Manaslu Expedition

 As British almost appropriated Mt. Everest to conduct expedition activities, expedition in Manaslu activities was similar to Japanese as their own mountain. Japanese Alpine Club in 1952 sent a reconnaissance party to climb Manaslu under the leadership of Dr. K. Imanishi. They had no information on the mountain at all except the photograph taken by Bill Tillman in his 1950 Nepal exploration.

Japanese exploration team attempted to penetrate from the Manaslu west face and traveled through the Marshyangdi valley, but unable to find the suitable approach due to the extremely steep wall. Then, they turned to the north side via the DudhKhola and reached the eastern approach of the Manaslu and walked along the Manaslu glacier up to a height of 17,400 ft and returned back to Kathmandu discovering the best route to the summit.  

In 1953 under the leadership of Y. Mita with previous Himalayan experience returned to the peak. This time the team could reach the height of 7,749 m/ 25,425, and they had to turn around as they had no oxygen apparatus.

The Japanese Alpine Club’s attempt to climb the peak in 1954 was unexpectedly averted by the villagers of Sama Gaon referring to their belief that the Japanese expedition the year before desecrated the mountain. Their every attempt to negotiate for that year failed and finally turned back.

Like the British keep on coming back to the Mt. Everest Japanese did the same to Manaslu. As preparations for the next attempt, they now had to negotiate and get help from Nepal Government to clear the passage to the peak. Japanese got permission to run the post-Monsson expedition in 1955, and the Pre-Monsoon expedition in 1956.

Japanese Club sent three members advance party in post-monsoon to Manaslu. This time villagers promised to welcome the expedition in the pre-monsoon season of the year 1956. Although Sama villagers again disturbed the expedition initially, they finally settled the dispute and the expedition carried on.

Finally, on the 9th May 1956 Gyalzen Norbu Sherpa and Toshio Imanishi climbed Mt. Manaslu successfully. The next successful climb of Mt. Manaslu was in 1971 by another Japanese team.

Satori Adventures offer the Mt. Manaslu expedition with the most professional services in the Himalayas.  Mt. Manaslu expedition is not an easy pie, thus we recommend you to climb Cho Oyu or Shishapangma or similar as preparation to climb mount Manaslu. You can take this climb as preparation to climb Mt. Everest.

Knife ridge, extreme weather, and avalanche make the Manaslu climbing difficulty level high, and a seriously risky expedition. Our additional care on smaller group size, selection of seasoned Manaslu climbing Sherpa guides, personal care, and services rendered to your requirements, selection of a safe Manaslu climbing route to climb, proper planning and acclimatized Manaslu climbing Itinerary make us an unrivaled and experienced Mt. Manaslu expedition operators in the Himalayas.

Though our Manaslu climbing cost is very affordable and competitive we do not compromise to make the climb Luxury Manaslu Expedition.
Serious climbing business like the Mt. Manaslu expedition, we need plenty of food supplies and equipment of high quality. Our services at the Base Camp or High Camp are exceptional with supplies of high-quality meals, equipment, and crews.

You will be served with fresh and nutritious food at Base Camp in our Base Camp service and hygienic and nutritious food above Base camp for full board service. You will get sufficient mask, regulators, and bottles of Oxygen for your successful climb. All these arrangements make it luxury Manaslu Expedition.

Your Manaslu the expedition starts from arriving in Kathmandu and trekking to the Manaslu Base Camp following the Budi Gandaki River valley up to the SamaGaon – villagers of which put serious hurdles to Japanese expedition teams in 1954-56. We pitch your camps at an altitude of 4,895 m/ 16,059 ft., Camp I at 5,800 m/ 19, 29 ft, Camp II at 6,400 m/ 20,997 ft, Camp III at 6,800 m/ 22,310 ft, and Camp IV at 7,400 m/ 24,278 ft from where you successfully summit the Mt. Manaslu.

We operate our expedition in the Himalayas with well-trained Sherpas of western standard born and raised in the foothills of the Himalayas. Their excellence and glorious climbing history need no more explanation. Our Manaslu climbing guides have climbed Mt. Everest and other peaks in the Himalayas of all heights multiple times, and prove themselves to be the best climbers and Leader/guide. Our program is indeed Manaslu Summiteers Guided Expedition.

