September 5, 2012

IMG Manaslu Base Camp (Phunuru Sherpa)

IMG guide Mike Hamill called to report they made it to Base Camp (4,800m/15,744ft) at around 12:30 this afternoon, just in time for lunch. Mike says the sherpa crew have done a great job setting up a very nice camp. The team have been relaxing after lunch and everyone is doing really well and feeling strong.  Mike said he chatted with Russell a little bit this afternoon.  Sounds like the Himex sherpas made it up to Camp 1 today and they report that the mountain is much drier (less snow) compared to the conditions last year.  So far so good!

Ang Jangbu Sherpa

September 4, 2012

IMG leaders Mike Hamill and Peter Anderson report that the team made it to Sama Gaon, the village at the base of Manaslu.  Well done!  Today they took a well-deserved rest day, including a tour of the local monastery.  Tomorrow the plan is to head up to Base Camp, with the puja scheduled the following day (the 6th) which is an auspicious day for the sherpas (using the Tibetan calendar).  Up at Base Camp, the sherpas have been busy and they have the camp all set up and ready to go.

Eric Simonson

September 2, 2012

Descending from Base Camp to Sama Gaon, looking at the 6000m peaks to the north, which are near to the China/Tibet border (Robert Kay)

IMG guide Mike Hamill called this morning (evening in Nepal).  The team is in Namrung and all are fit, healthy, and doing well.  They are on schedule to reach Sama Gaon tomorrow.   He says the weather had been pretty good for them, with rain during the night but mostly dry during the day time for the trekking.  Trail has been a bit muddy in places and they have crossed several landslides, but no big issues.  Mike says it has been a strenuous trek, with plenty of ups and downs to get everyone toughened up for the climb ahead!

Up on the mountain Phunuru reports that the Base Camp construction is almost finished, and that he had hiked up to the crampon point to check the route and snow condition, which he said looked OK.    He says they have an excellent BC camp location with a clean water source.  Headcook Kaji has now moved up to BC from Sama Gaon and the porters with all the fresh food will go to BC tomorrow.  The plan is for the members to take a couple rest days in Sama Gaon, then move up to BC on Wednesday the 5th .

Eric Simonson

August 31, 2012

The trek in. (Phunuru Sherpa)

Ang Jangbu dropped us a line from Nepal this morning to report that the Manaslu team is doing well. They’re a strong crew and have made it to Jagat. There was a landslide nearby and a few porter loads from another expedition were lost, but thankfully nobody was hurt. It doesn’t appear to have hindered anybody from getting to or fro so the team continues their march to Base Camp.

Tye Chapman

August 30, 2012

Base Camp of Manaslu.

We got word from Ang Jangbu last night that things are coming together nicely for our Manaslu team.  The Sherpas have been hard at work making platforms for all of the tents. Next on the to do list is the Puja altar.

Hamill and the crew are well on their way to Base Camp, (15750 ft.) a 6 day trek in.

Tye Chapman

August 28, 2012

Ang Jangbu reports that the IMG climbers successfully reached Arughat today by bus.  Sounds like the road conditions had improved, and they only had to switch buses once along the way.  Tomorrow they are ready to start the trekking to Sama Gaon.  For the trek up to Sama, (camping along the way) they will be accompanied by 6 trek sherpas, 4 kitchen boys, and 34 porters.  Right now, up in Sama, Phunuru reports that the first group of sherpas and porters have now reached Base Camp and the second team is heading up tomorrow.  Kaji Sherpa is en route to Sama right now with another porter team, and we have 50 Sama porters ordered for them to go up to BC on September 2.  So far, so good!

Before leaving Kathmandu, Mike and the team did their required briefing at Ministry of Tourism and also met with legendary Himalayan historian Liz Hawley.  Liz estimates there will be 21 teams on Manaslu this autumn, including all the “usual suspects”  (many of these teams also switched over from Cho Oyu, due to the current permit issues in Tibet).

Eric Simonson

August 27, 2012

Manaslu team in Kathmandu (Mike Hamill)

Ang Jangbu and Mike Hamill report from Kathmandu report that the team has all successfully arrived, and despite some airline glitches along the way, everyone made it to Nepal with all their gear. Congrats! That is always a good way to start an expedition!  Joining IMG guides Mike Hamill and assistant Peter Anderson, we have 5 American climbers, 1 Canadian, 1 German, and 2 from Norway.

Mike and Peter have been working on packing gear and doing equipment checks the last couple days, and they have also received a good taste of the Nepal bureaucracy, as they joined Jangbu and his staff in procuring the five different permits required:  climbing permit from the Ministry of Tourism, comms gear permits from the Ministry of Communications, Manaslu Conservation Area Permit, Trekking permit, and trekking ID cards for sherpas and members.  Now, the team is ready to go!  Our head cook, Kaji Sherpa, with porter loads of member duffels and fresh food left Kathmandu this morning (27th), to get a head start on the team.

IMG team heading to Ghorkha (Ang Jangbu)

For tomorrow morning (the 28th), the team is leaving at 6am to drive to Gorkha and then on to Arughat.  There have been several landslides along the way, so they will have to switch buses in at least two places (crossing the landslides on foot, to a new bus on other side).  We’ll look forward to following their progress!

Eric Simonson

August 27, 2012

Phunuru Sherpa called from Sama Gaon to report they are now loading up the new local porters to go to base camp  (the low level porters from Arughat can not go to BC, as this stretch of the journey is claimed by the local men from Sama).   Phunuru says they are sending 4 of the climbing sherpas and 50 porters today up to BC today, and the rest of the loads should  go up tomorrow. They had to split the available porters with other expedition teams since there is a shortage of local porters.   The expedition members are now arriving in Kathmandu, and getting ready to hit the road!

Eric Simonson