Fishtail Air, the largest helicopter operator in Nepal, and the premier air rescue service, has called off its search for two experienced climbers from Belarus, missing close to the summit of unclimbed Thulagi (7,050m) in the Manaslu Himal.
In November 2010 Belarusian Nikolay Bandalet, who the previous year had made the first ascent of Pik Vernyi's North West Face, an impressive big wall above the Kyzyl Asker Glacier in the Western Kokshaal-too, attempted Thulagi in alpine style with two Russians.
The three followed a difficult line previously attempted by Japanese, climbing for four days up the far right side of the West Face of Manaslu (80° and M5) to a ridge at 6,400m.
From there they descended the opposite flank to a huge plateau at 6,250m. This is the upper Thulagi Glacier, which makes a tortuous descent south and then west from Manaslu.
Across the plateau, the North East Ridge of Thulagi looked complex, and given the committing nature of their situation, they decided to descend.
This spring Bandalet was back with a four-man Belarusian team, and foregoing the previous route, opted to climb the long and convoluted Thulagi Glacier from its base to reach Thulagi from the south.
The summit party, Bandalet and Sergei Belous, made a satellite phone call on the 8th May, saying they had reached the final ridge, finding too much snow and no safe belay points. The message implied they were not far from the summit, having already spent a night out with no equipment.
No word has been heard since, and on the 14th and 15th Fishtail Air made a thorough search of the mountain. There was no trace of the climbers, though the rescue team did spot a tent at c6,300m on a glacier terrace south of the summit.
They were able to land close by and one team member went inside, finding sleeping bags and equipment.
Footsteps were also spotted above the tent leading to the crest of a ridge, which was very sharp.
Last year saw Air Zermatt co-operate with Fishtail Air to provide the first Himalayan standby helicopter rescue service in Nepal
Air Zermatt, which has been in existence since 1968, is recognized as one of the world's leading specialists in air rescue. It advised on the 2005 helicopter rescue of Tomas Humar on Nanga Parbat, and took part in the search for, and eventual evacuation of his body from Langtang Lirung in 2009.
Last year Daniel Aufdenblatten, Richard Lehner (both Swiss), and chief Fishtail Air pilot, Captain Sabin Basnyat, performed probably the highest long-line evacuation in history, when they hovered at nearly 7,000m on Annapurna to rescue two Spanish and one Romanian.
For this rescue their bravery and skill were honoured when they were awarded Eurocopter's 2011 Golden Hour Award. Sadly, Basnyat, who was chief pilot for Fishtail Air, was killed last autumn attempting to rescue the Japanese climber, Kazuya Hiraide from high on the North Ridge of Ama Dablam.
Air Zermatt specialists are currently in Nepal, helping to train Fishtail Air staff, with the goal of enabling them to carry out future long-line rescues themselves.
One person on the Fishtail Air team this season is the well-known Italian, Simone Moro, not too long back from his first winter ascent of Gasherbrum II.
Moro is a fully qualified helicopter pilot, and his eventual aim is to run an efficient air rescue service in Nepal.
It was Moro who piloted the Fishtail Air helicopter on the Thulagi mission. Having made a thorough aerial search of the mountain, he concluded that the two climbers either fell from the ridge, or disappeared lower down where the area is extremely crevassed.
The photograph shows two Russian climbers in autumn 2010 at c6,250m on the Thulagi Plateau. To their left the North West Ridge leads sharply to the summit of unclimbed Thulagi.
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