Mountain diary

11th Dec - 1st Jan (1998)
     Stay in Galicia

2nd Jan
     Flight to Nepal

3rd Jan
     Arrival at Katmandu. Álex, Jesús and Toni; Quino goes too.

4th Jan
     Kathmandu. Last details are ultimated to go to Mt Manaslu. The permit is shared with a Basque expedition.

5th Jan
     They take a bus to Gorkha. Lakpa, the cook, has waited for them for 10 days in Sama with the rest of the team.

6th Jan
     They begin to approach. Yelu, a Sherpa friend who had already been with them in Langtang, goes with. They reach Arughat Bazar, a village beside the river Burhi Gandaki.

7th Jan
     Sans porters, they make the approach quickly. They climb up from Arughat to Machha Khola. The route follows the river Baurhi Gandaki all the time. In Machha Khola, it forms large warm-watered puddles.

8th Jan
     They climb up to Ekle Batti. Good weather accompanies them every day, as it didn't do in previous approaches. This one is hardly prepared for tourism and it hardly has lodges.

9th Jan
     From Ekle Bhaatti to Namrung. Although it is wintertime and there has been such a heavy snowfall last month, the snow seems to be quite high. In Namrung they find the first snows.

10th Jan
     They arrive at Samagaon (3500m), which is totally covered by snow. Lakpa has been waiting for them for 15 days.

11th Jan
     Supported by 25 porters they move up to basecamp (4800m). There they join the Iñurriategui brothers and Josu, who arrived together with Lakpa.

12th Jan
     Jesús and Toni climb up to pitch down a tent at Camp I (5800m), and then they turn back to basecamp.

13th Jan
     Quino and Toni move down to Samagaon. Álex and Jesús stay at basecamp.

14th Jan
     Álex and Jesús climb up to sleep at Camp I. Toni climbs up to basecamp, but Quino stays in Samagaon.

15th Jan
     Álex and Jesús move down to basecamp. At 5.00pm, Quino makes a walkie-talkie call to communicate that he suffers from rare physical problems (edemas, exhaustion,...), though he ignores the reasons. Toni moves down and meet Quino, who is quite sick: he hardly speaks and he can't stand up.

16th Jan
     Having taken a lot of liquid with salts at night, Quino seems to be fine in the morning. Yelu moves down to stay with him, until he decides what he wants to do. Toni climbs up to basecamp.

17th Jan
     Jesús and Toni climb up to Camp I. It seems as if Quino were sick again. Álex climbs down to Samagaon at dusk.

18th Jan
     Jesús and Toni return to basecamp. They ask for a helicopter to remove Quino. Jesús climbs down to Samagaon. The helicopter arrives at 12.00pm to take Quino to a medical center in Kathmandu. Álex goes with him. Jesús climbs up to basecamp again.

19th Jan
     Jesús and Toni move up to Camp I (5800m) again.

20th Jan
     Bad weather compels them to return to basecamp.

21st-22nd-23rd Jan
     They wait at basecamp.

24th Jan
     Toni and Jesús climb up to Camp I again.

25th Jan
     Toni and Jesús move up to Camp II (6800m). A strong and constant wind blows during the night. They have a sleepness night.

26th Jan
     They return to basecamp.

27th Jan
     Resting up at basecamp.

28th Jan
     Toni and Jesús make a direct climb to Camp II. Bad weather reigns again: it snows all night and the wind was very strong above 7000m. The Basques consider the expedition finished and return to Kathmandu.

29th Jan
     With very bad vision, shrouded in clouds, they move down to basecamp. The descent takes them three times more than usual.

30th-31st Jan
     They wait for a weather improvement.

1st Feb
     Hoping in good weather to come, they climb up to Camp II. On the wall there is a lot of snow.

2nd Feb
     It snows at night again. They decide to wait at Camp II for a light improvement.

3rd Feb
     It is still snowing. They opt to return to basecamp. On descending, they notice that the wall is getting very dangerous. They do a very difficult descent and arrive at basecamp at night.

4th Feb
     Rest at basecamp

5th Feb
     As bad weather persists and the wall is in dangerous condition, they decide to leave. They climb up to get the equipment back, but they cannot go further from Camp I. The tent that was there has disappeared; it is covered with snow. They get it back after an hour.

6th Feb
     They remove the basecamp and climb down to Samagaon with the porters, who had climbed up to take the equipment.

7th Feb
     Jesús and Toni return to Kathmandu. Lakpa and Yelu climb down together with porters. They spend the night in Deng.

8th Feb
     Jesús and Toni move down from Deng to Machha Khola.

9th Feb
     Machha Khola - Arughat. From Arughat they take a different route to reach Tharapani.