Leaving KTM for Arughat today!

This blog will have my location on a Google Earth real-time tracking map that I will be updating regularly using a Spot locator device.  I will also be posting text & some photos regularly to the Alpine Ascents cybercast page using a satellite phone & modem at http://www.alpineascents.com/manaslu-cybercast.asp.

Manaslu, the 8th highest peak

Beginning on September 1st, 2012 Garrett Madison & Lakpa Rita Sherpa are guiding 4 Alpine Ascents climbers on Manaslu!  We will begin posting updates when we arrive in Kathmandu on August 30th.

Manaslu (also known as Kutang) is the eighth highest mountain in the world, and is located in the Mansiri Himal, part of the Nepalese Himalayas, in the west-central part of Nepal. Its name, which means "Mountain of the Spirit", comes from the Sanskrit word Manasa, meaning "intellect" or "soul". Manaslu was first climbed on May 9, 1956 by Toshio Imanishi and Gyalzen Norbu, members of a Japanese expedition. It is said that "just as the British consider Everest their mountain, Manaslu has always been a Japanese mountain".

Manaslu at 8,156 metres (26,759 ft) above mean sea level is the highest peak in the Lamjung District and is located about forty miles east of Annapurna. The mountain's long ridges and valley glaciers offer feasible approaches from all directions, and culminate in a peak that towers steeply above its surrounding landscape, and is a dominant feature when viewed from afar.