Another victory for Greek mountaineers

Yet another adventure has come to an end. And the end was good! Antonis Sykaris and Giorgos Marinos conquered the top of Mount Manaslu in the Himalayas after climbing and falling down for 4 weeks. The two members of the Hellenic Mountaineers Association began their travels for Nepal in early September and arrived after eight days in the base camp of the mountain.

The weather was not an ally, their health was slow to stabilise, and they almost gave up. Ultimately, the belief in their success and experience was the main factors that helped them move to the world’s 8th highest peak last Friday (28/9) at 6am.

Manaslu, also known as Kutang, is located in the Himalayas and specifically in the Mansiri Himal. Its name means “Mountain of the Spirit”.  It was conquered for the first time by Toshio Imanishi and Gjilzen Norbu in 1956 as members of a Japanese mission, and for this reason the Japanese consider Manasslu as their “own” mountain, like the English consider Everest. It is worth noting that 64 climbers have lost their lives mainly by lethal avalanches that set the way to the top.

56-year-old Sykaris became the first Greek to conquer three mountains of the mountaineering “Grand Slam”, as the climbers call the 14 highest peaks in the world that are more than 8,000 meters high. Everest in 2017 – the highest peak at 8,848 meters – together with Mike Eformidis, Kansenuga (8,586m) last May with Fotis Theocharis and now Manaslu (8,163m) with a rogue-man Giorgos Marinos, prove that nothing is impossible for fearless Greek mountaineers who return on Tuesday (2/10) from Kathmandu.