Annapurna Expedition

You land at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu (1,400 m), where our representative meets you in the arrivals hall and drives you to your hotel in Thamel.

Rest is the only item on today's schedule. Thamel's gear shops are a few minutes' walk away and stock most of what a climber discovers they have left at home.

Your climbing guide calls at the hotel in the evening to introduce themselves and confirm tomorrow's schedule. Overnight in Kathmandu.

Your guide runs the full briefing at the hotel: the forty-four day plan, the acclimatisation profile, the summit day, and the decisions that get made on the mountain and by whom.

Then the equipment check. Boots are tried with crampons on, harnesses fitted over the layers you will actually climb in, and anything unsuitable swapped for rental kit here rather than discovered at altitude.

The oxygen mask and regulator are fitted and tested against your own face and hood, which is the most useful hour of the day. Overnight in Kathmandu.

West out of the Kathmandu valley on the Prithvi Highway, following the Trishuli river through gorge country with a lunch stop at a riverside restaurant.

The drive covers roughly 200 km and takes most of the day. If you would rather not spend it on the road, the 25-minute flight is available as an add-on.

Pokhara (822 m) arrives in the late afternoon on the shore of Phewa Lake, with the Annapurnas and the fishtail summit of Machhapuchhre standing over it. The crew does the final load sort here. Overnight in Pokhara.

The formal side of an 8,000 m expedition. The team attends the briefing at the Department of Tourism with the liaison officer, where the royalty permit is issued, the regulations are read out and the waste-management deposit is registered.

Meanwhile the expedition cargo is weighed, sealed into barrels and dispatched toward Pokhara and the Kali Gandaki, where porters and helicopter loads will take it into the Miristi Khola.

The afternoon is free, and it is the last one with hot water and restaurants for six weeks. Most climbers use it for the last calls home. Overnight in Kathmandu.

West out of the Kathmandu valley on the Prithvi Highway, following the Trishuli river through gorge country with a lunch stop at a riverside restaurant.

The drive covers roughly 200 km and takes most of the day.

Pokhara (822 m) arrives in the late afternoon on the shore of Phewa Lake, with Annapurna I and Machhapuchhre standing over it — and this is one of the few places from which the mountain you are about to climb is clearly visible from a café table. Overnight in Pokhara.

North-west from Pokhara to Beni and then up the Kali Gandaki — the deepest gorge on earth, measured between Annapurna I on one side and Dhaulagiri on the other, with seven vertical kilometres of relief in a valley a few kilometres wide.

The road climbs through Tatopani, where there are hot springs beside the river, and into pine forest as the gorge narrows.

Lete (2,480 m) is the road head for this expedition. From tomorrow everything moves on foot up a side valley with no villages in it. Seven to nine hours. Overnight at Lete.

The expedition leaves the Kali Gandaki and turns east into the Miristi Khola, and within an hour there is no trail worth the name.

The gorge is steep, forested and unvisited — no villages, no lodges, no trekking route and no maintained path. The route follows the river on ground the crew knows, with river crossings, sidehill traverses through rhododendron and bamboo, and steep sections where fixed line is put in for the loads.

Camp goes up at around 2,900 m on whatever flat ground the gorge offers. From here the expedition is entirely self-contained. Around 6 hours. Overnight in the Miristi Khola.

More of the same and steeper. The route continues east up the gorge, climbing steadily as the walls close in, with the north face of Annapurna I beginning to show at the head of the valley.

There are two or three sections where the crew fixes rope for the porters, and the pace is set by the loads rather than the climbers.

Camp at 3,600 m, where the rhododendron thins into birch and juniper and the temperature drops noticeably. It is the last camp below the treeline. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight in the upper Miristi Khola.

Out of the forest onto moraine and grass, climbing east to the head of the Miristi Khola with the mountain filling the sky ahead.

And then it is all there at once: the north face of Annapurna I, three and a half vertical kilometres of it, with the hanging glaciers and seracs that define this expedition clearly visible from the moraine. Most people stop walking when they first see it properly.

