Alex Txikon ready to leave for winter Manaslu expedition
Manaslu (8,163 m) is the new winter objective of Alex Txikon, roped together with Basque Iñaki Álvarez and Italian Simone Moro. An important challenge to which Ferrino is proud to offer its support.
The departure for Kathmandu is set for next December 31, so in a couple of weeks the climbers should reach the Manaslu base camp. With Alex Txikon will be found the friend of many adventures Iñaki Álvarez and the Italian Simone Moro, with whom he shared the victorious first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat (February 26, 2016). After reaching the Nepalese capital and spending the quarantine period imposed by the national health authorities they will finally be free to reach the Manaslu base camp.
The project
The mountaineers aim to climb along the mountain’s normal route, along the northeast face. The goal is, in addition to the achievement of the main summit, the chaining with the east pinnacle (7.992 m), the highest seven thousand meters peak in the world. In addition, the entire project is developed according to modern winter “rules” that require arriving at base camp after December 21 and complete the climb by March 21. The Polish expedition that made the first winter ascent on January 12, 1984 reached the slopes of the mountain on December 2, carrying out most of the work to prepare the route before the winter solstice.
“For Ferrino it is an honor to be at Alex Txikon’s side in this new challenge – says Anna Ferrino, CEO – We already had the pleasure of accompanying him during the “AX Road To Himalayas 19-20” project, which saw him go from Antarctica to the Himalayas, attempting the winter ascent of Everest without oxygen and successfully climbing Ama Dablam. Now he’s ready to start again, this time for the eighth mountain on Earth together with his friend Iñaki Álvarez and a very experienced partner like Simone Moro, our ambassador between the 90s and 2000s. Our backpacks and tents from the Ferrino High Lab line, specially designed for extreme mountaineering, will accompany him in this exciting new experience, continuing Ferrino’s tradition of support for Himalayan winter expeditions. Our equipment has been regularly used by legendary Polish expeditions and in 2017 we supported the Polish winter expedition to K2 led by Krzysztof Wielicki.
We wish the best to the expedition of Txikon and companions, with the hope that it will be crowned with success. His enthusiastic and enterprising spirit gives us in these days a great charge of energy with which to face at best the beginning of the new year, following his steps on the mountain”.
A humanitarian and sustainable challenge
As it happened last winter, also this time Alex will try to offer his help to the people of the mountains. On this occasion he will have with him hundreds of solar light bulbs to distribute to families living in the Makalu region. “A light bulb radically changes the life of a family,” Txikon comments. “We don’t realize it, but for these villages having light at night can mean that children can learn to read and write.” The other goal is to provide tools, such as solar bulbs, that leave as little impact on the environment as possible. The same thing will be done at the base camp where two solar panels will be installed (one will be donated to the local school at the end of the expedition).
