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Updated: October 2011. Click on an image to see the FULL size with a caption.
The following reference information is included:
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by Kev Reynolds. Kev has written some of my favourite trekking books. I've even learned that the timings he gives for each trek segment is exactly the time it takes me. The book features excellent descriptions of the trek and has great photos, but the maps are not very good.
by Stan Armington. A classic trekking book detailing with good maps and route descriptions all of the favourite Nepalese treks, including Gokyo and Everest, Annapurna, Kangchenjunga, Manaslu, and Mustang.
by Steve Razzetti. This book contains basic information on 25 treks in Nepal, including Humla to Mount Kailash, the Annapurna Sanctuary and Circuit, the Dhaulagiri Circuit, Jomsom to Mustang, Around Manaslu, Rolwaling, Gokyo and Everest, Makalu, and Kangchenjunga. It also contains descriptions of climbing 12 trekking peaks, including Pisang, Chulu, Ramdung, Lobuche East, Imja Tse, and Mera. The front cover is Annapurna South.
The book includes four pages on Around Manaslu.
The trekking route descriptions and maps are basic. The photos are very good.
Manaslu is featured only in a few books. Here are my favourites:
by Reinhold Messner. First published in English in 1992. The book briefly describes Messner's ascents of Manaslu in 1972, Gasherbrum I - Hidden Peak in 1975, Everest without oxygen in 1978 and solo in 1980, Nanga Parbat solo in 1978, K2 in 1979, and a traverse of Gasherbrum I and II in 1984. The cover is the summit of K2. There are 56 pages of colour photos, 20 pages of b/w photos, 26 b/w photos, and six paintings by French artist Jean-George Inca highlighting the stories in the book.
The chapter on Manaslu is 14 pages long with 4 pages of colour photos, 4 pages of b/w photos, and a 2-page painting by Inca. After Messner summited on April 25, 1972 via the south face to the west ridge, a fierce storm came up and he had to fight for his life to reach their high camp.
Messner: The whole time the hurricane was chasing ice crystals ahead of itself, throwing them in my face until my skin stung. 'Keep going', hammered through my brain. Things had never looked so hopeless.
Franz Jager, who turned back, was caught out in the storm and died. Andi Schlick and Horst Fankhausen braved the storm to try and find Franz, but Andi got lost and also died.
This is an action packed brief story filled with tension - riveting. The desperate search for Franc is chilling, as the other climbers can hear his voice calling for help but cannot find him in the storm.
Photos by Pascal Tournaire and Marc Buscail, text in French and English by Marc Maisonneuve. Published 1989. This coffee-table photographic book documents three expeditions led by Benoit Chamoux - the successful ascent of the Annapurna South Face in 1988, the unsuccessful attempt to climb the Everest North face via the Hornbein Couloir in 1988, and the successful ascent of Manaslu via the south face to the west ridge in 1989. Chamoux was a superb French climber who summitted 13 of the 14 8000m peaks, before being killed in 1995 while attempting his 14th, Kangchenjunga.
Chamoux and seven other climbers summited Manaslu using the south face and west ridge, the route pioneered by Reinhold Messner in 1972. In groups of two, the whole team made it to the summit - Chamoux and Pierre Royer on May 3, Josca Raconcaj and Soro Dorotei on May 10, Yves Detry and Frederic Vallet on May 11, and Alan Hinkes and Mauro Rossi on May 12.
The descriptions of the climbs are basic and brief. The photos are very good.
by Reinhold Messner. Published in 1985, this small 18 x 11.5cm book describes Messner's ascent of Manaslu in 1972. The text is in German. There are 8 pages of colour photos, 17 pages of b/w photos, an additional 35 b/w photos, and 5 maps. Messner details the expedition day by day, and also lists all the Manaslu expeditions up to 1984.
After Messner summited on April 25, 1972 via the south face to the west ridge, a fierce storm came up and he had to fight for his life to reach their high camp. Franz Jager, who turned back, was caught out in the storm and died. Andi Schlick and Horst Fankhausen braved the storm to try and find Franz, but Andi got lost and also died.