Annapurna North Base Camp (4,190 m) is established today and is home for the next month. Around 5 hours. Overnight at base camp.

A day of low effort and a great deal of quiet organisation. Sleeping tents are set up properly, the mess and kitchen routine established, and the charging, water, toilet and radio arrangements explained.

Your leader runs the oxygen systems check at altitude — mask, regulator and hose fitted to your own face and hood, with flow rates and the changeover drill walked through.

The afternoon is spent on the moraine looking at the face, and the leader begins the conversation that runs through the whole expedition: where the hazard is, when it is crossed, and how many times. Overnight at base camp.

The puja. A stone chorten is built, juniper is burned, and every piece of climbing equipment on the expedition — axes, crampons, harnesses, boots, oxygen masks — is stacked at the altar to be blessed.

No Sherpa on our team will set foot on the north face before it has been done, and on this mountain in particular the ceremony carries weight for everyone present, whatever they believe.

Prayer flags are strung from the chorten across the camp, rice is thrown, and it finishes with chang. It is also the day the whole team first behaves as one group. Overnight at base camp.

A full working day on the glacier ice near camp. Every climber works through jumaring on steep fixed line with a pack, changing over at anchors, abseiling, arresting a slip on hard ice, and moving on mixed ground in crampons.

The changeover drill gets the most repetition, because the number of anchors between base camp and Camp 2 is large and every second spent at one is a second in the serac-exposed ground.

Your leader watches each climber individually. On this mountain speed is the safety measure, and that is stated plainly rather than implied. Overnight at base camp.

An acclimatisation walk up the moraine toward 4,700 m and back, gaining and losing height on ground that asks nothing technical.

The view is a working one. From up there the whole lower route is legible — the glacier, the exposed traverse, the shelf where Camp 1 goes — and your leader and the Sherpa team spend an hour with binoculars agreeing where the line goes this season, because on Annapurna it is different every year.

The afternoon is rest and packing. The Sherpa team is already on the face, marking and fixing toward Camp 1. Overnight at base camp.

Out of camp at two in the morning, because the lower face has to be crossed while it is frozen and while the seracs above are least active.

The route works up the glacier on fixed line and then across the exposed traverse beneath the hanging ice — the section that has defined this mountain's reputation. It is moved through steadily, spaced out, and nobody stops in it for any reason.

Above it the ground eases onto the shelf where Camp 1 (5,100 m) stands. Five to seven hours. The relief of being above the hazard is something every Annapurna climber describes. Overnight at Camp 1.

A shorter day on steepening ground above Camp 1, four to five hours on fixed rope to Camp 2 (5,700 m).

The team touches the camp, spends an hour there and descends to Camp 1 for the night. This rotation is about the height reached rather than the night spent, and it keeps the number of loads carried through the lower hazard to a minimum.

It is also the first honest look at how each climber moves on the steep fixed ground of this face, and your leader watches closely. Overnight at Camp 1.

Another pre-dawn start, and back down through the exposed traverse in the cold — the second of the small number of passages the rotation plan allows.

Down the fixed ropes and across the glacier to base camp in three to four hours, arriving before the sun is properly on the seracs.

The first rotation is complete: the team has slept at 5,100 m and touched 5,700 m, and everybody now understands exactly what the lower face involves. Base camp (4,190 m) by mid-morning. Overnight at base camp.

The first of three recovery days, and the hardest to spend well because the fatigue of a rotation arrives late — most people feel worse today than they did yesterday.

The prescription is unglamorous: sleep, drink four to five litres, and eat considerably more than you want to.

Your leader and the expedition doctor take saturation, pulse and weight readings and review them against the baseline. Anyone whose numbers are drifting gets a conversation rather than a schedule. Overnight at base camp.

The second recovery day, and the one on which people start feeling human again. Base camp settles into its rhythm: breakfast late, cards and reading in the dining tent, a slow walk on the moraine, dinner early.

Work goes on around you. The Sherpa team is carrying loads and fixing rope above Camp 2 toward Camp 3, and every one of those carries is a passage through the same hazardous ground the climbers cross.