In our Manaslu guided expedition trip, Sherpas will make sure that cooperation with other Sherpas from different companies and Base Camp organizations are intact. It is essential that all climbing teams work together in the Himalayas with proper contribution from all operators on the tasks such as route fixing and ensuring safety of climbers from Base to the summit. Our Sherpas lead in these efforts.

Most of the climbers have a question: How hard (technical) to climb mount Manaslu? How easy or how difficult to climb any eight thousand meters mountain can only be said in comparison only. It also depends on the climber’s previous climbing experiences, weather, age, physical fitness, quality of personal climbing equipment, experience of climbing Sherpa guide, reputation and back ground of the operator and climbing season.

Many expedition operators and climbers as well mention in their WebPages and blog that climbing Mount Manaslu is an easy enterprise. Actually the climbing Manaslu is more difficult than what it appears in various documents, advertisement brochures, and social media. In fact none of 8000m mountain expedition is easy to climb. Mountaineering is one of the challenging adventure games where many climbers lost their lives each year. However, in comparison, Manaslu expedition is considered to be less challenging among the 8 mountains of 8000meters located in Nepal Himalayas.

According to Nepali belief, God dwells in the mountains and by worshiping God it is expected safe passage to the summit. So, prior to the expedition we organize a pooja/worshipping ceremony wishing successful summit. You have a day or two in the Base camp for acclimatization, training, and preparation of the climb Mt. Manaslu.

Manaslu Advanced Base Camp is located at a height of 4,600 m/15,091 ft- 4800m/15748 ft. which are also called lower and upper camps. After one or two days rest and preparation at the Mt. Manaslu Base camp, you set out for the first and second base camp for acclimatization. On average, it takes 2 hours for a climbing Sherpa guide and it may take 3 hours approximately to you to reach the Camp-I from the Advance base camp.

After the first 45 minutes of rock boulders of varied sizes, a steep path of 20-25 degrees climbing, you reach the bottom of a rocky part. From this point in the Mt. Manaslu climbing route, you have to ascend a vertical rocky wall about 75-80m of some 45-50 degrees slope. It takes about 20-25 minutes to cross this section and you reach to the crampons point.  From this point, it takes about 2 hour’s snow slope of some 30-35 degrees to reach Camp-1, located at the height of 5,800 m/ 190, 29 ft.  Usually, the Camp-I is pitched in two places namely higher and lower camps in 100m distance and half an hour walk apart to each other due to narrow space for many tents. Typically Camp-I is safe from avalanches or rock-falling.

From camp 1, it takes about four hours ascends to reach camp 2, if you are a climber with average stamina. It depends on your acclimatization, weather condition, physical fitness, and walking pace. After 30 minutes uphill in 25-30 degrees ice wall slope, and another 30 minutes of rough climb you reach to sections which pose challenges for climbers. The journey between Camp-1 and Camp-2 is considered to be the most challenging part during the Manaslu expedition. There are many Ice serac and Crevasse in this Manaslu climbing route. Climbing rope fixing team fixes the ladder 4-5 places (it depends on climbing season and year) to cross these crevasses. The first, the second and the fourth ladder is in flat Steep in between 3-5 meters distance of Crevasse and the third is fixed about 70 degrees of Steep Crevasse that normally is about 6m long (size of crevasses can be changing in each season, so this is approximate and for common guidelines only).

Mt. Manaslu's camp 2 is also in two places below and above the snow wall. Camp II is located at the height of 6,400m/20,997ft., which is also safe location as the campsites. There are totally old and new snows in between those camps and our Manaslu climbing Sherpa’s guides fix the rope two lines one for ascending and the other for descending throughout the entire route.

The Mount Manaslu climbing from Camp 2 (C2) to Camp 3 (C3) is a safe and comparative easy climb. It takes about three hours for average stamina climbers to climb this section. After an hour walking above the snow slope about 30 degrees, you will arrive at the rope fixing section where about 150-200 m high vertical Ice slope is and takes about 45 minutes to climb. Crossing this section of some 45 degrees slope ice wall, you reach a flat area which is just 30 minute walking to reach the Camp 3(C3). There are also two spaces in between 10-15 minutes walking distance.  Manaslu's Camp-3 is pitched at an elevation of 6,800m / 22,310 ft.

