Api Himal 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.

There is nothing to do today but rest. Unpack and lay your equipment out tonight — it is checked item by item tomorrow, and Kathmandu is the last place on earth where anything missing can be replaced before an expedition that walks four days from the nearest road in the far west of the country.

Your expedition leader calls at the hotel in the evening to introduce themselves and set the plan for the morning. Overnight in Kathmandu.

A full working day. Your leader takes the thirty-two day plan apart stage by stage — the flight west to Dhangadhi, the drive into the hills, the four-day approach, base camp at 3,900 m, the rotation, the three camps above and the reserve days — and is honest about the two things that make Api unusual: there is no trodden line on the mountain, and there is nobody else in the range.

The equipment inspection follows, item by item: double or triple boots, technical crampons, a pair of steep-ice tools, harness, ascender, belay device, screwgates, down suit or jacket and trousers, and the layering for a summit day that starts in the dark and runs fourteen hours.

Anything missing is bought or hired this afternoon in Thamel. Because the approach crosses subtropical hills that can be very wet in spring, your waterproofs are checked as carefully as your down. Overnight in Kathmandu.

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

The Api Nampa Conservation Area permit and the TIMS card are lodged at the same time. Far-western Nepal sees so few expeditions that the paperwork is genuinely unfamiliar to everyone involved, and the leader allows a full day for it.

The cargo is meanwhile weighed, sealed into barrels and checked in for the Dhangadhi flight — group tents, ropes, hardware, fuel and a month of food, all of which has to travel by road and then on the backs of porters and pack animals. The afternoon is free, and it is the last one with hot water and restaurants for four weeks. Overnight in Kathmandu.

An early transfer to the domestic terminal for the one-hour flight west to Dhangadhi (170 m). The aircraft flies the length of the Nepalese lowlands with the Himalaya on the right the entire way, and the ranges you pass — Ganesh, Manaslu, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri — are the ones everybody climbs. The one you are going to is beyond the far end of them.

Dhangadhi is a hot, flat, busy city on the Indian border in the Terai, and it feels nothing like mountain Nepal. The afternoon goes on the last of the logistics: the cargo is transferred to jeeps, fresh food is bought for the approach, and the leader confirms the road north is open.

It is worth understanding how far from the tourist economy you now are. Dhangadhi has no trekking shops, no expedition agents and no climbers. Overnight in Dhangadhi.

A long day in a jeep — ten to twelve hours, and a genuine adventure in its own right. The road runs north from the Terai up the Mahakali valley, with India on the far bank the whole way, then climbs into the hills of Darchula district on a narrow unsealed shelf cut into the hillside.

It is rough, spectacular and slow. Landslide repairs, river crossings and single-lane sections mean the timing is an estimate rather than a schedule, and after heavy rain the road can be closed altogether — which is why the itinerary carries reserve days at the far end.

Gokuleshwar (1,400 m) is a hill bazaar at the road head: a strip of shops, a bus stand and a lot of interest in the arrival of a foreign team. Porters are engaged here from the villages around, loads are made up and weighed, and the expedition sets up its first camp. Overnight in a tent.

The walking begins. The trail follows the river north through terraced hillsides, millet and rice fields, and a string of Chhetri villages where the arrival of a foreign expedition is an event rather than a transaction.

There is no trekking infrastructure of any kind here — no lodges, no signposts, no menus, no other walkers. The path you are on is simply the way people get from one village to the next, and it has been for centuries.

It is around five to six hours of undulating trail with a net gain of five hundred metres, hot and humid at this elevation and, in spring, wet enough for leeches in the forest sections. Camp is pitched on a terrace near Makarigad (1,900 m), the crew set up the mess tent, and the first dinner of the approach is served. Overnight in a tent.

The valley narrows and the trail steepens. Rice and millet give way to potato and barley, oak and rhododendron forest closes in, and the Chhetri villages of the lower hills are replaced by Bhotiya settlements of Tibetan descent with flat-roofed stone houses and cattle in the ground floor.

Around six hours of steady climbing, with several sharp sections where the path is cut into the hillside above the river. On a clear afternoon the first ice appears at the head of the valley, and it is a long way above you.

Dhuli (2,580 m) is a summer settlement at the upper limit of cultivation — occupied while the herds are high and largely empty for the rest of the year. Camp is pitched on the flats beside it. Overnight in a tent.

Above Dhuli the trail leaves cultivation behind entirely and enters the upper valley — birch and juniper scrub, boulder fields, and grazing meadows used by herders in summer. The path is faint and in places it is not a path at all, and the leader and the local porters work it out between them.

Around five hours of climbing with a gain of nearly seven hundred metres. The south face of Api comes fully into view during the day: a huge complex wall of ice and rock at the head of the valley, and the first proper look at what the expedition has come for.

