 Poster: A snowHead
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I am just back from nepal where I summited and made a ski descent of Manaslu, which at 8156m is the world's 8th highest mountain....this is probably the first ever complete ski descent of the mountain! Enough about me, let's talk about me......no seriously, if anyone is interested I will post an account here. Meanwhile bring on the snow in europe! looking forward to some decent snow to ski on!
Cheers
Guy
Dream Guides
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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count me interested
i think frank4short might be too 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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dreamguides, Welcome to  Kudos to you, I'd love to hear more
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Welcome and I would love to read about your trip.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I posted this on UKC - where frank4short indeed was interested! Anyway, i think there will be news and right ups in the ski press soon. Thanks for your interest!
Hi everyone! Back in Cham now = beer, macdonalds and all things good! Anyway so here's the low down on skiing Manaslu. Is it a first ever descent? Not sure - the ethics of ski mountaineering are even more complex than climbing! (combines ethics of climbing and skiing...)Anyway we are trying to clarify the start point of the descent and the 'completeness' of the descent by the austrians in 1981. If the discrepencies are minimal, ie they started at the logical skiing point and skied pretty much all the icefall to close to basecamp then they bag the first descent - if not then we do! Anyway, this is not the main point. I reckon both descents are 'way cool' and a great adventure, so I am not getting too bogged down in it.
So what happened? We set off at about 2.30am on 28th sept and summited around 9am. We skied from 15-20m below the true summit (the summit ridge wasnt skiable) at the logical start point. We were using oxygen. Feet were freezing in ski boots (had to thaw them out for an hour on the way down at 7500m). The ski started with a 40ish degree couloir at over 8100m which was cool. The snow down to 7500m was pretty bad breakable/unbreakable crust and i was managing about 6 turns before lungs burst. It's a bit like doing squat thrusts with an ill fitting gimp mask on - fun for a while...
From 7500m oxygen was off and full 60l packs were on and we rattled across some exposed glacial ice onto a 40ish degree pitch of chalky crust (cliff to the left) before traversing well right onto some great snow on a huge face at around 7200m - amazing ambiance and amazing to be making good boot top powder turns so high and so alone. We were a long way from the fixed ropes of the ascent line at this point. To avoid a big bergschrund we traveresd back left to our camp 3 at 6800m.From there great snow (bootop powder over breakable crust) took us to the icefall at 6250m. Here I managed a great wipeout as my right ski got snagged in a loop of buried fixed rope as i crossed a snowbridge, quite alarming.
We continued weaving through crevasses, sidestepping up short snow/ice steps and down hanging slopes to 5800m. A bit like a theme park, but more of a pain in the back bottom. By this stage we were in white out due to convective cloud building and wet surface snow was sluffing somewhat. But all turned out well as we followed someones old tracks across the final glacier back to base. Got there by 4pm, completely powered down!
I had taken my skis off once at 6200m to do a 5m abseil over a crevasse, as we couldnt see another way round in the white out. Emma downclimbed maybe 250m in the icefall.
So there we have it, a great adventure. Would probably get 4.2 E2 grade overall but hard to tell when so shafted at 8000m!
Thanks for your interest!
Guy
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Welcome to snowheads.
Sounds fascinating, any pics/videos that you can share as well as text would be great!
Cheers,
greg
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ahh! photos and video - didnt know you could post those! will try a couple of photos...unfortunately I had a head-cam video recorder but it fefused to record up there, but i didnt realise until we had got down (muppet!)
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Sounds great, can you post a link to the piste map?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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i think i need to upload a couple of photos onto my blog first or something....
By the way, many thanks for my welcome to snowheads. I have actually followed it a bit last winter, thought this would be good chance to get involved!
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sounds really impressive, I want piccies. What a shame about the headcam
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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dreamguides, thanks for coming on here and sharing that. Chapeau.
I like the look of your website too.
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You know it makes sense.
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Admit it. You were at Milton Keynes.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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bump because i went to see an Alpine Ski Club lecture given yesterday by Emma about this descent. sounded like a fantastic adventure, although Emma's walk in looked at least as gnarly as the climb!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Still no pics of them doing squat thrusts in ill fitting gimp masks 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Whaddya mean not possible to ski from the summit.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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dreamguides, wow, what a fantastic achievement - many congratulations to all involved. And welcome to snowHeads!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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glad Emma's talk was good! I think its great to spread the word about what some Brits are doing in the ski mountaineering world, both in the alps and further afield...
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FAQ
Truly impressive! What can I say - 'Well done!' seems somehow inadequate...
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