Best greetings from my second home town Kathmandu! I arrived here on 28th and am now ready to get to the mountains! I’ve got lot of my gear stored here and every time it is one big packing operation upon my arrival. Now everything’s sorted and my stuff in fact is already on the way to Tatopani in Kali Gandaki valley.

Other than that I was this morning given blessing by Rinpoche in Boudha. I feel this is very important for me and would not feel good about going climbing these peaks without doing puja.
After puja we went to Ministry of Tourism for attaining our peak permit.

This trip is operated by my friend Mingma Gyalje Sherpa and his agency Dreamer’s Destination. I will be sharing his group’s basecamp and being provided services needed there. The permit’s shared by Mingma’s very international team consisting of climbers from China, Macedonia, Iran, US and Argentina. Above basecamp I will be doing my own carries, program and sort of climbing by myself. In reality, I am expecting to work together with all the teams on the mountain for added safety and changes to summit. Annapurna is a very dangerous mountain and I believe team-effort will be the key to success this time. I just bumped into Carlos Soria and the Spanish team in Thamel and am happy to be on the mountain with these lovely people.

So tomorrow on 3rd we are flying first to Pokhara from where we drive up Kali Gandaki valley to Tatopani. From Tatopani we are flewn to Annapurna Basecamp by helicopter on the morning of 4th.
I will be posting on my blog at www.samulimansikka.com, Twitter and Instagram so make sure to follow my progress on Annapurna!

Best wishes to all!

Samuli

It is now 12 days until my departure to Nepal! My Annapurna preparations are pretty well underway and sorted and I feel very well prepared. Still need to replace some last bits of clothing and make sure all the communications are working okay. I have most of my high-camp gear stored in Kathmandu where I will finalize all packing upon my arrival.

I’ve now spent an unusually long period of 6 weeks in Finland and have thus been able to work on my physical performance. I started at a new gym in autumn and have been quite happy with the outcome. This, I think is especially good thing on Annapurna as speed for sure is safety on this avalanche-prone mountain. This also goes down to overall living a very healthy lifestyle and I might be able to say I am at my best shape ever when leaving for the expedition on 27th.

Annapurna can be considered extremely dangerous if you look at the statistics. According to Himalayan Database (thanks Rollo!) there’s been 186 confirmed ascents to main summit since the French first ascent in 1950. 69 climbers (9 of them while descending from the summit) have deceased which makes it the most dangerous of all 8000’ers. I must admit that I have never put so much effort on mental preparation.

I will once again be assisted by my most amazing weather-guy, Michael Fagin from Seattle! The modern professional forecasting is of great benefit and I am happy to have him provide me with his often very accurate forecasts.

The Spanish team of Carlos Soria’s has already left to Nepal. I am joining Mingma G. Sherpa’s team and we will all fly to basecamp on March 3rd. I will again do my own carries above basecamp and will not employ high-altitude staff. Due to dangerous nature of the climb, however I will be working together with the other teams on the mountain and I do believe team effort will be the key to success this year.

I would like to address thanks to my partners whose support is crucial! Thank you Valandre, Rab, La Sportiva, Skyr!

Please follow the trip through my Twitter and Instagram!

Samuli