Camp goes in on a meadow at 3,250 m. This is the first night high enough to feel, and the leader watches the team for headaches, appetite and sleep — the beginning of the acclimatisation record that runs all the way to the summit. Overnight in a tent.

A short but rough day onto moraine. The trail climbs past the last of the grazing into a landscape of boulders, glacial streams and old lateral moraine, and after around four to five hours the expedition arrives at Api Base Camp (3,900 m).

It is a low base camp by Nepalese standards, which is entirely a function of geography: the valleys of the far west are deep, and the mountain rises straight out of them. It means base camp is comfortable, warm and green by comparison with the moraine camps of the Khumbu — and it also means the route above has over three thousand metres to gain.

The crew build the camp through the afternoon: mess tent, kitchen, store, communications and toilet tents, and sleeping tents laid out on levelled platforms. The porters are paid off and start home, and the expedition is on its own. Overnight at base camp.

The puja is held this morning. A lama walks up from the last village below for it, a chorten of stones is built, prayer flags are strung from it in five directions, and juniper is burned while every ice axe, crampon and rope in the expedition is laid out to be blessed.

No member of a Nepali climbing team will set foot on the mountain before this is done, and it is not a performance for visitors. Rice is thrown, faces are marked with tsampa, and the ceremony ends the way it always does, with everybody drinking and the strung flags cracking in the wind.

The rest of the day goes on the camp: the load is broken out and inventoried, ropes and hardware are sorted into carries, the solar array and communications are set up, and the leader and the Sherpa team go up onto the moraine with binoculars to study the line to Camp 1. Overnight at base camp.

A working day on the ice above camp, and the point at which the leader decides how the expedition will be run. Everything the route demands is checked in a controlled setting: front-pointing and tool placement on 50 to 55 degree ice, ice screw placement and removal, ascender work on fixed line, changeovers at anchors, and abseiling from a hanging stance in gloves.

Movement together on a corniced ridge is rehearsed as well, because the summit ridge is taken one at a time and the discipline has to be automatic by then.

The assessment is honest. A climber who is slow at a changeover here will be dangerously slow at 6,800 m in the dark, and it is far better to find that out today than on the summit push. The afternoon is rest, and the Sherpa team makes the first carry towards Camp 1. Overnight at base camp.

The first day on the mountain proper. The team climbs the moraine and steps onto the glacier, roped and in crampons, following the line the Sherpas have been working on and marked with wands over the last two days.

The glacier is crevassed and the route weaves through it, over snow bridges that are probed and around holes that are not crossed at all. Around 4,500 m the team caches a load of rope and hardware for the camp above, has something to eat, and turns round.

The descent is quick and everyone is back at base camp for late lunch. Climb high, sleep low: this is the standard mechanism of acclimatisation and it is the whole purpose of the day. Overnight at base camp.

A full rest day, and it is worth taking seriously. Eat as much as you can manage, drink four to five litres, sleep in the afternoon, sort your gear for the rotation and do nothing that costs energy.

The Sherpa team is out on the route today, fixing above the cache towards the Camp 1 site and carrying tents and fuel up. The leader takes a satellite forecast in the evening and briefs the rotation.

The low altitude of base camp helps here in a way it does not on most 7,000 m expeditions — at 3,900 m the body genuinely recovers rather than merely deteriorating more slowly, and a rest day is a real rest. Overnight at base camp.

The acclimatisation rotation begins. The team follows the wanded line through the crevasse field, clips into the fixed rope where the glacier steepens, and climbs the broken ground above it to the shelf where Camp 1 (4,800 m) sits.

It is five to six hours with a nine-hundred-metre gain, carrying personal kit and a share of the load. The Sherpas have the tents in and the platforms cut, and the afternoon goes on melting snow, eating and lying still while the body works.

The first night at 4,800 m is usually a poor one: broken sleep, a headache, periodic breathing. That is normal and it is the point of being here. Your leader checks everyone in the evening and again at first light. Overnight at Camp 1.

A short, hard morning. The team climbs the first pitches of the ice face above Camp 1 on fixed rope — this is where the route stops being a glacier walk and becomes sustained climbing at 50 to 55 degrees — and turns round at around 5,300 m, having touched the ground that matters.

It is a valuable ninety minutes: it puts the route into your legs, it lets the leader watch the whole team on steep ice at altitude, and it takes the acclimatisation another five hundred metres higher.

Camp 1 is stripped of what is not staying, and the team descends all the way to base camp — through the crevasse field, off the glacier, down the moraine and into the mess tent for hot food. The drop of nearly a thousand metres from your high point is what makes tomorrow's rest effective. Overnight at base camp.

