The rest of the expedition members are now in the Assault Camp 4 (7400) and are preparing for the ascent tonight! We hold our fists for them! By the way, Yana Zharkova will go on the assault on her birthday. On September 24, she turns 23, and she may become the youngest Russian woman ever to climb the eight-thousandth peak.

Roman Laukart and our Dandy cook at Manaslu Base Camp. Just after the summit.

There is the first member of our group at the summit! Tonight, a member of the 8000 Club expedition Andrey Kazakov ascended to the top of Manaslu WITHOUT additional oxygen! Now Andrey is already in Camp-3. By tradition, we will be able to finally congratulate Andrey on the first eight-thousandth when he goes down to the Base Camp.

The rest of the participants are now in Camp-3. Tonight, part of the team will already storm the summit, and two more participants will make the march to Camp-4 and will prepare for the summit assault tomorrow night.

We wish good luck to the team members!

 The plan:

September 20 - Camp 1

September 21 - Camp 2

September 22 - Camp 3

September 23 - Camp 4

September 24 - assault on the summit of Manaslu 8156m.

 Let's wish the participants good luck!!!

By the way, among them is Yana Zharkova, who may become the youngest Russian woman to ever climb the eight-thousandth peak!

Photos from a professional photographer

Austin Schmitz (USA)

News from the group "Quintessence". Today, September 17th is a wonderful day, a day of rest combined with puja. Puja is a rite of worship of the gods, where a lama reads prayers, consecrates equipment, food and drink. Many participants of other expeditions gathered. And, characteristically, it rained before and after the prayer, and the sun shone during the prayer. All the participants of the expeditions took part in this ceremony. Everything went great. A string with a knot and a white scarf were tied around everyone's neck.

See also. 

 Photos from a professional photographer Austin Schmitz (USA)

 Photos from professional photographer Austin Schmitz (USA)

Today, the Quintessence group goes to the second rotation: the First camp, the Second camp with an overnight stay. We will try to climb above Camp-2 for acclimatization and then go down to the base camp. Big greetings to everyone!

 Breaking news from Manaslu. Viktor Volodin is in touch via satellite. The group reached Camp 1 (5700m) The condition of the route is good. The camp is well equipped, its own large tent-dining room, comfortable accommodation of participants. The weather is good, light snow. Everyone is feeling great and in a good mood. Tomorrow, according to the plan, the climb to Camp 2, communication is also via satellite.

The guide of the 7 Summits Club and 8000 Club Viktor Volodin sends from Nepal:

Hello everyone!  Information from Manaslu Base Camp. The weather has finally recovered today. In the morning, the sun's rays began to gently awaken the whole camp, people began to climb out of the tents and enjoyed the sun's rays. Our group had a rotation scheduled for today before the first camp.  We slowly crossed the five thousandth milestone and then reached the height of Elbrus. Then there was a descent to the Base Camp.  Everyone feels good, tomorrow we rest.

News from the Manaslu expedition. The team reached the base camp. The weather is good, but a little rainy.

A group of climbers on Manaslu has appropriated a name "Quintessence" and flew to the village with the romantic name Samagaon.  The mood is fighting, we are waiting for another participant who should arrive tomorrow.

Colleagues, friends, all the formalities have been completed and permits for Mount Manaslu have been obtained. Departure tomorrow. The group is almost fully prepared for departure to Samagaon, everyone is cheerful. Your Victor Volodin.

 Introducing ourselves:

1. Club 8000 is a closed, elite club of climbers on the highest peaks of the World.

2. Only a person who has climbed on the summit above 8000 meters can become a member of the Club.

3. People who have climbed the peaks of 7000m and above can become candidates for Club membership. That's why we support the Snow Leopard project - the best high-altitude mountaineering school.

 The company "Club 8000"

Under the new project, a new organization was created, the company LLC "Club 8000".

Club 8000 is the first company in Russia that implements the most complex and prestigious project for organizing ascents of all 14 eight-thousand-meter peaks.  Every year we plan 5-6 expeditions to the peaks above 8000 meters.  All our expeditions are led by our super qualified high-altitude guides, climbers of Mount Everest, K2 and other eight-thousandth peaks. The company is headed by Alexander Abramov, the most famous leader of Himalayan expeditions in Russia, an authoritative all over the world, an 11-time climber of Mount Everest.

