원정 개요

BC at 4800m
C1 at 5700m
C2 at below Naike Col
High point at C2.

16 Sept C2 to BC and then 4 days raining and snowfall with 1.2m of snow on C1 and had to dig tents out (almost covered by snow). Saw big avalanches and forecast and was for strong wind 24-26 Sept. The helicopter to fly from Samagaon was damaged and had to walk but via Larkya Pass to Besisahar and bus from there to Kathmandu.

Two members, Lieck and Milt, stayed on mountain after main group left. They had plenty of time. All other members high point was C2 on 15 Sept except: Kucera and Langegger to 6000m only.

Fixed rope: 500-600m between C1 & C2

C1 at 5600m on 27 Sept
C2 at 6300m on 28 Sept
C3 at 7450m on 30 Sept
High point at 7850m on 30 Sept

Amical group left on 24 Sept. Jiri Milt and Gunther Lieck stayed behind. Lieck teamed up with Juszczyszyn and Witkowski from Poland and subsequently with Pete Lardy and Tom McMillan from California. On 27 Sept Lieck and Polish guys started summit push. 27 Sept slept at C1. 28 Sept they slept at C2 at 6400m. They had had a tent at 6700m, which they could not find that day. On 30 Sept they ascended to C2 at 6700m found tent and slept there. On 30 Sept Lieck and Polish guys there were among first teams to reach C3 at 6 pm. Lieck and Polish left C3 at 7:30 am. Lieck reached 7850m at 2 pm at turned back. He was carrying his skis and he says that he is not sure why he turned back. Maybe due to heavy skis and fatigue. He was also misinformed about nature of summit. He descended with skis to C3, where he arrived at 3:30 pm. Polish guys reached summit that day and also returned to C3.

Lieck stayed at C3 to wait for another summit opportunity. On 2 Oct he had a dedicated rest day and on 31 Oct he decided to leave C3 and descended. He walked first 200m and (above serac) and skied the rest to C2; stayed the night. On 4 Oct he skied from C2 to 6100m and walked rest to C1. He also skied parts of route between C1 and BC. He arrived at BC at 8:30 pm.

Milt reached C3 at 7400m on 3 Oct. On 4 Oct he descended to BC. He abandoned climb due to snow storm.


Email from Billi Bierling - Oct 20, 2008

This is what Iris Haeusel, member of German-Italian team on Manaslu led by Renato Bernard, said about Gunther Lieck:

When Haeusel was at BC on 29 Oct Guenther Lieck arrived and he was feeling very bad. She thinks he had pulmonary edema. She gave him Dexamethasone but he already had a gurgling in his lungs. They were very worried about him. However, the next day Lieck felt a lot better.

When I met Franz and Maria Schobesberger from Austria, who were also on Manaslu they asked me whether I had met Lieck as they also saw him and they told me that they were really worried about him when they saw him (I don't know where that was).

The interesting thing is that Lieck did not tell me anything about his problems. When I asked him why he turned around he said that he was not quite sure why as he was feeling strong.