Manaslu (8163m) and Dhaulagiri (8167m)

Double Summit Pyramid of Manaslu Friday, April 2, 1999 — 6:56pm (PST) Viesturs Hear Ed's Call from Nepal Click for  [RealAudio]  [Windows Media] (Requires FREE RealPlayer or Windows Media)

We arrived here yesterday. We're spending the day here to acclimatize, and also we have to replace our valley porters with the local porters simply because the ones that are up here are more equipped to take us to Base Camp, and it's very territorial as far as who gets to carry our gear to Base Camp. So, tomorrow morning we'll make the climb to Base Camp. It's about 1,200 meters — the porters do it in about seven hours. It's a long, long day, but we get it over with very quickly.

We had some snow yesterday and last night. The mountains are covered with snow this morning. It's a beautiful crystal clear day. We can, for the first time, see the double summit pyramid of Manaslu. It's only 15,000 feet above us. So, we're almost there.

We have been having some problems getting in contact with the satellite but it may be because of the gorge, hopefully things will be getting better. That's all we have to report for now. Veikka and I are doing fine, excited to be getting up to Base Camp and starting to work up on the mountain. Talk to you tomorrow. Bye.

— Ed Viesturs, Mountain Zone Correspondent

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