The photos are very good.
Manaslu is also featured in a few general mountaineering books. Here are my favourites:
by Richard Sale, John Cleare ((Photographer). Published 2000. Highly recommended! The book details the exploration, first ascent, and other major ascents of all 14 8000m peaks, including spectacular photos.
by Koichiro Ohmori. Published 1998. One of Michael Chessler's Best Mountain Photo Books. This book features 44 spectacular 2-page aerial photos of the 8000m Nepalese mountains - Kangchenjunga, Makalu, Everest and Lhotse, Cho Oyu, Manaslu, Annapurna and Dhaulagiri (cover) - and several others, including Jannu, Nuptse, and Ama Dablam. Route diagrams and some basic history of the first few ascents are also included.
There are five 2-page photos of the Manaslu region - Manaslu is in 3 of the photos, Himal Chuli in 4, and Ngadi Chuli (Peak 29) in 1.
by Simone Moro. Published 2008. In Italian and English. This coffee-table size book features excellent photos from all 14 8000m peaks. Each 8000m peak has a brief history, a photo of each face showing the climbing routes, and lots of excellent photos.
There are 9 pages on Manaslu.
The photos and route diagrams are excellent.
by Marco Bianchi. Published 2003. Although the title claims to be the 14 highest summits in the world, this beautiful, large-format photo book really focuses on the seven mountains the author climbed. The text is in Spanish, but the photos transcend language.
After attempts on Makalu in 1986 and Cho Oyu in 1989, Bianchi summitted seven of the 14 8000m peaks: Manaslu Sept. 28 1992 via Northeast Face, Broad Peak July 6 1993 via Normal route, Cho Oyu September 18 1993 via West Ridge, Shishapangma October 6 1993 via Southwest Face, Dhaulagiri September 25 1994 via Northeast Ridge, Everest May 12 1995 via Northeast Ridge, and K2 August 10 1996 via North Ridge.
There is a 2-page spread of Manaslu from the summit of Dhaulagiri, and 11 pages on Manaslu from his climb of the Northeast face. The photos are excellent.
You can preview many of the photos at cuboimages.it by searching for Manaslu.
 From Punggyen Glacier.jpg "Click to enlarge -
Manaslu and Ngadi Chuli (Peak 29) From Punggyen Glacier - Nepal Himalaya by Shiro Shirahata book")
by Shiro Shirahata. Published 1983. One of Michael Chessler's Best Mountain Photo Books. A large, heavy quality paper, coffee-table type book featuring 115 spectacular photos, over half double-pages, of the 8000m Nepalese mountains - Kangchenjunga, Makalu, Everest and Lhotse (cover), Cho Oyu, Manaslu, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri - and many others, including Jannu, Nuptse, and Ama Dablam.
There are 23 pages with 14 photos of the Manaslu region - five double-page photos and one single-page photo of Manaslu's different faces. Other photos include Ngadi Chuli (Peak 29) and Himal Chuli.
by Reinhold Messner. Published 1999. One of Michael Chessler's Top 100 Mountaineering Books. Messner briefly details his ascents of all 14 8000m peaks, documented with his photos. He also includes route diagrams and some basic history of the first few ascents.
On April 25, 1972 Messner completed the third ascent of Manaslu, via the south face to the west ridge. Messner's second 8000er ended in tragedy when a fierce storm came up and he had to fight for his life to reach their high camp. Franz Jager, who turned back, was caught out in the storm and died. Andi Schlick and Horst Fankhausen braved the storm to try and find Franz, but Andi got lost and also died.
The photos are very good, the story riveting.
photographs by Ed Viesturs, text with Peter Potterfield. Released in early 2003, this book presents photographs with some basic text descriptions of Viestur's ascents of 11 of the 14 8000ers. After this book was published he reached the summit of Nanga Parbat in June 2003, Broad Peak in July 2003, and on May 12, 2005 he reached the summit of Annapurna, becoming the first American to reach the summit of all 14 8000ers, all without oxygen.
