Manaslu Archive - Adventure Mountain

16. December 202516. December 2025

Simone Moro gives the all-clear after heart attack in Nepal

Simone Moro's statement on Instagram — Simone Moro’s statement on Instagram

After several days of uncertainty, Simone Moro has spoken out. His most important statement: “Now I’m feeling good.” What happened? Over the weekend, Nepalese media reported that the 58-year-old top mountaineer from Italy had to be flown out of the mountains to Kathmandu by helicopter.

That was true, but the medical details initially reported were contradictory. In such cases, it is advisable to wait until reliable information is available. Simone himself provided that information, sitting in a tracksuit in the hospital, with a statement that he posted on Instagram, among other places.

23. October 202531. October 2025

Russian team opens new route on eight-thousander Manaslu

Manaslu (l.) and Pinnacle East (r.) in spring 2007 — Manaslu (left – in 2007)

Classic alpinism is alive and well! For me, this is evident in the fact that I can hardly keep up with reporting on all the extraordinary climbs this fall season in Nepal.

Like this one: According to Anna Piunova from the Russian mountaineering portal mountain.ru, Andrey Vasilyev, Sergey Kondrashkin, Natalia Belyankina, Kirill Eyserman, and Vitaly Shipilov reached the summit of the 8,163-meter-high Manaslu in western Nepal yesterday, Wednesday, at around 1 p.m. local time.

The Russian team opened a “new alpine-style route on the immense, uncharted Southwest Face,” Anna wrote on Facebook. Andrey sent her a short message from the highest point: “(We) Made the summit, just got back to the tent. It was brutal. The wind up there was insane.”

26. September 202526. September 2025

Carlos Soria scales Manaslu at the age of 86 – Tyler Andrews abandons his next Everest speed attempt

This mountain Methuselah is simply incredible. Carlos Soria reached the summit of the 8,163-meter-high Manaslu in western Nepal today – at the age of 86, no less.

This means that the Spaniard is now listed in the record books as the oldest person ever to stand on an eight-thousander. He replaces Japanese climber Yuichiro Miura, who climbed Mount Everest in 2013 at the age of 80 – for the third time in his life.

22. September 202522. September 2025

Summit successes on Manaslu

Manaslu in the first dailight — Manaslu (in 2007)

The first reports of success from the 8,163-meter-high Manaslu are trickling in. On Sunday, the six-member Nepalese rope-fixing team – consisting of mountaineers Chhiring Bhote, Pasang Sherpa, Hira Bhote, Tashi Sherpa, Karma Sharki Sherpa, and Lakpa Sherpa – secured the normal route to the highest point and at the same time ensured the first summit successes of the fall season on Nepal’s eight-thousanders.

On Monday and Tuesday, the first commercial clients, accompanied by Nepalese mountaineers, also reached the summit of the eighth highest mountain on earth. Today, the Nepalese tour operator Seven Summit Treks alone reported that 17 clients and 17 Nepalese Climbing Sherpas had reached the top.

18. January 202518. January 2025

Winter expeditions on Manaslu and Annapurna abandoned

“Goodbye, dear Manaslu,” writes Simone Moro in his Instagram story today. “I can’t wait much more than some weeks and I don’t want to change my style to be welcome one day on your summit .” Two days ago, Simone had already announced that it was time to abandon the expedition: “The weather didn’t play in our favor and for the next two weeks on Manaslu there will be winds up to 150 km/h which makes it impossible for an alpine style summit push.”

The Italian had wanted to climb the eighth-highest mountain in the world together with the Nepalese Nima Rinji Sherpa and the Pole Oswald Rodrigo Peirera in one push, without bottled oxygen, without fixed high camps and without the support of high porters. So for the time being, the fact remains: never has an eight-thousander been summited in winter in alpine style.

27. September 202427. September 2024

Anja Blacha after her Manaslu success: “I had the summit to myself”

After the eight-thousander is before the eight-thousander. This year, this also applies to Anja Blacha, who has now climbed nine of the 14 highest mountains in the world. This makes the 34-year-old the German woman with the most eight-thousander summit successes.

Last spring, she first scaled Makalu (8,485 meters) and then Kangchenjunga (8,586 meters), both without bottled oxygen. She also climbed without a breathing mask during her successful ascent on Manaslu (8,163 meters) on Monday. Now Blacha wants to try her hand at Cho Oyu (8,188 meters). She answered my questions in Tibet.

Anja, Manaslu was your third eight-thousander summit this year. How did you fare on your ascent?

20. September 20245. March 2025

Annoyance at the decline in style on the eight-thousanders

Jordi Tosas is fed up with what is currently happening on the eight-thousanders. “China has prescribed the use of oxygen and fixed ropes for all ascents. They prohibit alpine-style and solo ascents. Pakistan will triple the price of permits. Nepal has already turned the mountain control into a mafia,” writes the 56-year-old Spanish top mountaineer on social media. “Just one style! Fuck the system!”

It seems like a deep sigh in view of the first success stories of the fall season on the eight-thousanders in Nepal and Tibet. Now that the ropes have been fixed up to the summit on Manaslu, the first clients have also been guided to the summit at 8,163 meters. The commercial teams dominate the headlines. Swiss mountain guide Josette Valloton completed – with bottled oxygen – her collection of 14 eight-thousanders. US-American Tyler Andrews “ran” from base camp to the summit on a prepared slope in less than ten hours – without bottled oxygen.

