September 25

Three brave survivors decide to descend. An honorable decision given what they have been through.  Edita called this morning and said the team and guides are thoroughly assessing the safety situation on the mountain before deciding one way or the other but feel it is likely going to be ok to ascend in the next day or 2.  http://altitudejunkies.com/dispatchmanaslu12.html

Edit wrote today….”We are all still shaken after what happened yesterday morning at the mountain. At about 4:30AM, a big serac fell down the slope above camp 3 and triggered a huge
blast and avalanche. I was already up and getting dressed in my tent with my tent mate, still sitting in my sleeping bag when I heard the blast. I told my tent mate that this must be an avalanche. She said don’t worry we are safe. After few seconds, a powerful force hit out
tent and we were trying to hold it up as we were tumbling down. Things happened so fast that there was no time to panic. There were so many thoughts that run through my mind and I thought we’ll get berried under the snow. Fortunately, the blast stopped and we were able to get
out of the tent. All my group members survived and this was the best news ever. It took some time to find my gear all scattered in the avalanche. I was halfway dressed, so that was an advantage. However, both my boots were missing. To keep it warm, I was covered with the sleeping bag. My feet were still cold but it was nothing compare to those survivors at camp 3. Finally, the items were found one by one. My boots appeared. The only thing that was missing was my spot
tracker. So, I will not provide any more  live updates on my expedition progress via SPOT.

Camp 2 Survivors – Photo courtesy of “Olle”

We are all now safe at the base camp. There are 8 people confirmed dead and 3 missing. Many who were injured were evacuated to Kathmandu. This morning, tree helicopters were making rotations up to the mountain to the base camp and to Sama Goan to retrieve the 8 bodies
from the mountain. What a tragedy! It is an accident that couldn’t been predicted. It is nobodies fault. Our hearts and minds is with those who lost thier loved ones. We are lucky to survive.

All teams are now working on their new plans. There is nobody going up the mountain until we have another puja ceremony for those who lost their lives. Our plan is to take another day off tomorrow and leave for the summit push on Wednesday. Our potential summit day would be on
Sep 30. The weather is still looking ok for that day. Since I won’t have a SPOT tracker, the Altitude Junkies Manaslu blog will be themost reliable source to follow my progress.”

Apparently the “Team” is planning on another attempt to get to the summit. Good luck to them all.