Maldita montaña' #49: Conquering winter Manaslu: how Alex Txikon and his team made it to the summit
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In-depth report on Alex Txikon and his team's ascent of winter Manaslu. NEWSLETTER. A publication for pyrenees, mountaineers and adventure lovers. Aires de altura in a weekly newsletter. SIGN UP HERE: https://travesia.substack.com/ Manaslu winter 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 climb from C3 (6,800m) to the summit at 8,163m and back down to base camp. "Good conditions, but more difficult and dangerous than I expected, especially between camp 1 and camp 2, due to extremely tricky passes between seracs, such as a small icefall from the Khumbu," Txikon told Explorersweb. The summit was reached by the team of Nepalese climbers along with Alex Txikon. The Nepalese from the Seven Summit agency 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 gesture that he wanted to thank publicly. 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 that it has always maintained.
Now we talk about the controversy (or noise) that always accompanies these milestones. You can see in the tweet by Darío Rodriguez, editor of Desnivel, how the Russian media quickly criticised the way the news was headlined. They refer to the fact 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 by an uncommon route. At a different time, with different means. I found this article by Stefan Nestler "Style debate after the winter success on Manaslu" very interesting in relation to these discussions on style.
REFERENCES APPEARING IN THE PODCASAT:
- Alex Txikon: 'Manaslu Was More Dangerous Than I Expected' (Explorersweb)/ Angela Benavides / https://explorersweb.com/alex-txikon-manaslu-was-more-dangerous-than-i-expected/
- Style debate after winter success on Manaslu (ADVENTURE MOUNTAIN) / Stefan Nestler / https://abenteuer-berg.de/en/style-debate-after-winter-success-on-manaslu/
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
02:16 SUMMIT. Communication of winter ascent Manaslu (Alex Txikon and 6 Nepalese)
07:06 Alex Txikon chronicles the winter ascent of Manaslu from Kathmandu.
10:42 Ascent times. 60 hours from BC to summit.
13:44 Controversies, noise and style comparisons.
21:48 Response from Alex Txikon, first or not first winter ascent to Manaslu
