Category: Nepal

The weather really does change overnight – high level snow and low level rain. Chetrabu is transformed into a winter wonderland. Although waking up in a plywood box it feels more like a Siberian gulag reenactment experience. We make an early start after porridge for breakfast and up we go into the snow. The view…

Just when we think it’s all over, we have another big day to take the short route back to Lukla. We went the long way round coming in order to acclimatise. Now we are all 5000m naturals, a quick jaunt over a 4600m pass is nothing. Besides we have two days to do it. We…

After a bit of a lie-in, and the usual porridge breakfast, time to get moving. No day off up here in Khare. Time to descend. Today we walk all the way down to Khote, a distance it took us two days to achieve going up. The best thing about retracing our route is the views…

At 1.00am there is porridge for breakfast, then it is time to get ready. The tent village comes alive. We rope up into teams: Jangbo leads Deborah and me; our second leader for the day leads John and Peter; Passang leads Nicki. We set off with many other groups. We see (or rather hear) the…

Will decides against the summit so this is our party ready to set out. Crampons on outside the village at 8.00am. Our first objective is Base Camp, which we already did as a practice walk two days ago. We set off at what feels like an easier pace than we did for the practice walk…

This morning’s exercise is a gentle walk (normal boots) up the ridge above the village we’ve named Peter’s Ridge (because he went for an afternoon stroll up there two days ago, just for fun). The top, after 300m of ascent, has some lovely views. We meet two female climbers up there in their Mamut jackets,…

Because we’re not moving on today, we have lie in until 7.30, breakfast at 8.00. Breakfast is part of our package so every day, porridge or muesli, with bread, choice of chapati or Tibetan bread (sort of fried chapati) or toast, sometimes. Occasionally we have eggs, so today I have porridge and fried egg toast…

Sleeping at altitude is weird. I seem to sleep solidly for about 6 hours, then need the loo. After that sleeping is a bit horrible: doze off, wake with a start short of air, panic then breathe, calm down, doze off and repeat for what feels like the rest of the night. Unpleasant! Today we…

We have a lie in this morning. Bed tea at 7.30, breakfast at 8.15. The idea today is go a bit higher, up to the snow line, get used to a bit more altitude. We can wait until the sun catches at 9.30 before setting off. Nice views back across Thangnak. A functional sort of…

Even in Khote at “only” 3600m it is a cold start from the teahouse. But the sky is blue, the high mountains are out! It is going to be a great day! We set off up the Mera valley, the perfect gradient for a stroll uphill. And soon the sun is catching. It might be…