arrives late — most people feel worse today than yesterday.

The prescription is unglamorous: sleep, drink four to five litres, and eat considerably more than you want to.

Your leader and the expedition doctor take saturation, pulse and weight readings and review them against the baseline. Anyone whose numbers are drifting gets a conversation rather than a schedule. Overnight at base camp.

The second recovery day, and the one on which people start feeling human again. Base camp settles into its rhythm: breakfast late, cards and reading in the dining tent, a walk to another team's camp, dinner early.

In autumn Manaslu base camp is one of the busier ones in Nepal — several hundred people across a dozen expeditions — and it is unexpectedly sociable.

The Sherpa team is carrying loads and fixing rope toward Camp 3, and the evening weather briefing becomes a fixture from about now. Overnight at base camp.

The last day before the second rotation, spent on preparation. Personal loads are packed for four nights above base camp, crampons and harnesses checked after their first hard use, and boots dried.

Your leader briefs the rotation: base camp to Camp 1, Camp 2 for a night, and then a climb up the steep section to touch Camp 3 at 6,800 m before returning.

That steep section between Camp 2 and Camp 3 is the one piece of real climbing on the route and also the ground with the avalanche history, so the briefing covers both. Overnight at base camp.

Back onto the glacier before dawn and noticeably faster than the first time — three to four hours for a crossing that took four to six, on a line the team now knows crevasse by crevasse.

That improvement is the return on the first rotation and the rest days, and it is the clearest single sign that the acclimatisation is working as it should.

Camp 1 (5,700 m) by mid-morning, with the rest of the day to lie down, drink and eat. Your leader confirms tomorrow's timings and the load split before dark. Overnight at Camp 1.

Four to five hours up the broken glacier to Camp 2 (6,400 m), this time with loads and the intention to stay.

The camp sits on the glacier beneath the steep section, and the view down the Nubri from it is one of the better ones on any 8,000 m peak.

Sleeping at 6,400 m is the purpose of this rotation. Appetite falls off sharply at this altitude and forcing food down is work rather than pleasure. Overnight at Camp 2.

The one steep day on the mountain. Above Camp 2 the route climbs an ice slope at 45 to 50 degrees on fixed rope — three to four hours of front-pointing that comes as a surprise to anyone who booked Manaslu because it is the easy 8,000er.

This is also the ground with the avalanche history, and it is climbed early and left before the sun is on it.

Camp 3 (6,800 m) sits above the slope. The team touches it, spends an hour there and descends to Camp 2. The height matters; the night does not. Overnight at Camp 2.

Down the glacier past Camp 1 to base camp in the cold of the morning — five to seven hours, and the last time on the mountain before the summit push.

The acclimatisation programme is complete. The team has slept at 6,400 m and touched 6,800 m, and physiologically there is nothing more to be gained from going higher until the push.

Base camp (4,800 m) by early afternoon, and the mood changes: the preparation is finished and everything from here waits on weather. Overnight at base camp.

Down the moraine past Birendra Tal to Samagaon (3,530 m), losing 1,270 m in a morning and arriving somewhere with lodges, potato fields, yaks and thick air.

This descent is one of the most valuable decisions in the plan. Recovery does not happen at 4,800 m. Three days in a village at 3,530 m, eating real food and sleeping properly, rebuilds a climber more effectively than a week of rest days on the moraine.

There is also a bakery, a gompa and hot water, all of which register differently after three weeks. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Samagaon.

A day with nothing in it. Sleep late, eat everything on the menu, take a hot shower, and walk no further than the gompa.

Most climbers regain a kilogram or two here and, more importantly, sleep properly for the first time in weeks. The improvement in appetite is usually obvious within a day.

Meanwhile the Sherpa team is high on the mountain stocking Camp 3 and Camp 4 with oxygen, tents, food and fuel — the heaviest work of the expedition, done by people who will then climb it again with you. Overnight at Samagaon.

Back up the moraine past Birendra Tal — the same ground as the walk in, done by a body that handles it very differently.

Five to six hours, and it is a useful gauge: climbers who come up feeling strong are ready, and those who struggle are told so and given more time.

Base camp (4,800 m) in the afternoon. From tonight the expedition is governed entirely by the forecast, and the evening weather briefing becomes the most attended event of the day. Overnight at base camp.

The waiting starts, and on Manaslu it is usually shorter than on the spring 8,000 m peaks — autumn windows in late September and early October are more frequent, if not more generous.

