Bokta Peak Climbing

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.

The rest of the day is yours to rest and adjust. Kathmandu is the last place anything can be bought, hired or replaced before an approach that walks seven days from the nearest road in the far east of the country, so lay your equipment out tonight — it is checked in the morning.

Your climbing guide calls at the hotel in the evening to introduce themselves and set the plan for tomorrow. Overnight in Kathmandu.

A working day in Kathmandu. Your guide takes the twenty-four day plan apart stage by stage — the Bhadrapur flight, the two days of driving through the tea hills, the seven-day walk in, base camp on the Yalung glacier, the training day, high camp and the summit — and explains where the reserve day sits and what would use it.

The equipment check follows: boots that take a crampon, harness, ice axe, helmet, jumar, belay device and screwgates, plus the sleeping bag, down jacket and shell layers. Anything missing is hired in Thamel this afternoon and we go with you, because a crampon that does not fit a boot is the single most common reason a climber does not summit.

Your NMA climbing permit and the Kanchenjunga restricted area permits are lodged today. Bring your passport, insurance certificate and photographs. Overnight in Kathmandu.

An early transfer to the domestic terminal for the fifty-minute flight to Bhadrapur (91 m) in Nepal's far south-eastern corner, a few kilometres from the Indian border and about as far from the mountains as it is possible to be in this country.

From the airstrip a jeep turns north and climbs steadily out of the Terai heat into the hills. The road runs for three to four hours through some of the most attractive country in Nepal — terraced tea gardens laid over the hillsides in green corduroy, cardamom under the shade trees, and the first real view of the ranges ahead.

Ilam (1,206 m) is the centre of Nepal's tea industry and a pleasant, prosperous hill town that almost no foreign visitor stops in. There is time to walk out into the gardens in the late afternoon. Overnight in Ilam.

A long day in the jeep — seven to nine hours north along a hill road that alternates between sealed sections and rough unmade shelf cut into the hillside. It follows ridges and river valleys rather than any direct line, and the timing is an estimate.

The country changes as you climb: tea gives way to millet and maize, the villages become Limbu and Rai rather than the mixed lowland communities of Ilam, and the ranges ahead grow steadily larger through the gaps.

Taplejung (1,820 m) is the district headquarters and the last town of any size — a sprawl of shops and government offices on a ridge, with a small airstrip at Suketar above it. Porters are engaged here, loads are made up and weighed, and permits are checked at the conservation area post. Overnight in a guesthouse.

The walking starts. The trail climbs out of Taplejung past the Suketar airstrip and onto the ridge, then contours and climbs through terraced farmland and stands of rhododendron and oak.

It is around five hours with a net gain of four hundred and fifty metres, though the day involves considerably more up and down than that suggests — this approach crosses ridges rather than following a valley, and every one of them has to be climbed and descended.

The villages along the way are Limbu, with their own language, their own religion and a well-earned reputation for hospitality. Nobody here is running a trekking business. Lali Kharka (2,265 m) is a scatter of houses on the ridge with views back over the hills of Taplejung. Overnight in a simple lodge.

A day that ends lower than it started and still involves a thousand metres of climbing, which is a fair summary of this entire approach. The trail drops steeply off the Lali Kharka ridge to the Phawa Khola, crosses it on a suspension bridge, and climbs the far side through terraces and forest.

Around six hours. It is hot at this elevation, and in spring the forest sections hold leeches — long socks and a bottle of salt solution are worth having.

Cardamom grows under the trees along much of the route and is the main cash crop of these hills; the drying sheds beside the trail smell extraordinary. Khesewa (2,120 m) is a Limbu village on the next ridge, with a lodge that is essentially somebody's front room. Overnight in a simple lodge.

More of the same demanding, rewarding ridge country — six to seven hours of descending to river level, crossing, and climbing again, through terraced hillsides and patches of subtropical forest with the sound of the Kabeli Khola below for most of the day.