That asymmetry is worth stating on this mountain in particular: the Sherpa team is exposed several times more than any client. The evening weather briefing becomes a fixture from about now. Overnight at base camp.

The last day before the second rotation, spent on preparation. Personal loads are packed for four nights above base camp, crampons and harnesses checked after their first hard use, and boots dried properly.

Your leader briefs the rotation: base camp to Camp 1, then Camp 2 for a night, and then a climb toward Camp 3 at 6,500 m before returning.

The night at Camp 2 and the touch at Camp 3 are the acclimatisation that makes a summit push possible, and they are also the last time the team goes onto the face before the window. Overnight at base camp.

A two o'clock start and the exposed traverse again, crossed faster this time — four to five hours where the first rotation took six or seven.

That speed is not vanity. Every minute less in the serac ground is a real reduction in exposure, and the improvement between rotations is one of the more concrete benefits of acclimatisation on this particular mountain.

Camp 1 (5,100 m) by mid-morning, with the rest of the day to lie down and drink. Overnight at Camp 1.

Four to five hours on fixed rope up steepening snow and ice to Camp 2 (5,700 m), this time with the loads and the intention to stay.

The camp is a handful of tents on platforms cut into the face, small and exposed, where everyone stays clipped in when moving outside.

Sleeping at 5,700 m is the purpose of this rotation. It is not a comfortable night and it is the thing that makes a push from 7,200 m realistic three weeks from now. Overnight at Camp 2.

The hardest day of the acclimatisation programme. Above Camp 2 the face steepens into sustained ice at 45 to 55 degrees with mixed sections, climbed entirely on fixed rope.

Four to six hours of unrelenting work brings the team to Camp 3 (6,500 m), a row of tents on platforms hacked into the face itself.

The team touches it, spends an hour there, and abseils and down-climbs back to Camp 2. It is the height that matters, not the night, and it keeps the number of nights high on a hazardous face to a minimum. Overnight at Camp 2.

Down the fixed ropes past Camp 1 and through the exposed traverse in the cold of the morning, reaching base camp before the sun is on the seracs.

The acclimatisation programme is now complete. The team has slept at 5,700 m and touched 6,500 m, and physiologically there is nothing more to be gained from going higher until the summit push.

Base camp (4,190 m) by midday, and the mood changes: the preparation is finished and everything from here waits on weather. Six to eight hours. Overnight at base camp.

A full recovery day after four nights on the face. Sleep, fluid, food, and staying off the legs.

The expedition doctor reviews the whole team today — weight, saturation, sleep, appetite and any lingering cough — because the summit push is now the only thing left and going into it with a chest infection is how people end up in trouble at 7,000 m.

The Sherpa team continues stocking Camp 3 and pushing the line toward Camp 4 at 7,200 m. Overnight at base camp.

A second full recovery day. On Annapurna the rest between the last rotation and the summit push matters more than on most 8,000 m peaks, because the push involves several more passages through the lower hazard and a tired team crosses it slowly.

Most people sleep for a large part of the day, and the cook crew works hard on appetite at this stage.

In the evening the forecast is read out in the communications tent, and from tonight the whole camp is watching for a window. Overnight at base camp.

The waiting begins, and on Annapurna it is longer and less certain than on Everest. The mountain needs cold, settled weather with no fresh loading on the face, and it may offer one such spell in a season.

Days are spent eating, sleeping and walking gently on the moraine. With one or two other teams in the valley at most, base camp is a quiet place.

The evening brings the specialist mountain forecast — wind at 8,000 m, temperature, precipitation and confidence — read out in the communications tent and cross-checked against what the Sherpa team is seeing on the face. Overnight at base camp.

More waiting, and the discipline is not to burn energy. Climbers who fill these days with long walks arrive at Camp 4 with less in reserve than those who read a book.

One useful piece of work: your leader reviews the oxygen plan with each climber individually — flow rates from Camp 3, at Camp 4, on summit day, and the changeover points where bottles are swapped and cached for the descent.