About 8000.club website

We have opened a new website. On it you will be able to get acquainted with all the climbing programs for 14 eight-thousand-meter and 5 seven-thousand-meter (Snow Leopard).  There will also be an opportunity to register, that is, to become a member of the Club. We will inform you about the progress of our expeditions.

Join the most ambitious and prestigious project "Climbing 14 eight-thousand-meters"!

 The project "14 eight-thousanders" - now it's real! The increased level of training of our Sherpa friends, the improvement of equipment, the use of helicopters and other innovations in logistics. Eight-thousandths have become more accessible. Not tfor everyone, of course, but only to those who want, believe and know how to endure, and everything is real...

Climbing Annapurna (8091m)
March 25 - April 28, $29,150, Alexander Abramov

Climbing Makalu (8481m)
April 12 - June 4, $ 29,250, Lyudmila Korobeshko

Climbing Mount Everest (8848 m)
April 15 - May 27, $ 88,410, Alexander Abramov

Climbing Broad Peak (8051)
June 20 - August 8, $35,870

COMBO Climbing K2 (Chogori) (8611m) and Broad Peak (8051)
June 20 - August 8, $59,900, Alexander Abramov

Climbing Cho-Oyu (8201 m)
September 5 - October 4, $33,000

Climbing Manaslu (8156m)
September 5 - 30, $ 26,420, Sergey Larin

Climbing Dhaulagiri (8167m)
September 5 - October 15, $ 31,900, Lyudmila Korobeshko

Climbing Shisha Pangma (8027m)
September 10 - October 9, $40,910

It is the time for the main news of the expedition of the Project 8000.guide. Yesterday, September 30, the Team of 8000.guide climbed the main peak of Manaslu. And now, which is also important, in full strength and in full health, except for the usual cough after using oxygen, summiters went down to the base camp. Details and more photos later. Due to the windy weather, the participants were allowed to climb at their own pace. Now we have to fly by helicopter to Kathmandu.

Tashi Sherpa: Final countdown on Manaslu. All members and Sherpas are in camp 4 right now
They will start for summit push around 3-4 am. They say it’s very windy right now but weather say the winds will drop from 1am tonight.

Пожелаем им хорошей погоды и удачи!

News of the project 8000.guide, expedition on Manaslu. The situation with rescue work has been resolved for the better since morning. The  helicopter arrived, with which communication was lost yesterday. He landed in the gap in the area of 5500m and spent the night there. Today, the group of the 7 Summits Club moved from Manaslu base camp (4800 m) to Camp 1 (5500 m). The climb to high-altitude camps is scheduled for the following days.  The summit assault is planned for September 30.

We wish our team good weather and good luck!

The group of the 7 Summits Club is in full force at the base camp, in complete safety.  The team planned to start climbing tomorrow. However, this exit probably will not take place. First you need to wait for the end of the rescue work and assess the real state of the route. Today is a hard day at Manaslu. First came the message that when descending from the top, the famous American athlete Hilaree Nelson fell into a crevasse and probably died, then the avalanche.

News of the Project 8000.guide, from the expedition on Manaslu. We are resting, trying to decide when to go climbing. Two participants stayed to rest at the base camp, two went down to Samagaon (3550m) by helicopter. Simone Moro was the pilot. He decided to show his skills. We went down in a minute, we had to blow through. One participant flew to Kathmandu due to business necessity. In a few days, the weather promises to improve, but the wind is increasing.

News of the project 8000.guide. Today, on 21.09, our team went down to the base camp. We were ready to climb. We headed up with this thought and preparation. Our acclimatization was not quite final, but the planned amount of oxygen allowed us to make the ascent. However, the weather has spoken its word!  The ropes fixed by the Nims team to the top became useless under a meter-thick layer of snow. And the assault camp on the 7400 is not installed and equipped. We spent the night at 6800, this is Camp 3. The team does not lose hope, despite the fact that it will most likely have to reschedule tickets. By the way, on the 17th day we found out that our expedition is international. Yuri Lukyanov is a representative of Kazakhstan. It's a rest now. Another confirmation that patience is the main thing in high-altitude mountaineering. By the way, there are also traffic jams on Manaslu.