This is the heart of Limbu Nepal, and the trail passes through a string of villages where children walk to school, water buffalo are driven along the path and the arrival of foreigners is a matter of open curiosity rather than commerce.

Mamankhe (1,785 m) is a large village above the river with a small Limbu cultural museum and a community lodge. It is the last substantial settlement before the country begins to empty out. Overnight in a simple lodge.

The trail follows the Kabeli Khola upstream, contouring high above the river through forest and small clearings, with a couple of exposed sections where the path is cut into the hillside.

Around five to six hours. The valley narrows steadily and the character of the country changes — fewer terraces, more forest, and the first Sherpa and Bhotiya faces among the Limbu and Rai.

Yamphudin (2,080 m) is a mixed village of Limbu, Rai, Sherpa and Gurung families and the last permanent settlement on the route. A rough jeep road now reaches it, which is how the expedition will leave at the end. Loads are reorganised here and the last fresh food is bought. Overnight in a simple lodge.

The approach changes gear today. The trail climbs steeply out of Yamphudin over the Dhupi Bhanjyang ridge at around 2,600 m, drops to the Simbua Khola, and then follows the river upstream into deep forest.

It is six to seven hours with a nine-hundred-metre net gain and a good deal more than that in total climbing. The forest here is superb — old rhododendron, hemlock and fir, dripping with moss and lichen — and there are red panda in it, though almost nobody sees one.

Tortong (2,995 m) is a clearing used by herders with a couple of basic shelters. From here on there are no more villages, no more shops and no more people who live in the valley year round. Overnight in a simple lodge or tent.

A steady climb up the Simbua Khola through the last of the forest and out above the treeline — five to six hours and nearly nine hundred metres of gain, with the valley opening out and the first serious peaks appearing at its head.

The vegetation thins from rhododendron to juniper scrub to open grazing over the course of a single morning, and the temperature drops with it. This is the day the trek stops being a hill walk and starts being a mountain approach.

Tseram (3,870 m) sits at the snout of the Yalung glacier and is the last place with any built shelter — a few stone huts used by herders and the occasional trekking party. Your guide runs the first proper altitude checks here. Overnight in a simple lodge.

A short but genuinely high day. The trail climbs the lateral moraine of the Yalung glacier, passing the herders' huts at Lapsang, and emerges into the open basin of Ramche (4,610 m) after around four to five hours.

The gain of seven hundred and forty metres is significant at this altitude, so the pace is slow and deliberate and the afternoon is rest. Blue sheep graze on the slopes above the basin and are entirely unbothered by people.

The reward arrives with the first clear moment: Kanchenjunga's enormous south face filling the head of the valley, with Kabru, Rathong and Talung along the rim. The camp goes in on the flats beside the stream, and this is the first night under canvas. Overnight in a tent.

An acclimatisation day, and one of the best walking days in Nepal. The trail follows the moraine north to Oktang (4,730 m), a chorten and prayer-flag site at the foot of the Kanchenjunga south face, in around two hours each way.

The face is three thousand metres of ice and rock rising straight out of the glacier, and standing beneath it is worth the eleven days it has taken to get here. This is where the 1955 first ascent party came, and the summit is still not stepped on out of respect for the Sikkimese belief that the mountain is sacred.

Climb high, sleep low: the walk takes the acclimatisation a little higher and returns to Ramche for the night. Your guide checks oxygen saturation, appetite and sleep quality in the evening before committing the team to base camp. Overnight in a tent.

A short day onto the moraine, and the point at which the trip stops following any trekking route. The team leaves the Oktang trail, works east across the Yalung glacier's lateral moraine, and climbs onto the shelf beneath Bokta's south-west flank in three to four hours.

Base camp (4,900 m) is a levelled area of moraine beside a meltwater pool with the mountain directly above and Kanchenjunga behind. The crew build the camp through the afternoon — mess tent, kitchen, store and toilet tents, and sleeping tents on cut platforms.

