Alex Txikon and the six Sherpas who lifted him to the top of Manaslu in the middle of winter

The martyrdom of climbing the planet's

in winter was an invention of Polish mountaineers imagined at the end of the 70s of the 20th century and perpetrated for the first time on February 17, 1980, on Everest.

Poland did not participate in the conquest of the 14 highest mountains on the planet, simply because its climbers lacked the freedom to go out and explore the world.

When the communist regime began to lose steam, it was already too late for almost everything, but not to invent unexpected challenges: we will be the first to climb the 14 in winter, they said to themselves.

The inertia of conquest was maintained until 1988. After that, nothing.

Climbing eight thousand in winter stopped being an interesting activity, perhaps because the more technical Himalayas were still awaiting the arrival of a revolution and a change in style, from heavy to light.

Despite this, Poland was awarded the summits of Everest, Manaslu (1984), Dhaulagiri (1985), Cho Oyu (1985), Kangchenjunga (1986), Annapurna (1987) and Lhotse (1988) in winter, setting incidentally the legends of Maciej Berbeka, Jerzy Kukuzcka or Krzysztof Wielicki.

In 2009, however, the Italian Simone Moro rescued this practice from oblivion and decided to tie himself, of course, to a Polish mountaineer, Piotr Morawski, to resume the path of the winter ones.

The couple chose the Shisha Pangma and Moro's communicator skills did the rest: the work started by the Poles had to be finished and

the five eight-thousanders located in Karakoram and Makalu, in Nepal, remained to be climbed in winter.

Just like the Poles, last century, Alex Txikon from Biscay was looking for his place in the world of Himalayanism.

The normal eight-thousander routes, in spring and autumn, barely give away any glory.

Technical mountaineering, by his own admission, was not in his orbit either.

So, he got hooked on the winter ones where he found “his field of expression”.

There he met Simone Moro: together, and in the company of the late Ali Sapdara, they signed up for the first time at Nanga Parbat, on February 26, 2016. For Simone Moro, it was his fourth

in a winter eight-thousander since he signed up for the Makalu in 2009 and the Gasherbrum II in 2011. Txiko

n then turned to winter Everest, without success in his three appearances in 2017, 2018 and 2020. He also tried K2 in 2019 and Manaslu in 2021 and last year.

For this reason, when on January 6, Three Kings Day, his press team announced the summit of Manaslu, few expected such a positive outcome.

“I did not expect it, I am in a cloud and with mixed feelings.

Right now I am in Kathmandu but I would like to be in Manaslu”, explains the Biscayan.

Txikon and a squad of six Sherpas (Tenjen Sherpa, Pasang Nurbu Sherpa, Mingtemba Sherpa, Chhepal Sherpa, Pemba Tasi Sherpa and Gyalu Sherpa) reached the 8,163 meter summit at 9:30am (local time).

Simone Moro was missing, who gave up continuing in field 2, due to gastric problems: “I will always thank him, he was very generous.

He went down alone, through a minefield of cracks that I would not have descended without roped someone.

He has shown himself to be a gentleman, ”Txikon clarifies.

“It had to be like this, I had to arrive with the Sherpas,

One of the technical issues that remained to be resolved had to do with the use of artificial oxygen, a variable that drastically changes the value of an ascent.

“I didn't use bottled oxygen,” says Txikon, “and the six Sherpas did carry bottles and regulators, but these have caused enormous problems and have not always worked.

At times the regulators were exchanged to be able to use the oxygen.

Despite everything, I want to make it clear that the six Sherpas have been very brave, moving through dangerous, technical terrain, between cracks, seracs and ice sheets, many times without being able to count on a fixed rope, since we only look at the most delicate sections between fields 1 and 2 and 3 and 4″.

Manaslu has sparked enormous controversy in the world unleashed by the evidence provided by the website 8,000ers.com, who recently pointed out that the vast majority of the peaks attributed to Manaslu were not.

The climbers would have stayed on a pre-top from which it is difficult to see the true peak.

Warned about it, Txikon has already presented a video and images that place him at the culminating point: “Indeed, in 2008 I stayed about 35 meters from the true top, which is so small that the other day we reached it in turns.

I was the fifth and the first was Tenjen Sherpa ”, he admits.

In 1984, the date of the first winter, Maciej Berbeka and Ryszard Gajewski signed the second ascent to an eight-thousander in winter, and the first without bottled oxygen.

Summit photos submitted by the two Polish climbers reveal that they reached their pinnacle.

Berbeka is the tormented hero of the Netflix production titled

, and the success of Txikon and the six sherpas only extols his figure.

The Poles chose not the normal route but the Messner route and dispensed with Sherpas because there were 11 members to work, they lacked money to pay their salaries and although they used a heavy style they considered

Make the Sherpas work.

The expedition was about to end when the fixed rope by which Stanislaw Jaworski was descending broke, causing his death.

The debate was intense at base camp.

Ultimately, the team agreed to continue.

Hurricane force winds nearly killed Berbeka and Gajewski during their descent.

A year later, a Japanese team put Noboru Yamada and Yasuhira Saito back on top and in winter.

In 1995, the Kazakh Anatoli Boukreev (anti-hero of the Best Seller

) and seven compatriots signed the third winter, although in light of the new studies it remains to be confirmed that these last two reached the true peak.

Nepal had only placed one of its citizens on a winter peak once, but it was a big hit: on January 16, 2021, ten climbers from the Sherpa ethnic group led by Nirmal Purja signed the first winter ascent of K 2, closing the story of the conquest of the eight thousand in winter.

The reasons for surrounding himself with a powerful team of Sherpas are evident in the eyes of Alex Txikon: “Unlike on Nanga Parbat, where we did without them, on Manaslu I needed them to be able to work.

There was a lot of fresh snow, a lot of tracks to trace and for that it was necessary to have a large and experienced group.

The credit belongs to the Sherpas, to their work, without a doubt.

They deserve this peak, ”he assures.

On this occasion, the Sherpas have worked like the Poles in 1984, fixing similar fixed rope footage,

traveling at temperatures of 32 degrees below zero, but with the invaluable help of numbers and bottled oxygen that warms, comforts and leaves room for survival and relief.

Winter Himalayanism may only interest Nepalis anymore, empowered as they are and in need of claims to continue with the business of the highest peaks.

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