Katrin Merisalu first Estonian woman to summit eight-thousander mountain
Mountaineer Katrin Merisalu became the first Estonian women to summit an 8,000-meter plus peak, on Thursday morning, reaching the top of Manaslu in the Nepalese Himalayas.
Merisalu completed the feat at 7.45 a.m. Estonian time on Thursday, taking a photo at the 8,136-meter summit.
Manaslu, also known as Kutang, translates as "the Mountain of Spirit", deriving from the Sanskrit word for "intellect" or "soul, which gives an indication of the challenge the Estonian faced. It is the eighth-highest peak in the world, behind Everest, K2, Kangchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu and Dhaulagiri I, all in the Himalayas.
Merisalu had made several high ascends over the summer, as part of an acclimatization process which took her to the 7,439-meter Jengish Chokusu, known in Soviet times as Peak Pobedy ("Pobeda" being the Russian word for victory), on the Kyrgystan-China border.
Japanese climbers Toshio Imanishi and Gyalzen Norbu were the first to summit Mount Manaslu, in 1956.
The Himalayas primary climbing season is in spring, but favorable conditions also open up in September-October, after the end of the monsoon season.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
