The Nepalese Ministry of Tourism issued only two climbing permits for Manaslu this spring season. This meant that Ukrainian Alexandr Moroz and Kyrgyz Mark Ablovacky effectively had the 8,163-meter-high mountain in western Nepal all to themselves.
Last Tuesday, just 15 days after arriving in Kathmandu, Moroz reached the summit of the eighth-highest mountain on earth – without bottled oxygen, without Sherpa support, and even without a base camp.
Ablovacky had to abandon the summit push due to the threat of frostbite on his hands and waited for his climbing partner at Camp 3 at 6,700 meters. But first things first.
A spur-of-the-moment trip to Nepal
According to Mark, it was a rather spontaneous decision to attempt Manaslu this spring. Just a month and a half ago, he asked Alexandr if he’d be interested in climbing this eight-thousander with him without bottled oxygen. Moroz was up for it, too.
In fall 2024, the two had succeeded in making only the third ascent of the extremely difficult “American Direct” route on the West Face of the 6,814-meter-high Ama Dablam, within sight of Mount Everest.
Slightly acclimatized
To acclimatize for Manaslu, they hiked – in the contrary direction of the usual route of the Manaslu trek – over Larkya La, a 5,160-meter-high pass, to the village of Samagaon at the foot of the eight-thousander.
A first ascent on the mountain, intended to help them acclimate further to the high altitude, ended in deep snow at 6,100 meters. From there, they descended back to their “base camp” in Samagaon at 3,500 meters.
Normally, the Manaslu base camp is located at around 4,800 meters. Every fall season, hundreds of summit candidates from commercial teams flock there.
Split at Camp 3
The weather forecast promised Moroz and Ablovacky only a brief window of opportunity for a summit push, which they intended to attempt despite having only moderate acclimatization. Both left always at night to avoid the avalanche risk and ascend on solid snow.
Their plan worked – until Camp 3. “When we were about to move on to Camp 4, I had the feeling that my hands might freeze. So I stayed in the tent,” Mark writes on Instagram.
Bivouac under the open sky
Aleksandr set off alone for the summit push. At 7,400 meters, Moroz bivouacked in a sleeping bag under the open sky; the two climbers did not have a second tent in their gear.
After sunrise, he began his ascent to the highest point. On the summit ridge, he clipped into old fixed ropes protruding from the deep snow in a few places. At 8:26 a.m. local time, Aleksandr reached the summit.
Heavy snowfall
When Moroz and Ablovacky later descended together from Camp 3, it began to snow heavily again. ““On the way back, we had 60cm of fresh snow in one day”, Mark told explorersweb.com. “Sp we used one 30m rope and one of us went in front to act as an avalanche probe.”
It all turned out well. On Wednesday, five days after setting out from Samagaon, the two climbers returned safely to the village – carrying with them an impressive achievement on a lonely, snow-covered Manaslu.