Pre-Climb Puja Ceremony

The Madison Mountaineering Manaslu expedition team had a busy day in base camp! After a good breakfast, the team jumped into some technical skills review to dial in all of their systems before heading out on the nearby glacier tomorrow. Not long after that, we were met by a Lama from Samagaun who led the team through their Puja Ceremony, which is an important part of our climbs in the Himalaya and Karakoram. The rest of the day included more acclimatizing, nutritious meals, and relaxing following another good day in Nepal! Expedition leader, Terray Sylvester checks in with this dispatch from Manaslu Base Camp:

Hello! This is Terray calling in for the 2026 Madison Mountaineering Manaslu (8156m/26,759ft) Expedition. Today is September 15.

Today was a busy day here in Manaslu Base Camp (4859m/15,944ft). After breakfast, we did a technical skills review session, right here in base camp. We just dialed in our technical climbing gear and reviewed ascent and descent techniques. Tomorrow, we’ll do a longer session – probably half a day on the Manaslu Glacier itself.

And then after that technical skills session, we had our pre-climb Puja. A Lama from Sama Village (3530m/11,581ft) came up and led that. This Puja was a Tibetan-Buddhist ceremony to ask the mountain for safe passage. It’s always a really nice way to kick off the climbing phase of an expedition and for the whole team to come together: both our climbers and climbing Sherpas, as well as our base camp staff. So that was really nice!

Then we had a good lunch: chicken burgers, salad, fresh fruit, and a few other items. And after lunch, we headed out for a hike to the top of base camp, and then about halfway toward Crampon Point. We turned around around 5,050 meters or so, came back to camp.

We’ll spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing. And then we’re looking forward to dinner and a movie on our base camp cinema!

So, all is going well here at Manaslu. We’ll be in touch tomorrow!

Pre-climb puja (photo by Terray Sylvester)

Our climber, Myles, receiving a blessing during the puja (photo by Terray Sylvester)

Our climber, Woodie, receiving a blessing during the puja (photo by Terray Sylvester)

Our climbers participating in a technical skills refresher before tomorrow’s session on the Manaslu Glacier

Our climbers participating in a technical skills refresher before tomorrow’s session on the Manaslu Glacier

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

• Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

• @MadisonMtng
• @GarrettMadison1
• @terray_s