Nicholas Rice: Manaslu Dispatch

2009 Solo Manaslu Expedition

Dispatch Fifty-eight: May 20th, 2009

Day Fifty-seven: SUMMIT PUSH: Descent from Camp IV to Base Camp

Today, after not getting much sleep last night thanks to the noisy French, we packed up our things and ventured into the freezing morning to begin the descent to base camp. The morning was frigid; both Lina and I had frozen hands and feet. We slowly navigated the dangerous ice down towards Camp III. The descent was extremely slow. I was still exhausted from carrying the heavy pack up to Camp IV the other day and after descending from the summit, had problems with my knees. It took us all day to reach base camp. We stopped at each camp for a long break and drank all the water we had with us. I ended up with a very heavy pack, a bit over 30kg’s.It was hard to feel sorry for myself as Sherpas carrying (and dragging) a combined weight of 80kg’s went by. We reached base camp around 5pm, almost eleven hours after leaving Camp IV. The Spanish expedition invited Mario and I over for a celebratory dinner. We headed down around seven with Italian cheese and wine to add to the arsenal of Spanish meats and wine and celebrated long into the night. I headed back up to our quiet empty base camp and went to bed around 10pm. Oddly enough, it took me some time to fall asleep despite my state of exhaustion. Tomorrow, we must pack everything up for the trek down, as the porters will arrive on the 22^nd; the kitchen staff has been eager to head down for nearly two weeks now, our summit aspirations taking a back seat to their desire to return home.

Photos: Left: Summit of Manaslu Right: Dahl Baht on the Summit of Manaslu