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1) My Three Big Mistakes
When I saw the first “summit” pictures of Manaslu back in the early 2000s, I thought it were impossible for them to have been taken from the same place as those from the 1956 Japanese first ascent, with its broad summit of two different brown rock colours.
I talked about it with a mountaineer who had been in the summit region, and he said that it was the same place, only covered with a lot of snow in the autumn. Despite still having doubts, I decided to believe him because he had been there (first big mistake).
Even in the 2012 book “Herausforderung 8000er”, I did not change my mind. Somehow, I wanted to believe him. In 2012 there were even true-summit photos around by a New Zealand-Australia-Nepal expedition, but one of the perspectives made the higher summit look lower, so I did not recheck more carefully (second big mistake).
And even a later year, when the mountaineer visited me again and Tobias Pantel was also present and asked whether all the Manaslu summit pictures that our whole team had rechecked could not have been of [or from] the true summit, I wanted to defend the mountaineer and rather harshly told Tobias that he must be wrong (third big mistake).
Not much later Tobias convinced me that he was right, that I had also been right for a long time, and that the mountaineer was totally wrong. I apologized to Tobias and asked him if he could produce a study for Manaslu in the same way we had already done for Dhaulagiri I and Annapurna I.
We collected photos and drew sketches and Tobias made a fine summary that we published in 2019. We found that over 2,000 wrong summits had been claimed, who in fact had only reached a point on the ridge that changed direction.
The photos from the Polish 1984 expedition that I received were taken from the other side of the mountain, and the new route ended just at the true summit. In the 2019 publication it was already possible to see the connecting ridge from the wrong “summit” ridge point, the last col before the true summit, and a tiny high point of the true summit above it (picture 17, page 17 in the Manaslu Summit Summary PDF), but it took the drone pictures from Jackson Groves of Mingma Gyalje’s 2021 traverse finally convinced everybody that all future ascents should change.
In the meantime a great many true summits were reached, and many climbers corrected their earlier false “summits”. Last autumn even the then 86-years-old Carlos Soria finally went to the true summit and Vassili Pivtsov did as well. If Pivtsov also goes back to Dhaulagiri I, he will be the sixth climber listed in both main tables: the Legacy table which omits the research results in honour of the pioneering work, and the New Table, where only true summits count. Out of 34 climbers in the Legacy table only three climbers had reached all the true summits before the research results were published; two climbers later each corrected two of them.
2) The “Rolwaling Diversion” and Summary
It has been five years since Mingma Gyalje found a route variation to the true summit of Manaslu in autumn, avoiding the exposed and technically difficult last section of ridge that earlier parties had followed to the main summit in spring.
Since then there were 1781 true-summit ascents, and many climbers have corrected earlier “summits” that had previously stopped on the ridge point where the crest changes direction.
So many climbers stopped there because they could not see the true summit from that point. Of the 42 climbers, who have now stood on the true summits of all 14 eight-thousanders, 26 corrected Manaslu; others also also corrected Dhaulagiri I, Annapurna I and some other mountains. All of this is recorded in the updated New Table.
Most of the more than 100 corrections on Manaslu were made by Nepalese guides, but several were also made by climbers from other countries. The second table lists all of them, plus the Nepali climbers who have completed the 14 eight-thousanders.
For an overview, the Transition table has also been updated.
The fourth updated table shows all female climbers with at least three 8,000ers, plus those who claimed three of them with one or two incorrect summits. Quite a few female climbers were on this ridge point and would still need to correct it if they want to complete the 14 main eight-thousanders.