News of the project 8000.guide.  Our plans have changed once again due to the change in the forecast and the actual weather.  Today, 17.09, we held training with oxygen equipment. We're going up tomorrow after all. There will be no communication for several days.

 Our friend Tashi Sherpa sent photos and videos from the Manaslu base camp, where in total there is also a section of the expedition of the 7 Summits Club under the leadership of Sergey Larin. On the eve of the traditional puja ceremony took place under the incessant rain and the climbers received a blessing for a successful ascent and descent.

News of the program 8000.guide.

13.09. Day of rest at the base camp. Puja, as it turned out, is scheduled for 15. 09. And this makes adjustments to our plans. Now we can start further acclimatization only on September 16. Going out without puja is not good for karma. We decided not to spoil karma.

14.09. We held ice classes in the rain. We are already used to rain and fog.

Simone Moro flew into the base camp, but he can't fly down yet because of the weather.

He participated in the rescue work here. In difficult conditions, he removed a climber from Dubai from the route, who became ill at 6400.

10.09.  A day of rest at the base camp.

11.09. Acclimatization rotation to Camp 1 (5650m) with overnight stay. The base camp stretches along the slope for 150m, we are at an altitude of 4860m at the very beginning of the camp. There is a wet corner here, there is less precipitation below and above, but there is no better place for a camp. It rains every day, sometimes turning into sleet, most of the time we are in a cloud. But our tents are adapted to this climate, completely waterproof, insulated, with beds and mattresses.

12.09. All participants went down to the base after acclimatization rotation. It's all good. Everyone tolerates high altitude well.  We had shower and rest.

News 7 Project 8000.guide. Since the Internet was turned off for several days due to clouds, news has accumulated, which I am sending now. 

7.09. Acclimatization rotation from the loggia in Samagaon to the lake, and then to the village of Samdu.

8.09. Acclimatization rotation to the monastery and the place where the hermits live at 4100m. A unique, little-visited place.

9.09. Move to the base camp at 4800m. All participants feel well. So far, everything is going according to plan, according to the program. Our tents are located first at the entrance to the base camp.

News from the 14x8000 project team. Today, on September 6th, as planned, we flew by helicopter to the village of Samagaun, Moonshine according to Russian (3800m), to the starting point for the start of the ascent to Manaslu. The weather was  good for flying, we were lucky. Moonshine is not made here for some reason, but Ruslan vodka is sold. The Ruslan vodka bottling plant was built in Nepal under the USSR with the assistance of the Moscow Crystal Plant. We plan to spend three nights here for acclimatization.

Lyudmila Korobeshko:  Joann Chechnev, the leader of this expedition, sent these photos and information about the ascent today. Our 7 Summits Club helped the team with oxygen and  with some advises  before the trip. To be honest, when Joann in our office asked about Manaslu, I thought it was a very adventurous idea. In addition to the fact that Rustam does not have both legs, the guys did not have the experience of eight-thousanders. But they did the impossible! I am proud and admire! Well done!

 Joann Chechnev sent us (to Alex Abramov) greetings and thanks from the slopes of Manaslu:

Alexander, good evening! Yesterday we climbed on the top of Manaslu. The whole team, in full force. Everything went well. Thank you for your support! Rustam did an incredible thing!

Reportage on television:

Five years ago, Rustam Nabiyev was a paratrooper and served in the city of Omsk. The roof of his barracks collapsed, more than twenty people died on the spot. Rustam lay under the rubble for seven hours, miraculously survived, but lost both legs.

On September 23, the trail to the top was trampled by the Sherpas of the Seven Summits Trek team. On the 25th, the first group of clients reached the highest point. Roman Sudorgin works as part of the second group of clients. There are now about 200 climbers on the slopes of Manaslu. Among them is a Russian disabled person, Rustam Nabiyev, who has passed acclimatization and now has to go out to storm the summit.

Program of ascent on Manaslu in the fall of 2020

 According to information from the head of the 7 Summits Club in Nepal, our good friend Mingma Gelu, the country will be fully open to tourists from August 1. The epidemiological situation in Nepal has long been considered quite favorable for this. It remains only to agree on the air transportation system, rules and procedure for returning to normal life.

