Nicholas Rice: Manaslu Dispatch

2009 Solo Manaslu Expedition

Dispatch Fifty-five: May 17th, 2009

Day Fifty-five: SUMMIT PUSH: Climb from Camp II to High Camp II

Today, we woke up around 6am, had breakfast, packed up our things for Camp III and got underway. A calm morning quickly gave way to high winds. We were battered by winds in the 100 miles per hour range as we moved up toward Camp III. As the weather intensified, at times nearly blowing us over, we Mario and I decided to stay in high Camp II (6,800 meters) for the night. We hoped that the weather forecast would give us good weather on the 19^th as well as the 18^th. No one was heading up to Camp III so had we decided to continue, Mario and I would have had to break trail. Instead, it seemed that everyone had made the same decision as us to stay in high Camp II; the French, Japanese, Spanish, and Hungarian expeditions were all staying in Camp. Mario and I spent the afternoon sorting our carry to Camp IV for tomorrow. We received the news we hoped for from Portugal; the 19^th would have low winds but the possibility for snow in the afternoon. It was a good day for a summit. With this news, we decided to head up to Camp IV tomorrow, a seven hour climb with 600 meters of elevation gain. We knew it would be a long day, as we both had over 20kg loads, but it would make the summit day shorter and would increase our chances for success.

Photos: Left: High Camp II in high winds with North Peak in the background; Right: Nick in High Camp II