An avalanche at Base Camp, an earthquake in the team » Explorersweb

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Yesterday, a large avalanche in Manaslu reached the base camp. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the campaign will resume once conditions improve. But the fragile balance among campaign members may be broken.

A small team stays at Base Camp

Despite Simone Moro’s recent post (“We all went to Samagaon, Sherpas, mountaineers, and the whole team”), not everyone held back last Friday. Despite accumulating snow for three days nonstop, a small crew of Sherpas remained in charge of maintaining the base camp.

Oswald Pereira confirmed: “Pemba Sherpa, Sang Furi, Ganesh Gurung, twins Norbu and Gilbo are fine, although I can only imagine how difficult the past few hours have been for them.”

It was the base crew who reported an avalanche yesterday. The icy blast destroyed some of the tents, while the icy walls built by Alex Texikon and Simone Moreau’s team outnumbered others.

“Last week we did some tests on the ice pits and concluded that the avalanche hazard on the mountain was a maximum (five on the European SLF scale), so any attempt to move over the track was out of the question,” Txikon told ExplorersWeb of ExplorersWeb. Pokhara today. “However, we never expected avalanches to reach the point of base camp.”

“The report we got from Base Camp is very superficial, but it appears that the dining tent and at least one other tent have been flattened,” Texecon added. Txikon couldn’t tell if the camp was directly hit or just affected by the blast of wind in the avalanche expanding like a shock wave.

Alex Tsikkon digs a snow hole to assess avalanche hazards in Manaslu. Photo: Sendoa Elejalde

Listen to “Winter Maestro”

On Saturday, Simone Moreau stated that Base Camp was safe, “up to a point.” But when he received news of the avalanche a day later, the Italian took the opportunity to open a can of worms. In an email sent to Oswald Pereira, but addressed to the entire team in Samagaon, Moreau didn’t hit any. It starts as follows:

“After today’s avalanche in British Columbia, I really hope it was very clear to the whole team and members why I’m still alive today: I always follow my nose and my experience and this time getting off the mountain saved our lives,” Morrow wrote.

“Climbing in winter requires not only hope and motivation, but above all a lot of experience, a lot of time (three months), a lot of patience, a lot of logistics and budget, and a lot of humility. Our ego often kills us because we feel we are competing or that we are observers from outside.

Night shoveling during the last snowfall at Manaslu Base Camp. Photo: Oswald Rodrigo Pereira

“People who want to fight in heavy snow, who want to run, run, or show how they can resist danger will die soon, and Alex and I don’t want any of us to die in Manaslu. So remind everyone not to run on the mountain for at least the three days to The first four are as bright as the sun because more avalanches will go down.”

“This is a friendly message from someone that some ice warriors call the ‘Maestro of Winter,’ perhaps for a reason… I know you totally agree and understand but I hope this is a general idea without exception. It could be the secret to our joint success,” concluded Morrow.

Alex Txikon declined to make on-record comments about the apparent tension among members over the expedition permit, but he is unhappy with the situation.

Are they a team?

As mentioned when climbers arrived at Manaslu Base Camp at the beginning of winter, the only climbing permit issued included mountaineers with diverse experiences, opinions, and motivations. Alex Txikon and Iñaki Alvarez have their own Base Camp team and join Simone Moro, as they did last winter. Expedition equipment manufacturer Seven Summit Treks has opened the expedition to other climbers, including Paula Strengel of Finland, Sophie Lenaarts, Steve Maginel of Belgium, and Oswald Rodrigo Pereira of Poland. They each have an individual agreement regarding logistics and Sherpa assistance (or no Sherpa assistance, whatever the case may be).

The permit also includes several Nepalese climbers, some of whom are dedicated to helping a specific foreign client, but also focused on fixing ropes and breaking the pass on the road. Nepalese climbers are under the command of Cheppal Sherpa, who has extensive winter experience as a member of the previous Txikon expeditions. Simon Morrow arrived at Base Camp with another Nepalese climber, Pasang Rinzee Sherpa.

Of the individual climbers who joined the expedition, only Pereira had been in the 8000’er winter before (K2 last year). Meanwhile, Txikon and Moro are professional climbers with dozens of Himalayan expeditions under their belts, both expert high-altitude winter climbers.

Alex Texecon (left) and Simone Morrow at Manaslu Base Camp. Photo: Alex Tsekcon

If this happened in the spring or fall, with other teams on the mountain and work on the entire route was completed by a pre-assigned Sherpa force, it is likely that each individual or small team would have been able to come up with their own strategies and make their own decisions on the Mt. But it’s winter, and there’s no one around and conditions are tough. Like it or not, climbers have to rely on each other.

So what’s next?

Sherpas can help a lot, but they cannot take all the burden. Every climber must do their part and help out for the greater good, whether on the mountain, at Base Camp, or when making decisions. Winter does not allow any errors. A wrong move by a single climber can put everyone at risk.

On the other hand, independent climbers have joined an open commercial expedition. They paid their fees. The climbers did not set out the specific terms they each agreed to make public, but both Morrow and Txikon were aware of the commercial project and were reportedly upbeat with it, Txikon told ExplorersWeb previously.

In the end, a mixed group like the one currently in Manaslu would probably be troublesome. There must be clear leadership, a detailed plan and clear agreement among all members about what is expected of them. This winter there was no opportunity to sort out any of these issues before the trip.

The good news is that it may not be too late. None of the climbers currently on Samagaon have shared any complaints or publicly agreed with Morrow’s email. Pereira acknowledged the Italian’s words and confirmed that since his help was not needed at Base Camp, he would remain in the village until conditions were safe. Lenaerts notes that there’s also an avalanche risk between Samagaon and Base Camp, so it’ll stay put too.

As for the route itself, as Moreau and Texeccon note, it will take days before the snow settles on the mountain. Until then, the adventure will be an unacceptable risk.

About the author, Angela Benavides

Senior journalist, author and communications consultant. Specializing in high-altitude mountaineering, with an interest in everything about mountains: from economics to geopolitics. After five years of exploring distant professional fields, I returned to ExWeb BC in 2018. I feel like I’ve been at home ever since!

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