Conquering the winter Manaslu: this is how Alex Txikon and his team reached the summit
Winter Manaslu by Alex Txikon and his team
- Winter Manaslu for Alex Txikon and his team (we will talk about this later because there has been controversy with the way the news has been treated). This was his second winter summit after his 2016 ascent of Nanga Parbat. They took advantage of a relatively short window of stable conditions to ascend from C3 (6,800m) to the summit at 8,163m and down to base camp. "Good conditions, but more difficult and dangerous than expected.especially between camp 1 and camp 2, due to extremely complicated passes between seracs, such as a small icefall from the Khumbu," said Txikon to Explorersweb. The team of Nepalese climbers reached the summit together with Alex Txikon. The Nepalese from the Seven Summit They used supplementary oxygen, which Txikon did not do on his ascent. For his part, Simone Moro, who was indisposed, practically withdrew from C2 to the BC alone, a decision that Txikon has remarked as a a gesture for which he has publicly expressed his gratitude. Remember that both are involved in this winter ascent for the third consecutive year, with two unsuccessful attempts, and on this occasion they will not share the summit. Winter summit of Manaslu, not the first according to The Himalayan Data Base (Desnivel)which, according to its criteria, considers the meteorological winter (from 1 December to 28 February) as opposed to the astronomical winter (from 21 December to 21 March), criteria which it has always maintained.
- Now we talk about the controversy (or noise) that always accompanies these milestones. You can see in the Dario Rodriguez's tweetDesnivel editor, how the Russian media quickly criticised the way the news was headlined. They say that it would have been fairer to headline "the Nepalese team made the ascent, with O2, and there was a foreigner in the team: Alex Txikon (who did not use it)". Dario asks for an opinion, in a great show of transparency. The expedition has been compared to Nirmal Purja's first winter expedition to K2 in 2021. Txikon did not hide the fact that part of the team was going to use artificial oxygen and fixed ropes for the ascent, and that he would do it without oxygen. Is he considered to be without oxygen even though part of the team did use it? This also brings us into the debate about the style of the ascent. And what is clear, as Txikon has also pointed out, is that his ascent of Manaslu cannot be compared to the one made by the Poles Maciej Berbeka and Ryszard Gajewski in 83/84 (Desnivel)without artificial oxygen, without sherpas and on an unusual route. In a different era, with different means. With regard to these discussions on style, I found this article by Stefan Nestler very interesting.Style debate after winter success at Manaslu".
