It will be a race against time. For Saturday, on the 8,163-meter-high Manaslu in western Nepal, strong winds in high altitude are expected again. Nevertheless, the Spaniards Alex Txikon and Inaki Alvarez, the Italian Simone Moro and the three Sherpas Chhepal, Gelum and Namja set off yesterday for another summit attempt. Moro, however, turned back in Camp 1 at about 5,700 meters after talking to Austrian meteorologist Karl Gabl.
Moro: “Blindly trusting Gabl”
According to Simone, Gabl informed him that the window of good weather would be one day shorter than originally expected. Moro packed up two expedition bags full of equipment, clothing and garbage and descended again. “I have the limitation of blindly trusting Gabl who doesn’t seem to be the only one predicting high winds and clouds,” Simone wrote on Facebook. “I remain here at base camp available for any needs of my partners.”
The aforementioned partners, Alex Txikon and Co., reached an altitude of about 6,600 meters today. “What we climbed in three days we have managed to do in on,” Alex let it be known. “We have to assess it (the situation) minute by minute.” The first summit attempt had failed at around 7,000 meters due to bad weather.