Other updated tables are available for anyone interested:
1. A nations table for all 8000ers
2. A nations table for all female climbers on all 8000ers
3. A table with at least 9 Everest ascents, 190 entries
4. A table with at least 20 8000ers ascents 58 entries
5. A table with all who climbed the Top 2 (Everest and K2) 539 entries
6. A table with all who climbed the TOP 3 (plus Kangchenjunga) 192 entries
7. A table with all who climbed the TOP 5 (plus Lhotse and Makalu) 147 entries
For the last three there are also special nation tables, no-oxygen tables and tables for female climbers. Please note that the altitude difference from No. 5, Makalu, to No. 6, Cho Oyu is nearly 300 meters. With two exceptions, the lower 8000ers were already climbed without bottled oxygen on their first ascents, so this is nothing special today.
8. A table with all five Pakistani 8000ers including nations statistics. 134 entries
9. A table with the Everest Triple Crown (Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse) 21 entries
Here is also an overview about the almanac entries, updated daily:
Birthdates: 12180 (101 Rock-climbers included)
Covering nearly all climbers, who have ascended a mountain or subsidiary peak higher than 7700 m.
Death dates: 792 (19 Rock-climbers included)
First ascents dates in High Asia and the Andes: 1974
Important event dates: 34
I also can offer worldwide special topographic mountain tables including one with all Nepalese peaks down to 5800 m. There are 1486 entries with all topographic details, 729 of them unclimbed, the others also with the first ascent dates.
All this and much more has been a giant task compiled over more than 45 years of passion.
To help this work continue - and simply to survive - it is now very necessary that the donation button is finally used. There have been more than 800,000 downloads since 2008 with almost no donations. Just a few euros per download would help a great deal. For the other tables please contact me; we can find an arrangement that works for both sides.
3) 2026: The Weather and A Proposal
The current season should have been a record one with probably more than 1000 climbers, but because after an avalanche that killed two climbers, and a massive, severe late-monsoon storm system fueled by a low-pressure system and an approaching cyclone from the Bay of Bengal all activities were stopped.
After four lucky and successful seasons the fifth anniversary of the “Rolwaling Diversion” was an unsuccessful one. In this case I would like to make a proposal: As known from older summit pictures the true summit of Manaslu is very beautiful with its two different brown rock layers, and this cannot be seen in autumn.
In the Manaslu Summit Summary PDF on 8000ers.com there are severaI examples from the first ascent in 1956 by a Japanese/Nepalese expedition and from later summits in 1999 by an USA-Finland expedition and 2012 by New Zealand-Australia-Nepal expedition mentioned above (pictures 18 and 19 on page 18). The rappel from the C3 Foresummit into the col before the true summit is also shown in some examples, one from the first femaIe ascent by a Japanese expedition in 1974 and from 2012 (NZ-Aus-Np) and 2002 by an Australian expedition (pictures 20 to 22, pages 20 to 22). Even Reinhold Messner found the true summit in 1972 and described it well in his Manaslu book and he was alone, because he sadly lost his partner on ascent.
Before 2013 probably all climbers thought they were on the true top, but in 2013 some Nepalese Sherpa climbers continued and the true summit became visible (Picture 9 on Page 11). They found the last section too difficult and thought that the ridge point counts anyway, so they and also their clients continued to stop at the wrong point during the following years.
So, if at least the first ascenders and the first female ascenders were successful long ago in spring, I think, the modern expedition companies should be able to organize spring ascents in the future, when the beauty of the summit would be visible and the ascent would probably be less dangerous than in autumn.
Maybe not that many would be willing to do this, especially because most climbers are focused on Everest and Lhotse, but they should think twice about it. Just have a look on the pictures mentioned above with the part dark and part light brown beautiful summit in spring and then discuss and decide. I think, Manaslu has spoken now through nature.
Also was it coincidence that after Manaslu was first climbed without additional oxygen by Messner in 1972, there was a big avalanche in the autumn of that year and when the last spring ascent by Guy Cotter’s expedition in 2012 was achieved, again in autumn was a big avalanche catastrophe. So at least a big part of the activity on Manaslu should change to the spring season. I hope there will be a discussion about it after this sad 2026 season.
Manaslu Summit Overview PDF
Legacy Table
Transition Table
New Era Table
Manaslu Correctors Table
Women 3+ Table
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