BURSTLegendary alpinist Simone Moro and Nepalese climber Nima Rinji Sherpa will be attempting to climb Manaslu, one of the 14 8,000-metre peaks, this winter in alpine style.
Rinji Sherpa, who’s only 18, made headlines this year when he became the youngest person to ever summit the 14 8,000ers. Moro, who started climbing in the Himalayas in 1992, has made the first winter ascents of four of the 14 8,000ers with Shisha Pangma in 2005, Makalu in 2009, G2 in 2011 and Nanga Parbat in 2016. In 2001, he gave up a traverse Everest-Lhotse near the top to rescue an another alpinist and was awarded with the gold medal for civil merit from the Italian president.
After climbing Ama Dablam this year, Moro told ExplorersWeb, “I want to help Nima Rinji become a future professional mountaineer. Sherpas are strong, but they are either guides or porters. None do technical alpinism full-time. I understand [this], because they have to combine their wish to do technical climbs with earning money guiding. Nima has his father supporting him [financially] so I want to take charge of coaching and give him the right training. He is already a strong indoor climber, so let’s try to make him a technical alpinist too.”
This will be Moro’s sixth attempt at Manaslu in winter. None of the 14 8,000ers have been climbed in winter in alpine style, which means no fixed ropes, no fixed camps, no gear caches, no Sherpa support, no supplemental oxygen, and the team cannot have attempted it previously during that season. And to be a pure winter climb, the climbers cannot reach base camp until Dec. 21.
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