Rest, food and the forecast. The rotation is done and the body is now converting it into red cells, which takes days rather than hours and cannot be hurried.

The summit window is chosen on this day or the next. The leader takes the satellite forecast, weighs the wind at 7,000 m against the state of the fixed rope and the condition of the team, and picks the day the push starts. On a mountain with no other party there is no information from anybody else — the decision rests entirely with your leader.

Personal loads are packed for a push that will not return to base camp for five days: down suit, high-altitude rations, spare gloves and goggles, batteries and headtorches. Overnight at base camp.

The push begins. The ground is familiar now and the team moves faster than it did on the rotation — through the crevasse field, up the fixed section and onto the shelf at Camp 1 (4,800 m) in four to five hours.

The tents are already up, so the afternoon is spent doing the only three things that matter at this stage: drinking, eating and lying down. Snow is melted continuously and everybody is checked for signs that they should not go higher.

The evening forecast comes in and is discussed openly. Nobody goes onto the face tomorrow without the leader's agreement, and a climber who was slow today is told so tonight rather than at 6,000 m. Overnight at Camp 1.

The hardest day below the summit. Above Camp 1 the route climbs the ice face on fixed rope for the best part of a thousand metres — sustained ground at 50 to 55 degrees with steeper steps, all of it fixed by our Sherpas, all of it climbed on an ascender with a pack on.

It is six to eight hours of continuous effort and it is where the grade D is earned. Rhythm is everything: a steady pace with the calves rather than a series of surges, and a disciplined changeover at every anchor.

Camp 2 (5,700 m) is cut into the face, a pair of platforms hacked out of ice with the tents anchored to screws — a spectacular and slightly unnerving place to spend a night. Everyone stays clipped in. Overnight at Camp 2.

A deliberately short day, because tomorrow is a very long one. The route continues up the face and out onto the upper shoulder, easing in angle but not in seriousness, and reaches the high camp at 6,300 m in four to five hours.

This is as high as the expedition sleeps, and the air here holds less than half the oxygen of sea level. Nobody sleeps well, nobody is hungry, and both of those have to be overridden — you eat and drink because you have to, not because you want to.

The afternoon is spent preparing: harness laid out, crampons fitted to boots, batteries warmed inside the sleeping bag, water bottles filled. The team is briefed on the ridge and on the turnaround time, and goes to bed at seven for an alarm shortly after midnight. Overnight at high camp.

You leave high camp at around one in the morning in a line of headtorches, and it is bitterly cold. The route climbs snow slopes and short ice steps to gain the summit ridge, and from there the character of the day changes entirely.

The ridge is long, exposed and corniced, and it is taken one climber at a time on fixed line — the cornices overhang the north side and the safe ground is never where instinct says it is. It goes on for hours, and the summit is not visible for most of them.

The summit of Api (7,132 m) is the highest point in the far west of Nepal, and the view from it takes in three countries: the Nepalese ranges east, Tibet's brown hills north, and India across the Kali river to the west with the Nanda Devi group standing clear of everything around it. Almost nobody has stood here.

You do not stay long. The descent abseils and down-climbs the ridge and the face, all of it on the rope your own team fixed, and it is where the concentration has to hold. The day runs twelve to sixteen hours and ends at Camp 2. Overnight at Camp 2.

The last serious day. The face below Camp 2 is descended by abseil after abseil, the Sherpa team stripping the fixed rope and the anchors as the last climbers come down, and it takes most of the morning.

Camp 1 is collapsed and carried, the glacier is recrossed while the snow bridges are still firm, and the team walks off the ice onto moraine and down to base camp (3,900 m).

The drop of eighteen hundred metres from Camp 2 is felt immediately — thicker air, warmth, grass, and a cook who has been waiting. There is hot food, a wash, and the particular exhaustion that arrives once the danger is over. Overnight at base camp.

The first of four reserve days, and they are the reason this expedition is as long as it is. Api is a high, remote mountain in a range with no other party on it, and a summit push can be turned back by wind, by fresh snow loading the face, or by a single climber who is not right on the day.

If the summit has already been reached, this is a rest day at base camp with nothing to do but eat, sleep and let the body repair itself.

If it has not, the day belongs to the mountain: the leader takes the forecast, judges the team's condition and the state of the fixed rope, and decides whether a second attempt is realistic. Overnight at base camp.

The second reserve day. On an expedition where the approach alone takes five days from Kathmandu and the walk out takes another four, these buffer days are worth more than they are anywhere else — there is no possibility of extending the trip at the far end, because the flights and the road out are fixed.

A second attempt, if one is being made, would start from base camp on a day like this one, moving back up through Camp 1 and Camp 2 on rope that is still in place.