Masks and regulators are checked a final time against your own hood and goggles. A leaking mask at 7,800 m on this face is not a problem that can be solved in place. Overnight at base camp.

The full summit briefing. Your leader sets out the schedule day by day, the pairings of climber and Sherpa, the radio times, the oxygen changeovers, and the turnaround time on summit day.

On Annapurna the briefing spends as long on the descent as the ascent, because the summit day ends with a long down-climb and abseil and then, a day later, a final passage through the serac ground. A team that summits and then crosses that traverse exhausted in the afternoon has not finished the climb safely.

The Sherpa team confirms that Camp 4 is stocked and the route is fixed. Nothing begins until both are true. Overnight at base camp.

The last day at base camp before the push. Loads are packed for five nights above base camp, down suits unpacked and checked, and boots warmed.

Dinner is early and the camp is quiet. On a mountain where a season may offer a single window and where everyone present knows the statistics, the atmosphere on this evening is unlike anything else in the expedition.

Departure through the lower face is set for around one in the morning. Most people do not sleep much. Overnight at base camp.

Into the lower face at one in the morning and through the exposed traverse for the last time on the way up, faster than ever on entirely familiar ground.

The team pushes straight through Camp 1 and continues up the fixed ropes to Camp 2, eight to ten hours in total, arriving in the early afternoon.

Camp 2 (5,700 m). The rest of the day is spent lying down, drinking and eating. From here the expedition moves upward every day until it summits or turns back. Overnight at Camp 2.

The sustained upper face again — four to six hours of ice at 45 to 55 degrees with mixed sections, entirely on fixed rope, with heavier loads than on the rotation.

Camp 3 (6,500 m) is a row of tents on ledges chopped out of the face, half-suspended, where everyone stays clipped in even inside them.

This is the first night on supplementary oxygen, at a low sleeping flow, and it makes a considerable difference to how the night goes and how the following day starts. Overnight at Camp 3.

On oxygen from the moment you leave the tent. The route continues up the face and onto the shoulder, five to seven hours on fixed rope with the angle easing near the top.

Camp 4 (7,200 m) is the last camp, a handful of tents on the shoulder, exposed and cold.

You are in the Death Zone, where the body degrades rather than adapts. Nobody sleeps. The routine is oxygen, melted snow, forced fluid and waiting for the departure time, with the summit slopes directly overhead. Overnight at Camp 4.

Leaving Camp 4 between eight and eleven at night, on oxygen, at around -30°C. The route climbs the shoulder and then takes a long rising traverse across the upper face — exposed, sustained, and the section on which most turn-backs happen because it goes on for hours without gaining much height.

Above the traverse a final slope leads to the summit ridge, and then there is nowhere higher. The summit (8,091 m) looks north to Tibet, east along the whole Annapurna range to Manaslu, and south over the Sanctuary and the middle hills toward the Pokhara valley — which is visible, seven and a half thousand metres below.

This is where Herzog and Lachenal stood on 3 June 1950, the first people ever to reach 8,000 m, and the descent that followed cost them their fingers and toes.

Yours reverses the traverse and abseils the face to Camp 4 and on to Camp 3. Fourteen to twenty hours of movement. Overnight at Camp 3.

The most important descent of the expedition. Down the fixed ropes past Camp 2 and Camp 1, and then the exposed traverse across the lower face — timed for the cold of the early morning, on legs that have very little left.

Your leader will hold the team at Camp 1 rather than let it cross that ground in the afternoon heat. A summit that ends with an exhausted party under the seracs in the sun is not a successful climb.

Base camp (4,190 m), and walking off the glacier onto the moraine at the end of an Annapurna summit push is a moment most climbers describe more vividly than the summit. Seven to nine hours. Overnight at base camp.

The first of five reserve days. On a mountain whose season may offer a single window, they are the difference between an expedition with a second chance and one without.

If a second push is on, the Sherpa team re-stocks Camp 4 and the climbers rest here. Your leader assesses each climber honestly, and on Annapurna that assessment weighs the additional passages through the lower hazard that a second attempt requires.

