Nicholas Rice: Manaslu Dispatch

2009 Solo Manaslu Expedition

Dispatch Fifteen: April 7th, 2009

Day Fifteen: Carry to Camp I aborted due to Strom

Today, after a stormy night, I awoke to a calm morning (yet far from clear). I headed up through a few feet of snow to have breakfast. Afterward, I headed down to the Korean Camp to visit with them again. When returned to our base camp, I was surprised to see Alberto trying to start the generator. He was adding new oil and petrol when I arrived while scrutinizing the instruction manual. After passively watching from a distance failed attempt after failed attempt to start it, I tried to offer some advice (after all I had kept my generator running every day for hours at a time in K2 base camp nearly 50 days, I had quite a lot of experience to work off of). My suggestions fell on stubborn deaf ears; clearly the instruction manual had the answer. Then he yelled , frustrated, that it was new (though it had been on two previous expeditions and I doubt it had been tuned in Kathmandu this year). I saw that my advice was not welcome so I walked away. Since there was a good amount of sun, Mario allowed me to charge my computer off his system, and yelled down to Merelli to show me where it was. I’m sure this irritated Alberto, as at lunch, he told me that “we had a problem with food”. He had been giving the cook food he had brought from Italy to make for lunch, and, although in Kathmandu he had told me that they had brought far too much food, he told me now that I was no longer welcome to it and that I should discuss what to do with the cook. I went down to the kitchen tent and told the cook the situation (apologetically as having to prepare me a separate dish to eat every time Alberto decided to eat his own food was more work for the cook). He dismissed my apology on the spot. I decided to take it a step further and just eat in the kitchen away from Alberto’s short temper and negative energy. After this was decided, I went back to my tent and did some laundry. Mario Panzeri invited me over to his group’s mess tent for espressos. I accepted, then worked on getting my computer connected with my Thuraya phone (the network has been very temperamental this season). The snow storm continued all afternoon and we all headed back to our respective tents. After a few hours, I again joined Mereli’s group in their mess tent and we reminisced about climbs we had done in Morocco, Kenya, Tanzania, and other 8000 meter expeditions around the world. Dinner was delicious; a cous cous dish served with mutton on a sizzling plate. Afterwards, mentally exhausted from the day’s events, I went to bed