Makalu, Attempt by West Face and Ascent by Normal Route. Our expedition was composed of Italians Floriano Castelnuovo, Fabio Iacchini, Fabrizio Manoni, Salvatore Panzeri, Dario Spreafico and me as leader, Czech Leopold Sulovsky, Slovene Miroslav Sveticic, German Wolfgang Thomaseth and Tamang porters Mingmar, Saila, Tirtha and Tek. From April 5 to May 17, we attempted the west face of Makalu, where we reached the top of the last snowfield at 7600 meters (not 7800 meters as claimed by others who had climbed to that point before us.) Our strongest team, Panzeri, Spreafico and Sulovsky, was not able to climb the first part of the rock above, which was very difficult and unsafe. On May 20, nine left Base Camp to try the normal route alpine-style. Bivouacs were made on May 20 and 21 at 6500 and 7500 meters. On May 22 at 2:30 P.M., Sulovsky, Panzeri, Spreafico, Manomi, Tirtha and Mingmar were on the summit. On the last part, from 8100 meters to the summit, they did not follow the normal route but took a new variant on the northeast ridge.

Oreste Forno, Club Alpino Italiano