From Camp 3, it takes about five hours climbing to reach camp 4 for average stamina climbers. This duration can fluctuate depending upon how many climbers are there at a time to carry out their climbing. If there are many climbers ascending and descending and traffic is bad then it may take 6-8 hours. The climbing route is a more vertical snow wall; and with a limited Anker that can be used to either ascend or descend by one climber at a time. In the last part of the climbing between Camp 3 to Camp 4, there is some 50-60m long flat area.

Like in the Camp 2 and 3, here in the Camp 4 as well, there are two places above and below we use to fix tents as our camps. The camp can be either above the rock or above the snow crossing the rock area and descending short down at 7,400 m/ 24,278 ft.

The Manaslu climbing route from the fourth camp to the mount Manaslu summit is smooth and safe. As per our previous experience, almost 60% of climber use Oxygen in this part. That might be the reason that climbers feel easy to ascend.  You may start at about 23:00 Pm to 00:00 am for the Manaslu summit target by 06:00 to 07:00 am. That means the distance between Camp 4 to Summit of Mt. Manaslu is an average of 07 hours of climbing distance – not fixed to any climber and it’s all approximate to the climber with average climbing stamina. 

About an hour flat right side (southeast) ascending from the C4 you reach the vertical snow wall climbing place, which is about 45-50m to even 60 degrees of slope. After crossing this vertical snow wall with fixed static rope, you ascend another hour flat path further.  Almost from here to just below the false Summit of Manaslu (8090m approximately, it takes about 4 hours on the average pace of 30-40 degrees of the vertical route. It is a complete safe route to climb though. From false summit to real summit of Mt. Manaslu it requires to climb up another 100m of the flat and 50-60m slope of 30-35 to stand on the top of mount Manaslu real summit at 8,156 m/ 26,759ft. The rope fixing team always fixes the rope line for safety because there can be heavy winds some days. The space on the Mt. Manaslu summit point is really narrow even hard to accommodate 2-3 climbers together. This is why sometimes there is a long traffic on summit queues.   

If you are a climber with good stamina, then you can descend all the way down to Camp 2 or even Camp 1 the same day from the summit. If you are a climber of average stamina then you can descend down to Camp 3 and then next day to Camp 1 and to the Advance Base camp the subsequent day.

Base Camp (4,895 m/ 16,059 ft)
Manaslu Base Camp is located on a rocky moraine with magnificent views of the Himalaya. You continue to stay for about five weeks in this camp during your climb. Base Camp generally serves as a home away home. Our camp for your stay is located in a strategic position from where your tents from meeting point are close, camp is safe, and the view is grandeur. Your private tent becomes your retreat place. There will be common and public dinning tent, a shower tent, and toilet tent. Prior to your arrival at the Base Camp, our crew fixes the tents already and you are welcomed with hot beverages and snacks. You perform pooja here with Sherpas to wish successful climb and safe window to the summit.

Camp I - 5,800 m/ 19,29ft: 4 Hours
You spend some days in the Base camp. You acclimatize and train with our Sherpa Guides to adjust rhythm with them and ready to climb to Camp I situated at an altitude of 5,800 m/ 190, 29 ft. Camp I is located in the head of Manaslu Glacier and divided into two sections namely lower camp I and upper camp I with 100 m distance apart. It can take around four hours to climb from Camp I to Camp II. You walk the first section in the rocks, moraine, and grassy slopes for about an hour and then for another three approximate hours in the second section that is in the glacier.

 
Camp II - 6,400 m/ 20,997 ft: 05 Hours
Camp II is situated above icefall on a snowy terrace – somewhat flat part safe from threat but can receive a lot of snow accumulation. The climb from camp I to camp II is the most technical of the Manaslu climbing which about five hours is climbing. The route to camp II continues up the glacier in upper part and you encounter the heart of icefall. In the section after an hour walk, there are several steep section of ice some as high as 100 m with some 650 slope, two ladder crossings and steep snow climbing – the crux of climbing for many climbers.

