The first summit successes of the eight-thousander fall season are reported from Manaslu. Yesterday, Tuesday, a team of the operator Elite Exped reached the summit. The head of the company, Nepal’s “mountaineering star” Nirmal Purja, sent a video from the “True Summit” at 8,163 meters. In it, “Nims” thanked his “strong team” and announced that he would now travel on to Tibet to guide clients up the eight-thousanders Cho Oyu and Shishapangma.
Today, Wednesday, Nepalese operators Seven Summit Treks (SST) and Imagine Nepal also announced summit successes on Manaslu. For this fall, the government in Kathmandu has so far (as of 15 Sept) sold 301 climbing permits to foreign climbers for the eighth-highest mountain on earth. In fall 2022, it had issued 404 Manaslu permits.
SST founder Mingma Sherpa at the True Summit.
Among those who reached the summit today was SST founder Mingma Sherpa. Now 45, he had been celebrated in 2011 as the first Nepalese to summit all 14 eight-thousanders. Later, however, it turned out that Mingma – like hundreds of other climbers – had not reached the highest point at the end of the summit ridge of Manaslu, but an elevation further forward on the ridge. Mingma now wiped out this mistake by climbing once again – with bottled oxygen – the eighth-highest mountain on earth.
This was also done by the Pakistani Shehroze Kashif, who also failed to reach the very highest point of Manaslu in 2021. With the “True Summit,” the 21-year-old has now scaled 12 of the 14 eight-thousanders – with breathing mask. He is now missing in his collection only Cho Oyu and Shishapangma, which he also still has planned to climb for this fall.
Dawa Yangzum Sherpa wants to complete 8000er collection
Because of the delay in the issuance of permits by the Chinese-Tibetan authorities, most of the operators had cancelled the two eight-thousanders located in Tibet from their programs for this fall. Now, however, a few foreign expeditions are expected there. Among them is also a team of the Nepalese operator Climbalaya, which is known for its good Tibet contacts.
One of the members is the internationally renowned Nepalese mountain guide Dawa Yangzum Sherpa. If the 33-year-old succeeds in summiting Cho Oyu and Shishapangma, she would be the first woman from Nepal on all 14 eight-thousanders.
Update 21 September: The summit wave on Manaslu continues to roll. Among those who reached the True Summit today was the Pakistani Naila Kiani. For her, it was the ninth eight-thousander that she scaled (with bottled oxygen and Sherpa support). No woman from Pakistan has ever climbed so many eight-thousanders. Last spring, Kiani had reached the summits of Annapurna I, Mount Everest and Lhotse in the same style, and in the summer the highest points of Nanga Parbat and Broad Peak.
Naila, a former amateur boxer, studied aerospace engineering in the UK and later worked as a banker in Dubai. She has lived in the Gulf state for years with her husband and two young daughters. – Also on the summit of Manaslu today was Kiani’s compatriot Sirbaz Khan. For him it was the twelfth eight-thousander. He still lacks Cho Oyu and Shishapangma in his collection.