If the mountain has been climbed, the day is for eating and sleeping. Most climbers lose eight to twelve kilograms on an Annapurna expedition. Overnight at base camp.

The second reserve day. If a second attempt is running, the team is at Camp 2 or Camp 3 tonight rather than here.

If the mountain has been climbed, the camps above begin to come down. Camp 4, Camp 3 and Camp 2 are stripped by the Sherpa team — and every one of those clearing carries is another passage through the same ground, which is why we plan the strip carefully rather than rushing it.

Everything the expedition put on the face comes off it. Overnight at base camp.

The third reserve day, and in a season with a late window this is often the summit day itself — Annapurna windows have arrived in the last week of May more than once.

If a second push is underway, the team is high on the face and base camp is a radio watch.

If not, the day is spent in the limbo of an expedition that is finished but not yet over: eating, sleeping, and watching the face for the conditions that did not come. Overnight at base camp.

The fourth reserve day. By now the season's arithmetic is clear, and your leader will say plainly whether there is anything left to attempt.

That judgement is the most important thing we sell on this mountain. A leader who keeps a tired team on the Annapurna north face past the last honest window is the most dangerous thing on it, and no member of our staff has a financial incentive to do so.

The waste management is completed today: human waste carried out in barrels, oxygen bottles counted back in, and the site cleared to the condition it was found in. Overnight at base camp.

The last reserve day and the end of the expedition's margin. Base camp comes down today: tents struck, barrels packed and weighed, and loads made up for the porters and helicopter lifts that will take five weeks of expedition out of the Miristi Khola.

It is a long day of unglamorous work, and it is when the team says goodbye to the base camp crew who have run the place since early April.

The chorten from the puja stays with its prayer flags. A last look at the north face, which after five weeks is a place rather than a photograph. Overnight at base camp.

Off the moraine and west down the head of the Miristi Khola, losing height fast with the north face receding behind you.

The birch and juniper come back within a few hours, and with them the first birds and the first smell of vegetation in five weeks.

Camp at 3,600 m in the upper gorge, and the last one with the mountain visible. Around 5 hours. Overnight in the upper Miristi Khola.

A long day down the gorge — the trackless sidehill traverses, the river crossings and the fixed sections, all of it in reverse and all of it downhill.

The forest gets denser and warmer as the gorge drops, and somewhere in the afternoon the trail rejoins the Kali Gandaki and there is a path again, and then a road.

Lete (2,480 m) is the first village in five weeks — lodges, a shop, a hot shower and other people. The evening is the end-of-expedition dinner with the leader, the climbing Sherpas, the cook crew and the porters, and the point at which the summit bonus and tips are given. Nine to eleven hours. Overnight at Lete.

Down the Kali Gandaki by jeep through Tatopani and Beni, with the gorge opening and warming all the way and Dhaulagiri behind you on the right.

Seven to nine hours on a rough road, and then the highway into Pokhara (822 m).

The afternoon is free: a hot shower, a proper meal and an hour by Phewa Lake, from which — on a clear evening — the mountain you have just spent five weeks on is plainly visible. Overnight in Pokhara.

A morning by the lake before the road, with the Annapurnas reflected in it on a clear day.

The drive to Kathmandu takes most of the day on the Prithvi Highway, following the Trishuli east through gorge country with a lunch stop at a riverside restaurant.

Back in Kathmandu in the evening. The expedition reports to the Department of Tourism, the waste deposit is reconciled, and the summit certificate is issued and presented. Overnight in Kathmandu.

The expedition ends today. If your flight is a late one there is time for a last morning in Kathmandu, though most people at this point want a chair and a coffee more than a temple.

Our representative collects you from the hotel and drives you to Tribhuvan International Airport about three hours before departure. Any equipment being shipped home is handled by our office.

Safe travels. Whether or not the summit came, an Annapurna season changes how a climber thinks about risk, and the ones who come back to us generally do so with that conversation already started.