Camp III - 6,800 m/ 22,310 ft-02-03hrs:
Camp three is pitched just below the col on a flat Deurali. These types of places get plenty of wind, thus the camp as well.  The climb from camp II to III is the shortest one with only two hours apart. There is ladder crossings required but you may jump off few crevasses of roughly a half meter long. Although it is easy day to climb, still you are gaining significant height and cold, wind can put you serious challenges.

Camp IV-7,400 m/ 24,278 ft
There is quite long climbing section to camp IV. You are slowly approaching towards death zone making the climbing challenging. You are to climb on a steep snow section of some 50-550slopes. Compared to other sections this is extremely physically challenging in steep snow sections at extreme altitude in avalanche terrain.

Summit Mt. Manaslu 8,156m/26,759ft: 16-17 Hours
It is the day of your long dream of climbing Mt. Manaslu. You may start your summit bid as early in the morning as 1:00 am. If all the things run well as planned and expected, then you reach to the summit between 07-10:00 am. The main summit is reached via a exposed ridge. After you enjoy the summit return back to Camp IV which may take some four hours. You will further climb down to Camp III which may take another two hours. You stay overnight in this camp. 

How to choose an experience provider
It is important for each climber to choose the right expedition guide service that not only suites their needs, but provides the best safely and secure mountaineering experience possible. There are more than 1,700 trekking companies in Nepal who offer 8,000 meter expeditions including Everest, but only about 30 companies who operate 8,000 meter peaks on a regular basis. We are proud to be one of these 30 companies and consistently offer, run and succeed at these types of expeditions year after year.
It is very important that the climbers who choose Satori Adventures for this trip of a lifetime experience have expectations that are compatible with the program we offer and the style of expedition Satori Adventures runs. We do not want to simply “fill our expedition”, but instead we want to comprise a team of companionable people who are focused on reaching the summit with the highest level of support and safety standards that can be provided by a guiding service on Mt Everest. We team this with the best standards of food and quality equipment to further assist each client reach their full potential. We feel that we offer the best environment and opportunity for you to be successful on the world’s highest mountain.

Diminutive climbing Team members
We are always developing and growing our operational systems to ensure you participate will provide as much as facilities provided. We figure our expedition members do not deserve anything less during the trekking and climbing! In the interests of giving you the most optimal chance to summit, we limit our team size to ensure the group summits on the best weather day; sometimes there are less window days for summit in Everest. In big size of group offering cheap climbs often miss out as they split their groups over several potential summit days. We feel like our climbing members are feeling that they are climbing as a family and friends team even on international people. We accept maximum 08 people in a group and if we have more than that we always split in two groups. So that our base camp staff cooks, climbing Sherpa guide will fully taking care about you and provide service as per your desire.

Maximum summit Success;
The Satori Adventures methodology and tactical approach to climbing Mt Everest has seen us achieve the highest success rates and our extensive experience gives us the edge when it comes to making the right decisions. We provide a consistently higher Sherpa and Guide ratio than any other operator, resulting in more support and backup for your summit attempt and therefore a greater safety margin and chance of success. There is always a 1:1 ratio of the climbing Sherpa/guide and client. We always use professional and experienced climbing Sherpa or guides who have all reached the summit of Everest.

Highly Qualified Sirdar/Team leader
Our guides are professionals who are trained and assessed either via the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations (IFMGA) resulting in a greater repertoire of skills that enables them to provide a dedicated level of security to you during the expedition, or many years of mountaineering experience on the world’s biggest peaks. Our guides are experience in both advanced and basic rescue courses and all have a minimum of 3 years guiding on Everest.

Advanced Communication method
Satori Adventures Everest expeditions have been at the forefront of providing top communications for our Everest expeditions. This allows us to obtain and deliver comprehensive weather forecasts via U.S., European and Kathmandu weather forecasting. Our lead guide is always equipped with a satellite phone during the climbing and at base camp. Two way radio communications between climbing members, guides, Sherpa and base camp staff is also provided. There is also local mobile network available at base camp that provides easy connection with your family during your stay at base camp.