Days are spent eating, sleeping, walking gently on the moraine and visiting other camps. With a dozen expeditions in base camp the social life is better than on most mountains.

The evening brings the specialist mountain forecast — wind at 8,000 m, temperature, precipitation and confidence — read out in the communications tent. On this mountain the precipitation number matters as much as the wind, because fresh snow closes the slope below Camp 3. Overnight at base camp.

The full summit briefing. Your leader sets out the schedule day by day, the pairings of climber and Sherpa, the radio times, the oxygen changeovers, and the turnaround time on summit day.

A significant part of it is the true summit: what the crest beyond the fore-summit involves, how it is fixed, how long it takes, and the conditions under which your leader will stop the team at the fore-summit instead. That conversation happens here, in daylight, rather than at 8,125 m.

The Sherpa team confirms Camp 4 is stocked and the route is fixed to the true summit. Nothing begins until both are true. Overnight at base camp.

The last day at base camp before the push, and by now the forecast has firmed up enough to commit. Loads are packed for five nights above base camp, down suits unpacked and checked, and boots warmed.

The critical question is the snow on the slope between Camp 2 and Camp 3: if there has been recent fall, the push waits regardless of how clear the sky is.

Dinner is early and the camp is quiet. Departure onto the glacier is set for around four in the morning. Overnight at base camp.

Onto the glacier before dawn for the last time on the way up, and through it in three hours on ground the team now knows step by step.

Loads are light: everything above is already stocked, so climbers carry personal equipment only.

Camp 1 (5,700 m) by mid-morning, with the rest of the day to lie down, drink and eat. From here the expedition moves upward every day until it summits or turns back. Overnight at Camp 1.

Four hours or so up the broken glacier and the fixed line to Camp 2 (6,400 m), arriving by late morning with the ladders and the serac ground behind you for the day.

The afternoon is spent lying down, melting snow and forcing fluid and food. Appetite at 6,400 m is poor and it does not improve anywhere above here, so what goes down today matters more than it feels like it should.

The steep section is directly overhead, and the whole camp spends some part of the evening looking at it and at the sky. Overnight at Camp 2.

The one steep day of the push, and it starts early because the slope has to be climbed and cleared before the sun is on it.

Three to four hours of 45 to 50 degree ice on fixed rope brings the team to Camp 3 (6,800 m), and above the ground that has caused this mountain's worst accidents.

This is the first night on supplementary oxygen, at a low sleeping flow, and the difference it makes to the night and to the following morning is considerable. Overnight at Camp 3.

On oxygen from the moment you leave the tent. The angle eases above Camp 3 and the route climbs broad snow slopes for four to five hours to Camp 4 (7,400 m), arriving by late morning.

The camp sits on an open shoulder with an enormous view — Himlung and the Peri Himal north, Ganesh Himal east, and the Annapurnas across the Larkya La to the west.

You are in the Death Zone, where the body degrades rather than adapts. Nobody sleeps. Oxygen, melted snow, forced fluid, and waiting for the departure time. Overnight at Camp 4.

Leaving Camp 4 between eleven at night and one in the morning, on oxygen, at around -30°C. The route climbs long broad snow slopes on fixed rope — never steep, never technical, and utterly relentless in the dark.

The angle eases near the top and the fore-summit (about 8,125 m) arrives as a broad platform where the ground stops rising. A great many claimed ascents of Manaslu have stopped here.

The true summit is twenty minutes further along a narrow corniced crest, fixed by our Sherpas and taken one at a time. It is genuinely exposed and it is the only technical ground on the whole route. From the top at 8,163 m the view runs north into Tibet, east to Ganesh and Langtang, and west across the Larkya La to Himlung and the Annapurnas.

Then down: the slopes, Camp 4, Camp 3 and the steep section, to Camp 2 if the reserves allow. Fourteen to eighteen hours of movement. Overnight at Camp 2.

Down the glacier past Camp 1 to base camp in the cold of the morning, five to seven hours on legs that have very little left.

The team goes carefully. More people are hurt coming down a mountain than going up it, and the crevassed ground below Camp 1 is no place for a party that has stopped concentrating.

Base camp (4,800 m), and walking off the moraine into camp at the end of an 8,000 m summit push is a moment most climbers remember more clearly than the summit. Overnight at base camp.

The first of four reserve days. Manaslu's autumn windows are more frequent than the spring peaks' but they are still weather, and a team with days in hand has a second attempt where a team without has a flight home.

If a second push is on, the Sherpa team re-stocks Camp 4 and the climbers rest here today. Your leader assesses each climber honestly.

