This morning we woke up in a white world: it had snowed quite a bit and the sun was shining! Unfortunately, it’s raining now again. We decided to make a small acclimatisation tour to ‘Crampon Point’, the spot where the ice starts on Manaslu glacier at ~5100 m. As there are no fixed ropes yet and the rocks were frozen, Pemba thought it too dangerous to go further. That was a pity as I wanted to test my brand-new shoes with crampons. I got the La Sportiva G2 (considering if Antonio Moro could climb Gasherbrun with them, I should be able to climb Manaslu with them) but have never worn them. They are very sophisticated and nice. I will try the crampons on one of the icefields around MBC (they are everywhere as we are basically camping next to the end of the Manaslu glacier). As far as planning goes, we expect the start of the rope fixing tomorrow. The Puja ceremony is also planned for tomorrow. Rumour runs that Monday some sort of WiFi will be installed in MBC, which -if true- might allow to upload some nice photos.
This afternoon the sun appeared and for the first time we had a magnificent view on Manaslu… very impressive. With the sun out, everything dried quickly at last. In addition, Mingma had decided that everyone who wanted could take a ‘shower’. I did and it was very nice to poor hot water from a bucket over me with a mug in a specially set up tent. My own tent is leaking quite a bit, so everything on the floor is soaked. They promised I can move to another tent tomorrow. This afternoon, I have strolled around the entire base camp. There are quite a few groups and I estimate that there may be up to 200 climbers. I saw a few familiar faces (it’s a small world) and talked to several people. The mood in MBC seems very good.