Viesturs and Veikka Gustafsson reached the summit of Manaslu via the Northeast face on April 22, 1999. There are 15 pages on Manaslu. "The expedition was a huge success. The trek in was fantastic, the route was interesting, and we did really well on the climb itself - three camps and the summit in just 14 days."
Ed's photos are excellent.
by Kiko Betelu. Published 1999. Text in Spanish. Spaniard Juanito Oiarzabal became the sixth mountaineer to summit all 14 8000m peaks when he reached the summit of Annapurna on April 29, 1999. This book reviews each of his 14 ascents with text, photos, and route maps. There are 65 colour photos and 42 b/w photos. With his ascent of Annapurna on April 27, 2010, Juanito holds the record for the most ascents of 8000m peaks with 24.
Oiarzabal's ascent of Manaslu via the Northeast Face on October 8, 1997 is detailed in a 7-page chapter with 6 colour photos and 1 b/w photo.
The photos are very good, especially on the summit.
For news on Manaslu expeditions, I check the following regularly:
There are many informational websites, with my favourites being:
There are a few mountaineering expedition websites, with my favourites being:
I thoroughly enjoy reading other people's travelogues and looking through their photos. Here are my favourites:
I finally found a DVD featuring a Manaslu Expedition. There are also some very good videos on Youtube:
The Best Of The European Outdoor Film Tour Number 5 features 7 videos: Expedition Manaslu (29 minutes, German) - an attempt to speed climb Manaslu in 2007; Play Gravity (16 minutes, English) - paragliding, snowboarding down mountains, and speedriding using a paraglider and skis; Urban Rocks (15 minutes, German, Italian and English) - climbing rock mountains in Cinque Torri, climbing rocks and huge rock walls in Vienna, and climbing a rock wall on a large bridge in Fribourg; Touching The Stairs (3 minutes, English - funny story of pretending to climb a mountain, but really just walking up the stairs; Acht Schritte (16 minutes, English and German) - a Trans Alpine run through Germany, Austria and Italy in 2008; Oil And Water (23 minutes, English) - a road trip down the Panamerican Highway in 2006 and 2007 from Alaska to Argentina in a truck fuelled by waste vegetable oil from restaurants, while kayaking white water along the way; Seasons (14 minutes, English) - mountain biking.
Expedition Manaslu, directed by Carsten Maaz and filmed by Hubert Rieger, follows Benedikt Bohm, Sebastian Hoag and Nicolas Bonnet on their attempt to mountain climb on skis Manaslu in the fall of 2007. They leave the village of Sama and reach base camp in ideal weather conditions, and acclimatize by setting up camps 1 and 2 and skiing down. They climb again and then are hit by extremely heavy snowfall for over 5 days. They descend to Sama and wait out the storm in the rain. After the weather improves, they dig out their camps and give it one last push for the summit. Just 200m below the summit, they evaluate the snow and avalanche conditions, and decide to descend, skiing back down.
The filming is excellent, showing the beauty of Manaslu, the expansiveness of the surrounding area, and all aspects of the climb. The pacing is tight with good use of the climbers sharing their thoughts. The skiing scenes using helmet cams are especially good, giving you a first hand view of the dangerous terrain and the exhilaration of the skiing.
by Polish mountaineer Kinga Baranowska. She reached the summit of Manaslu on October 5, 2008.
This 12-minute video on Youtube in six parts follows Kinga trekking, passing the local villagers, snowed in base camp (4850m), camp I (5730m), climbing through the snow to camp II (6800m), and continuing on to the summit.
The filming is professional, with good use of climbing and interviews with Kinga. The final climb to the summit ridge and along the summit ridge is slow with no background music or narration - just the crunching of the snow and her breathing - magical.
by Ed van der Kooy and Piet Warffemius. This 51-minute video on Youtube in six parts shows their trek to Sama. Ed speaks Dutch, although the communication with the guide is in English. At Sama, Ed gets altitude sickness and has to descend and get a helicopter out.
The filming is very professional, with lots of focus on the local villagers and the gompas along the way. The pace is nice and slow, peaceful, quiet - kind of like prayer flags flapping in the wind, or maybe just like trekking. The background music is perfect.