Nicholas Rice: Manaslu Dispatch

2009 Solo Manaslu Expedition

Dispatch Fifty-four: May 16th, 2009

Day Fifty-four: SUMMIT PUSH: Climb from Base Camp to Camp II

Today, Mario and I woke up at 4:00am, had a quick breakfast, and got underway. We decided to leave early so that we would have time to dig out my tent in camp II with all of our summit equipment and allow it to dry in the afternoon, as it was surely frozen. We arrived quickly to Camp I, my tent now nowhere to be seen, buried under at least two meters of snow; it had already been completely covered by snow when I left it last and that was before we received non-stop snow for days at a time. Most of the tents in Camp I now were in holes at least a meter deep. Half were broken and abandoned. After giving up on finding my tent, I continued the final two hours to Camp II where Kipa and Mario had set up a new tent. My tent was, as we expected, crushed under around a meter and a half of snow, but someone had dug it partially and Kipa was able to get inside and retrieve our things. The Russians had told Mario that I could stay in their tent, as mine was clearly inhabitable. We spent the afternoon resting in the warm, windless afternoon, had dinner, and went to sleep.

Photos: Left: Nick’s buried tent in Camp II; Right: Nick enroute to Camp II