Otherwise it is rest: reading, sorting equipment, drinking tea in the mess tent and watching the south face change colour through the afternoon. Overnight at base camp.

The third reserve day. Far-western Nepal sits at the western end of the Himalayan chain and its weather is genuinely its own — systems arrive from the west that have nothing to do with what is happening over the Khumbu, and a settled week can end without much warning.

That is why the contingency here is four days rather than the two we carry on better-known peaks, and why the leader will hold them rather than spend them early.

If the mountain is finished, the camp begins to come apart quietly around you: the ropes are coiled and counted, rubbish is sorted and bagged for the walk out, and the kitchen starts working through what is left of the food. Overnight at base camp.

The last reserve day, and the end of the mountain part of the expedition whatever has happened above. From tomorrow the team is walking down.

If the reserve has not been needed, this is simply another day of eating and sleeping at a base camp that is warm, green and low enough to be genuinely restful — a rarity on a 7,000 m expedition.

The final packing is done this afternoon. Every item that came up comes down: tents, ropes, hardware, fuel, batteries, packaging and human waste, all of it inventoried against the deposit lodged with the Department of Tourism before the team left Kathmandu. Porters arrive from the villages below to carry it. Overnight at base camp.

Base camp comes down at first light and the expedition starts home. The moraine is descended, the upper meadows are recrossed, and the trail drops steadily back into the valley — around six to seven hours and thirteen hundred metres of descent to Dhuli (2,580 m).

Going down is a different mountain. Every step puts more oxygen in the air, the scrub returns, then juniper, then the first birch, and by the afternoon there are cattle and stone houses and woodsmoke again.

There is a last look back at the south face of Api from the moraine before it goes out of sight behind the valley wall. Camp is pitched below the settlement and the crew cook a proper dinner with fresh food bought locally. Overnight in a tent.

A long descent through the Bhotiya settlements and back into cultivated country — five to six hours down the valley trail, retracing the approach in reverse and losing nearly seven hundred metres.

The heat comes back with the altitude loss, and after three weeks above the treeline it is a shock. So is the greenness: forest, terraces, water buffalo, children walking to school, and the ordinary noise of a working landscape.

The porters, who have been carrying since base camp, are the ones who set the pace today and they are quick. Camp is pitched again at Makarigad (1,900 m). Overnight in a tent.

The last day of walking — five to six hours back down the river trail through the Chhetri villages to the road head at Gokuleshwar (1,400 m).

The porters are paid off here and the expedition settles up with everyone who has worked on it, which on a trip in this part of Nepal means most of the working-age population of two or three villages. It matters: there is very little other cash work in Darchula, and an expedition passing through is a real event in the local economy.

There is cold beer at the bazaar, the first shop in three weeks, and a mobile signal. Camp is pitched at the road head for the last night under canvas. Overnight in a tent.

The long jeep day in reverse: ten to twelve hours down the hill road and south along the Mahakali to Dhangadhi (170 m). It is rough, dusty and slow, and it is the last hard day of the expedition.

The hills unwind behind you and the Terai heat builds through the afternoon until it is genuinely oppressive by the time the jeeps reach the plain.

A hotel, a shower and a bed are waiting, and the difference between them and a tent at 3,900 m is impossible to overstate. The team eats together tonight — the last dinner with the whole crew, and the point at which the expedition is properly over. Overnight in Dhangadhi.

The one-hour flight east to Kathmandu (1,400 m), back along the length of the country with the Himalaya out of the right-hand windows the entire way.

You are transferred to your hotel and the afternoon is entirely your own. Most people do the same three things in the same order: a very long shower, clean clothes, and a meal that somebody else has cooked with ingredients that did not travel four days on a porter's back.

The cargo is returned to our store, the waste inventory is filed with the Department of Tourism to release the deposit, and any summit certificate is processed. In the evening the team eats together in Thamel and the leader hands over the expedition report. Overnight in Kathmandu.

This day is deliberately empty, and it exists because of the road and the flight rather than the mountain. The hill road out of Darchula can close after rain and the Dhangadhi service can be delayed, and a team that misses an international connection because the itinerary had no slack in it has been let down by its operator.

If everything has run to time, it is a free day in Kathmandu — Boudhanath, Patan Durbar Square, Swayambhunath, the shops of Thamel for anything you want to take home, and a proper meal.

Your leader is available for a debrief, and any certificate or paperwork is handed over. Overnight in Kathmandu.

The expedition ends today. If your flight is a late one there is time for a last slow morning in Kathmandu, and the city is a much easier place to enjoy on the way out than it was on the way in.

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. Api sees fewer visitors in a decade than Everest base camp sees in a morning, and whatever happened on the summit ridge, a team that walked into the far west and climbed on that mountain has been somewhere very few people ever go.