Rest and Summit Prep

September 23

Today is the first of our rest days prior to the summit push.  I slept great and woke at sunrise ready for the day.  The mountain was noisy last night with a few big avalanches, and one seemed to last for quite a while.  Like everywhere in the world, it’s getting warmer here as evidenced by the high elevation rain we’ve experienced versus the normal snow that should be falling.

After extracting myself from the warm tent, I was greeted by a nice morning view.  It was just after sunrise and the air was filled with juniper smoke from at least a half dozen puja altar fires.  This usually means the team has climbers on the mountain or are planning to go up today.  The early mornings are my favorite times in Base Camp because it’s quiet and I can watch and listen to the individual camps beginning to wake up. 

Our two Sherpa lead guides, Tendi and Pasang were outside also, and they became interested in some avalanche activity across the glacier from Base Camp.  There was one area in particular with minor activity and we all assumed this was the source of last nights rumbling.  Watching for a while, we realized how unstable this hanging glacier was and began recording the activity.  The video below shows the third and by far the biggest section of glacier to fall.  Keep in mind that the elevation of that ice is at least 2,000 feet above us, so the scale is quite impressive. 

Last night we had a special dinner called chicken sizzler.  It’s a tradition on each expedition to have this meal at least once.  Think of a flaming fajita platter with chicken, spaghetti and vegetables on it. 

After dinner, we have a summit prep conversation to begin our focus on the remaining leg of our journey to the top of Mt. Manaslu.  Based on the weather forecast, it looks like our most promising summit day will be September 30th.  This means that we will have two more rest days and then leave Base Camp on the morning of the 26th heading up to Camp 1.  The plan is to sleep at Camps 1-4, gradually gaining elevation without burning ourselves out.  After reaching the summit, we will most likely descend to at least Camp 2 or maybe even Base Camp if we’re not too tired.  The remaining climbers on our team are strong and we all maintain roughly the same pace so it’s likely that we will be climbing together all the way to the summit and back.

 We’ve had a grueling schedule of eating, drinking, resting, talking, and making red blood cells today so after the meeting, we all head to bed early with full bellies and summit dreams.

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