Simone Moro, Alex Txikon call off Manaslu winter expedition

Simone Moro's fourth attempt to climb Manaslu in winter has ended without the hoped-for 8163m summit. The decision to call off the climb was taken with Basque Alex Txikon, the other leader of the winter expedition to what is considered the "easiest among the giants of the earth" as Moro explain. The 8000er is anything but easy though, especially when the weather plays up. Ever since the expedition got underway in mid-December, the winter storms have proven particularly harsh, bringing constant snow accompanied by high winds at high altitude.

Moro writes "The problem is that you can't really go beyond Camp 1. You can easily climb up to Camp 1 because it is protected, but afterwards, when the real climbing begins, the danger of avalanches is high and the wind is a real problem. If the weather remained stable we could also try, but it continues to snow."

After struggling for weeks against this particularly difficult winter, the team chose to end the expedition yesterday. "Today, all together, with the Sherpas, the companions with whom we shared this experience, we looked reality in the face and decided to end it here."

This was Txikon's second attempt at climbing Manaslu in winter and, as mentioned previously, Moro's fourth who specifies that he has "dedicated over a year of my life to Manaslu." The 54-year-old Italian holds the unbeatable record of first winter ascents on the eightthousanders: Shisha Pangma (2005), Makalu (2009), Gasherbrum II (2011) and Nanga Parbat (2016).