Manaslu

The eighth-highest mountain on Earth, 8,163 metres in west-central Nepal. The name comes from the Sanskrit Manasa — "intellect" or "soul." For the people of the surrounding Gorkha district, Manasa is the spiritual presence of the mountain. The peak has been called the Japanese mountain in climbing literature, after the country whose teams pioneered most of its early ascents.

The first ascent was made in 1956 by a Japanese expedition led by Yuko Maki. Toshio Imanishi and the Sherpa Gyalzen Norbu reached the summit on May 9. Japanese expeditions had been attempting Manaslu since 1952, and the cumulative effort — local relationships, route knowledge, supply caches — represented one of the more sustained national projects in Himalayan climbing. The 1953 expedition had been turned back partly by local opposition; villagers attributed an avalanche that destroyed a monastery to the disturbance caused by foreign climbers. The 1956 team rebuilt the monastery before beginning their attempt.

The standard route from the northeast crosses heavily glaciated terrain and a long summit ridge that holds avalanche risk through most of the climbing season. The fatality rate is approximately 18 percent. In 2022 alone, two major avalanches on the standard route killed multiple climbers within a single week. Manaslu has, in recent years, become a popular alternative to Everest for commercial expeditions seeking 8000-metre experience. The increased traffic has not made the mountain safer.

The summit is a narrow corniced ridge with a true top that is sometimes contested. Several recent expeditions have been retroactively reclassified as not having reached the actual summit but a nearby high point fifteen vertical metres lower. The mountain, by tradition and by terrain, asks the climber to be certain.