 The 7 Summits Club is optimistic about the prospects for the autumn season in Nepal. We have already prepared expeditions to the eight-thousandth Manaslu  and Makalu, which you can still join. And all our traditional programs will be held, including Ama Dablam, Mera peak, Island peak, trekking to Everest Base camp, etc…

   The 7 Summits Club in the person of its President Alexander Abramov handed Nims "Golden Ice ax", so we evaluate his achievement ...

What was Nims talking about?

Nothing is impossible! The main thing in the project was precisely this idea! Show that it is possible. Nims sacrificed his pension,  laid his own house. And normal sponsorship appeared only after the completion of the first, most difficult part of the project.

 But at the same time, he wanted to show that Nepalese can be considered  as leaders in high altitude mountaineering. They consider themselves underrated.

Nims paid special attention to the fact that during the project, his team held four rescue actions. Critically, this could affect success. Especially at the very beginning, when the schedule was broken due to the rescue action at Annapurna.

The most difficult was, of course, Kanchenjunga. It was only the fourth day after the descent from Dhaulagiri. Fatigue was incredible. However, when on the descent, Nims's group found three climbers who were unable to move independently, they were assisted. And of the 40 climbers who were in the nearest camp, no one took part in the action.

Nims also climbed with  supplemental oxygen because there can be different situations on the ascent and often other climbers have to be helped. What would be impossible without additional oxygen.

Before K2 he was worried more than usual. After all, no one was able to get to the top before them. Even very strong teams. Under the mountain there were about a hundred climbers. When they arrived at the base camp, everyone turned to Nims with a question about their plans. He answered - today we drink (alcohol) and no plans. And in the morning his team took the storm of the most formidable mountain.

By the way, during the 16-year service in the elite unit of the English army (the Gurkhas are considered by many to be “the best warriors in the world”) Nims did not drink alcohol at all. But now he believes that it can even be useful in the mountains.

On Pakistan's eight-thousanders, the Nims team had difficulties associated with the work of local porters. Nepalis simply did not like the pace of their movement. Therefore, they carried goods under Broad Peak and Gasherbrum independently.

Nims plans to issue book,  ti finish a film, work in his company Elite Himalayan Adventures, make a new route to Cho Oyu, perhaps for new records ...

And! Collaborate with  the 7 Summits Club and work with our groups. And not only in Nepal!

From an interview with Forbes magazine:

I am not really afraid of anything. But there is an old saying: If someone says, “I’m not afraid of dying,” they must either be a Ghurka or they must be lying. I am a Ghurka (laughs)!

Reinhold Messner, the man of the era who first climbed the eight-thousanders: “Nims, I can see in your eyes - it comes from your soul, from your heart - I think you can do this project.”

 Now we made sure that Messner was right. Nims is a very honest, decent, pure in his goals, strong person in every way, and at the same time he is adequately thinking. We are friends now!

Hello from Kathmandu! Manaslu expedition the 7 Summits Club completed successfully. Everyone climbed to the top. Yesterday we solemnly handed over certificates for the ascent to the members. Everyone's flying home tonight.

 Several records during the expedition : 1) Irina Zisman – record of Russia  3x8000 for one year. Cho-Oyu, Everest and Manaslu. 2) Ludmila Tolstokorova - the oldest climber on Manaslu from Russia.

Come hear about our Manaslu expedition this Thursday at 19.30 at Malyy karetnyy pereulok, 10!

Now we are here -  4 hours 30 minutes local time. The sun came out…

…

We will leave at midnight or 1 am, because a lot of other expeditions, some of them are slow. We will try not to be in the tail, to be somewhere in the middle or somewhere in the beginning.

Everyone feels good. A small intrigue – one of members tries to ascend without oxygen.

The rest of us go with oxygen. The weather is great! Tomorrow morning there will be an assault, keep your fists for us…

 Bye, everyone!

We wish good luck to our team and look forward to new messages!