If the mountain has been climbed, the day is for eating and sleeping and beginning to feel normal. Most climbers lose six to ten kilograms on a Manaslu expedition. Overnight at base camp.

The second reserve day. If a second attempt is running, the team is at Camp 2 or Camp 3 tonight rather than here.

If the mountain has been climbed, the camps above begin to come down. Camp 4, Camp 3 and Camp 2 are stripped by the Sherpa team, and every bottle, tent and rope comes off the mountain.

The Department of Tourism deposit is refunded against what comes down, and on a mountain with a dozen expeditions on it each season the clear-up matters. Overnight at base camp.

The third reserve day, and in a season with a late window this is often the summit day itself.

If a second push is underway, the team is high on the mountain and base camp is a radio watch.

If not, the day is spent in the limbo of an expedition that is finished but not yet over: eating, sleeping, and watching the weather that did not come good. Overnight at base camp.

The last reserve day and the end of the expedition's margin. Base camp comes down today: tents struck, barrels packed and weighed, and loads made up for the porters and yaks.

The waste management is completed — human waste carried out in barrels, oxygen bottles counted back in, and the site cleared to the condition it was found in.

The chorten from the puja stays with its prayer flags. A last look at the north-east face, and then the walk out, which on this expedition is a three-day crossing of the Larkya La rather than a retracing. Overnight at base camp.

Down the moraine to Samagaon and then north-west up the Budhi Gandaki, which above the village is a wide brown valley of grazing land rather than a gorge.

Samdo (3,875 m) is the highest permanent village in the Nubri, founded by Tibetan refugees in the 1960s and still trading over the Lajyang La with Tibet a day's walk north.

It is a strange, spare, entirely Tibetan place, and after five weeks under the mountain it is the first sign that the expedition has become a trek. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Samdo.

A short day up the valley to the foot of the pass, climbing gently across open moraine and grazing ground with blue sheep frequently visible on the slopes.

Dharamsala (4,460 m) — also called Larkya Phedi — is two basic stone buildings and a scatter of tents in a bleak spot beneath the pass. There is nothing here and there is not meant to be.

Everyone eats early and sleeps early, because the Larkya La is crossed in the dark to beat the wind that gets up on it by mid-morning. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Dharamsala.

Away by four in the morning by headlamp. The climb to the Larkya La (5,106 m) takes four to five hours across moraine and old snow, past frozen tarns, on a long gradual rise rather than a steep pull.

The pass is a broad saddle hung with prayer flags, and the view west is one of the great ones in Nepal: Himlung, Cheo Himal, Gyaji Kang, Kang Guru and Annapurna II, with the whole Marsyangdi system falling away below.

The descent is long and steep on moraine and scree, losing 1,500 m to Bimthang (3,590 m) — a meadow of grass and pine below Manaslu's west face, and after five weeks above the treeline it is a startling amount of green. Seven to nine hours. Overnight at Bimthang.

The last walking day, and it is all downhill — steeply through rhododendron and pine forest along the Dudh Khola, past Karche and Goa, losing 1,700 m.

The forest is the first proper one since the Budhi Gandaki and it is full of birds and warmth and the smell of resin.

Dharapani (1,860 m) joins the Annapurna Circuit and the road head, where jeeps take over for the rough drive down the Marsyangdi to Besisahar. The evening is the end-of-expedition dinner with the leader, the climbing Sherpas, the cook crew and the porters, and the point at which the summit bonus and tips are given. Overnight at Besisahar.

A straightforward day on the highway. The road follows the Marsyangdi down to Dumre and then joins the Prithvi Highway east along the Trishuli to the Kathmandu valley, through terraced hills and roadside towns.

Six to seven hours with a lunch stop at a riverside restaurant, and it is the first stretch of tarmac since the drive in. The change of pace after weeks on foot takes most people a while to adjust to.

Back in Kathmandu in the afternoon. The expedition reports to the Department of Tourism, the waste deposit is reconciled, and the summit certificate — naming the true summit — is issued and presented in the evening. Overnight in Kathmandu.

The expedition ends today. If your flight is a late one there is time for a last morning in Kathmandu, though most people at this point want a chair and a coffee more than a temple.

Our representative collects you from the hotel and drives you to Tribhuvan International Airport about three hours before departure. Any equipment being shipped home is handled by our office.

Safe travels. Manaslu is the mountain most climbers use as the door into 8,000 m climbing, and Everest, Lhotse and Makalu are the three our returning Manaslu climbers ask about most.