Manaslu Expedition

Trip Overview

Mount Manaslu (8163m.) was first climbed in 1956 by a Japanese expedition. Its name comes from the Sanskrit word manias, meaning “intellect” or “soul”. It is the same root word as that for Manasarover, the holy lake near Mt. Kailash in Tibet. Just as the British considered Everest their mountain, Manaslu has been always regarded as the “Japanese mountain” by the Japanese; because of the Japanese people’s first conquered on its top.

HW Tillman and Jimmy Roberts photographed Manaslu during a trek in 1950 but the first real survery of the peak was made by a Japanese expedition in 1952.

A Japanese team made the first serious attempt on the peak from the Buri Gandaki valley in 1953. When another team followed in 1954, the villagers of Samagaon told them the first team had been responsible for an avalanche that destroyed a monastery & refused to let the 1954 expedition climb. The expedition set off to climb Ganesh Himalayan instead.

The Manaslu expedition is much more technical and challenging than Cho Oyu and Sishapangma, so each climber has to have excellent physical and mental preparation as well as a high level of climbing proficiency and altitude adeptness at higher elevation.