MANASLU One Year After
Friday, 07 July 2023 19:08

Today, one year ago, we published the results of 10 years of research by a small team. This work also checked hundreds of summit photos and a whole lot of expedition reports from the world’s 8th highest mountain, Manaslu. As has now become known, there were over 2000 summit claims on Manaslu from climbers who were not actually on the summit. The most popular stopping-point for most of these climbers is not even a Foresummit, it is just a point on a ridge where it changes direction. It is probably the largest collective error in mountaineering history and raises several questions as to why so many seemed to believe they were on the summit but they were not. Questions of knowledge, preparation, experience and motivation. Maybe the 1975 Alpine Journal report from the first ascent by an ‘all-women’ team from Japan might help point us toward some understanding. Back in May 1974, a Nepali porter wanted to stop at the wrong point, but the Japanese women knew that the route must continue because they knew the shape of the true summit from the 1956 Japanese first ascentionists, who supplied fine photos. So the women and the Sherpa pushed on and reached the true summit, confirmed with photos. So when the first ascent team in 1956 found the true summit, and the first all-women’s team in 1974 found the true summit - and Messner’s 1972 team as well - then modern teams citing a lack of knowledge, or GPS data, or photos, or whatever, do not have a strong excuse for failing to continue to the summit of Manaslu. In the post-monsoon season of 2022 the researchers noted that of the 161 total season ascents of Manaslu, 55 were done as ‘corrections’ by climbers who had previously stopped short on the summit ridge, sometimes more than once. In autumn 2021 already four climbers and in January 2023 one more climber corrected. All in all there were 46 Sherpa climbers, three Bhutia and one Gurung who corrected their earlier false summits. Also 10 other climbers returned to correct their mistake, since Mingma Gyalje found a way to the true top in the post-monsoon season of 2021. There were 12 nations who corrected the false summits of earlier climbers. The women’s table shows all nations who finally corrected earlier wrong summits and those who ascended the true summit in their first attempt.