12. January 202412. January 2024

40 years ago: Berbeka and Gajewski achieve the first winter ascent of Manaslu

Maciej Berbeka on the "True Summit" of Manaslu on 12 January 1984 (Photo: Ryszard Gajewski) — Maciej Berbeka on the “True Summit” of Manaslu on 12 January 1984 (Photo: Ryszard Gajewski)

“Over there, the altitude, plus the temperature, plus the wind, plus the exhaustion make us fight for every step,” said Maciej Berbeka after his return from the eight-thousander Manaslu in western Nepal. “It’s simply a nightmare.” On 12 January 1984 – 40 years ago today – the Polish climber reached the summit of the eighth highest mountain on earth with his compatriot Ryszard Gajewski. It was the first winter ascent of Manaslu and the first ascent of an eight-thousander without bottled oxygen.

Incited by Messner

Expedition leader Lech Korniszewski, a 47-year-old doctor and mountaineer from Zakopane, the highest town in Poland, had gathered a young team around him. The average age of the climbers was 31; Berbeka and Gajewski were 29 years old. The two had been friends since childhood, their fathers worked together at the mountain rescue service in Zakopane. The team chose the so-called “Tyrolean route” through the South Face, which Reinhold Messner had opened in spring 1972. Messner had incited the Poles with his words that he did not believe that the route he had first climbed was possible in winter.

20. September 202321. September 2023

Summit successes of commercial teams on Manaslu

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.

11. April 202311. April 2023

Summit attempt on Annapurna announced

Northwestern view of Annapurna (the main summit on the left)

“Summit Push Time,” writes Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, head of the Nepalese commercial expedition operator Imagine Nepal, on Instagram. The picture shows him in a helicopter on his way back to the 8,091-meter-high Annapurna I in western Nepal. The Sherpa team, which secures the normal route with fixed ropes for the commercial teams, had already reached Camp 3 at around 6,400 meters some time ago. Then, however, snowfall and the associated high avalanche danger had made a summit attempt impossible. In the next few days, stable, dry weather with little wind is expected, only on the weekend there should be some snow showers again.

28. September 202228. September 2022

Mourning for ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson

The North Face_Athlete Hilaree Nelson — Hilaree Nelson (1972 – 2022)

Now it has become a sad certainty: The world-renowned ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson is dead. As reported by the newspaper “Kathmandu Post”, the body of the 49-year-old US American was discovered and recovered on the south side of Manaslu at an altitude of about 6,000 meters. A rescue helicopter had previously dropped off three Nepalese guides and Hilaree’s partner Jim Morrison at an altitude of 6500 meters to search for the missing climber. After they discovered Hilaree’s body, it was first flown to the base camp. From there it would be taken to Kathmandu, they said.

27. September 202227. September 2022

Search for missing ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson so far unsuccessful

Ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson is still missing on Manaslu. A rescue helicopter took off today. The crew searched the south side of the eight-thousander in western Nepal for the 49-year-old – so far without success. Also on board was Nelson’s partner, Jim Morrison.

The couple from the USA had reached the “True Summit” of Manaslu at 8,163 meters on Monday – with bottled oxygen. Then they started their planned ski descent. What exactly happened then is not yet clear. Early reports said Nelson had fallen into a 25-metre-deep crevasse in the summit zone. It was later reported that her ski blade skidded off and she fell into the deep. There was also talk of an avalanche that caused her fall. The helicopter search for Hilaree is scheduled to continue this Wednesday.

26. September 202227. September 2022

Avalanche accident on Manaslu – Concern for Hilaree Nelson

According to the newspaper “The Himalayan Times”, around a dozen climbers have been injured in an avalanche on Manaslu today. Some are said to be in critical condition. Other reports speak of at least one dead. The snow masses went down below Camp 4, which is located at around 7,400 meters, it said. Bad weather prevented the rescue operation with helicopters. Several hundred mountaineers are said to have set off on summit attempts at the weekend.

According to information that reached me from Camp 3, most of the injured are Sherpas who wanted to bring equipment to Camp 4. They were taken down to Camp 3, from where they are to be flown out by helicopter – as soon as the weather permits.

2. May 20192. May 2019

After rescue from Annapurna: Mountaineer Wui Kin Chin is dead

In the end, all the effort was in vain: this of Nima Tshering Sherpa, who had left his oxygen bottle to his client in the death zone and had waited with him for hours; the effort of the four-man rescue team that had ascended to him, provided him with first aid and then brought him down the mountain so far that he could be flown out; that of the helicopter crew, who had first searched for him in an extremely risky manoeuvre and later flown him out from the flanks of the mountain on a long rescue line; the effort of the doctors in Kathmandu and then in Singapore, who fought for his life.

2. February 20194. February 2019

8000er winter expeditions: Between flight and race

Winter expeditions to eight-thousanders are not a walk in the park. This winter proves that once again. As reported, Manaslu in Nepal has already put the Italian Simone Moro and his Nepalese climbing partner Pemba Gyalje Sherpa to rout. According to Simone, fresh snow in the base camp piled up to six meters. The danger of avalanches was correspondingly high. Time to disappear: “Sometimes giving up is an essential ingredient for future success,” Moro wrote on Facebook. “With this decision I want to honor the nickname ‘winter maestro’ I have been given.” Having scaled Shishapangma, Makalu, Gasherbrum II and Nanga Parbat in the cold season, the 51-year-old had succeeded first winter ascents on four of the 14 eight-thousanders. Today is the eighth anniversary of Simone’s success on G II in the Karakoram.