Hi ! This is Ludmila Korobeshko from the 7 Summits Club expedition Manaslu-2019. Today all our team left the Manaslu base camp in the morning.  We went up to the first camp, at 5700. It was a little hard, but in principle, we reached it normally. We were a little tired, but now we are recovering.  We had some soup, and in half an hour we would have supper. So early, because we want to go to bed early. Tomorrow we plan to leave the camp at 8 am in order to go to the third camp. That is, tomorrow we have quite a long climb. First in the second camp and forth - immediately in the third.   We already plan to spend the night in the third camp, that is, at an altitude of about 6700. That is, tomorrow we have about a kilometer to gain again…

Listen to the audio message (in Russian):

 In Crimea, we continue training for high-altitude climbing.  We have three groups at the same time. Mikhail Turovsky, Alex Abramov and Natasha Kartashova try the via ferrata on the Ilyas-Kaya. The route of extraordinary beauty, a series of quite flat sections turns into an overhanging walls. We have to sweat, strong wind knocks down, but we fight!

At breakfast we congratulated Luda Isakova -  Happy birthday!  And then we decided to wait with the start - hoping the snow stops. However, the snow kept falling. Moreover, it turned out that the fixed ropes were not fixed even to the Camp 4. The Sherpas team left in the morning, but turned around before reaching Camp 4.

Taking into account the absence of a prepared route and avalanche danger after snowfall, we decided to postpone the exit for climb for another day.

 September 21st. 19-day Manaslu expedition of the team of  the 7 Summits Club. This is the last day of rest. In the morning there was a meeting of the leaders of the expeditions.  The company 7 Summits Trek is engaged in fixing ropes. They reported that a team of Sherpas was making their way to Camp 4 today. And tomorrow to the top. However, by the evening it turned out that the team was able to fix only half the way to Camp 4 due to the large amount of snow. Will try tomorrow to fix to L-4.

However, we decided not to delay the exit. We're going to go to camp 1 tomorrow. On 25.09  the same day as previously, planned assault.

In the evening there was a pleasant meeting with our old friends - Lynn and Noel Hannah. They're planning an assault on the 28th.

Our team (now seven to eight) feels good! All our members have regained their strength in Samagaon and are ready for feats.

 September 20.  Day 18 of the  Manaslu expedition. This morning the weather has finally pleased us: we saw the blue sky and white Manaslu, waking up in Samagaon.

   We wanted to leave early in the morning, but it turned out that one of the members, Tom, will not be able to continue the expedition. He is still on the descent from the second camp complained about the pain in hand. Looks like it's a sprain. We were hoping he'd get better down the valley. But  the pain only increased.  He had to take painkillers every 3-4 hours, but at night Tom could hardly sleep. In the end, he decided to finish the expedition. We sent him by helicopter to Kathmandu.

  Having overcome 1300 m of a drop in 6 hours, we came to the Base camp which became native already. It is half-buried by snow. Tomorrow our plan is rest. The day after tomorrow, most likely, we go to storm of Manaslu. Plan is the next: 22 September - Camp 1. September 23 - Camp 3. September 24 - Camp 4. September 25 - Summit and descent as low as possible, ideally to BC.

Hello from Manaslu from Lucy and Sergio! More precisely, greetings from Samagaon, where the day before yesterday we came to rest in the rain and mud, sheltered from showers and snowfalls…

September 18th. We're in Samagaon. Yesterday we sat until the last minute at the Base camp at 4800 in in hope of waiting for the end of rain. Instead, the rain increased, and the snow began to fall again. We could not stand it and after dinner, wearing all the Gore-Tex and polyethylene, rushed downstairs. We almost had to swim across the rivers - at least, wade through almost knee-deep in water. And we had to knead a lot of dirt. Before sunset, hungry, cold, but happy, we reached Samagaon. And here we rest!

In Samagaon we met one of our best Sherpas, an old friend - Pemba. Incidentally, he is the man who took  video of the last jump of Valery Rozov on Amadablam...

 The days of 12-13-14. 14-15-16 Sep. The second acclimatization rotation.

 On Friday the 13th we decided not to go up, and started for second rotation  on Saturday the 14th. In the morning it rained a little. We reached the First Camp in about 5 hours. Now the Camp 1 is changed. Then dozen of new expeditions came with their tents. It snowed after dinner. But we were already in our big, cozy Red Fox dinner tent, where members of other expeditions tried to sneak in from time to time.

  The next morning we tried to get out early to cross dangerous areas before the slopes melted. We put on avalanche sensors, helmets, quickly gathered, but were not the first.  We had to pass some  group on the road. But on steep sections it was necessary to wait long - a rope upwards was only one. This section from  Camp 1 to  Camp 2 is the most dangerous on the route. There are  a lot of the overhanging cornices and seracs here. It was scary, so we hardly rested. We tried to quickly run through the dangerous areas. So we passed several ladders thrown over crevasses, in some places it was very impressive...

   By lunchtime we reached the Second Camp.  There we had discussed long time, how safely is chosen place for our camp. After all, just in this place a few years ago a big avalanche killed dozens of people.  We went to sleep with avalanche sensors on.

  We woke up at 5am, it was snowing. We quickly gathered to be first on descent. But  after 20 minutes on a steep section we again ran into the Chinese. But in the end, we still quickly descended to the First Camp. There we had breakfast and ran on through rain and snow. By 11 am wet, but happy we rushed to the base camp – to dry off, relax and watch the forecasts...

 Day 11. September 13. Day of next Puja and continuation of global flood.

 The sun finally came out in the morning. And we went to Puja at thr Nims camp. After the Puja, Nims invited us to his camp. He said he was rescheduling his flight to Cho-Oyu for one day. We met his team. Very funny and cool guys. His command operator is very similar to Edmund Hillary in his youth.

 At lunchtime we returned to our camp.

Then the rains came again. But we do not intend to change our plans and postpone the rotation exit. Tomorrow morning we go to the Camp 1, the day after tomorrow to the Camp 2.

In the morning Israfil, the most famous Azerbaijani climber, came to visit us. We reminisce our joint expedition to the North Pole, on Denali, Everest. Then came Don Wargowsky, with whom we were together on Denali (now he leads the expedition the Summit Climb). Then we met Arnold Costner, who was a frequent visitor to our EVEREST BC from the North.

 But the main meeting, of course,  was with the hero of this year - Nims (Nirmal Purja), who completes his INCREDIBLE project of 14 eight-thousanders in 7 months. He has 3 peaks left - Manaslu, Cho-Oyu and Shishapangma. And the biggest problem now is Shisha, as Chinese authorities have closed the mountain for climbing this season. Nims hopes for a positive solution to the issue with the Chinese authorities. If not, for Cho-Oyu he is ready to go from Nepal on a more difficult route. But how to deal with Shisha?

 Nims told so many interesting things about himself and his project. For an hour we sat with Israfil in his tent and listened with open mouths. As a result, we invited him to Moscow and Baku. And Nims even agreed....

 And then he came to visit our camp of the 7 Summits Club, where he again told a lot of interesting things and took pictures with the whole group. He also invited us to visit his camp for Puja.

The morning of 9 September began with the Puja - blessing of the camp. At 6 a.m. Lama came from a neighboring expedition and began to read prayers. Our Sherpas built a stupa for the Puja. By 8 a.m. all members of the expedition gathered near the stupa. They brought equipment for the consecration and donations.

We lit a fire, the smoke went towards the mountain, which is considered a good sign. Drank the sacred drink and at the end of the ceremony castув tsamps toward the stupa.

About 10 am we left the Base camp. To 12 hours we reached the Crampons Point. Then we put on our crampons and went out on the glacier. There are many crevasses, but all are well marked. Bridges are reliable. The last 200 meters we were given a little hard: three consecutive steps. By the way, this year we put the first camp 150 meters higher than usual. But this place is more beautiful  and secure. And part of the route to the second camp is clearly visible - a somewhat frightening icefall with some overhanging.

 We went from basу camp to first in 6 hours. The vertical drop is about 1000 m. in the evening we measured oxygen (from 65 to 85) - on average, normal. We ate soup with chicken and rice. The first camp we have quite comfortable - there is a dining tent, sleep two in sleeping tents, and even with mattresses. And we allocated to the doctor a separate tent - for his kilograms of medicines. He had already "saved" two members - bandaged sprained wrist and plastered cracked nail.

We didn't sleep so badly. Although almost all had pain in the head, was saved by diacarb and analgesic (with Pentalgin). There were avalanches in the night, but we were almost used to this sound.

In the morning after breakfast we worked with avalanche sensors. Members quickly found everything that Dr. Larin had hidden. And then we all ran down the valley together. We reached the base camp in less than two hours - we really wanted to go to the bath.

Now we wash, rest, gain strength before the second more difficult rotation.