Almost nobody comes here. In an average season this camp is used by two or three parties in total, and it is entirely possible that yours is the only one on the mountain this month. Overnight at base camp.

A puja is held first thing: a small chorten of stones, prayer flags strung from it, juniper burned, and every axe, crampon and rope laid out to be blessed. Your Sherpa team will not go onto the mountain before this is done.

The rest of the day is a full training and skills-check session on the ice above camp. Everything the route asks for is practised in a controlled place: crampon technique on 40 to 45 degree ice, ascending fixed rope with a jumar, changing over at anchors, abseiling, and moving as a roped team on glacier with a crevasse rescue drill.

It is also an honest assessment. Your guide watches how quickly people manage a changeover and how they cope with exposure, and plans the summit day around what they see. The Sherpa team makes a carry to high camp during the afternoon. Overnight at base camp.

A half day with a real load. The route climbs moraine onto the upper glacier, where the team ropes up and puts crampons on, and picks a line through a small number of crevasses to the shelf where high camp (5,400 m) sits.

It is three to four hours and five hundred metres. You carry your own sleeping bag, down clothing, harness and hardware; the Sherpas have already brought the tents and the fuel.

The afternoon is spent melting snow, eating early and lying still. Your guide briefs the summit — the fixed slope, the ridge, the turnaround time and the order of the rope teams — and everyone is in a sleeping bag by seven. The alarm goes at one. Overnight at high camp.

You leave high camp at around two in the morning, roped and in crampons, and climb the glacier by headtorch to the foot of the summit slope. It is cold and dark and the first hour is the hardest to face.

The slope above is fixed by your Sherpa team — snow and ice at 40 to 45 degrees, climbed on a jumar in a steady rhythm — and it leads onto the upper shoulder as the sky starts to lighten. From there a short exposed ridge is taken one climber at a time to the top.

The summit of Bokta (6,143 m) looks straight across the Yalung glacier into the south face of Kanchenjunga (8,586 m), with Jannu to the north-west, Kabru and Rathong along the Sikkim border and the hills of Ilam disappearing south into haze. Very few people have stood here.

The descent abseils the fixed line, recrosses the glacier and collapses high camp on the way through, continuing all the way to base camp. It is eight to eleven hours to the summit and back to high camp, and another two down. Overnight at base camp.

The reserve day, and it is the reason the summit success rate on this trip is what it is. Twelve days of travel and walking go into reaching this mountain, and losing it to a single bad morning would be a poor way to spend them.

If the summit has been reached, this is a rest day at base camp — a long sleep, a proper breakfast, and an afternoon of doing nothing at all with the Kanchenjunga south face in view.

If the attempt was turned back by weather or conditions, the rope is still in place on the slope and a second attempt goes back up to high camp today for a summit push tomorrow. Your guide makes that call on the forecast and on how the team is holding up. Overnight at base camp.

The camp comes down at first light and the walk out begins with a long, steady descent — off the moraine, past Ramche, down through Tseram and back below the treeline to Tortong (2,995 m).

It is seven to eight hours and nineteen hundred metres of descent, which is hard on the knees and wonderfully easy on the lungs. Two days of the approach are covered in one on the way down.

The change is dramatic. Ice and moraine give way to juniper, then rhododendron, then dripping old forest, and by the afternoon the air is thick and warm and full of birds. There is a last look back at Kanchenjunga from the moraine above Tseram before it goes behind the valley wall. Overnight in a simple lodge or tent.

The last day of walking. The trail follows the Simbua Khola down through the forest, climbs back over the Dhupi Bhanjyang ridge, and drops into Yamphudin (2,080 m) in around six hours.

The porters, who have carried since Taplejung, set a pace nobody else can match on the descent and are usually in the village long before the clients. They are paid off here, and it matters — there is very little other cash work in this valley, and an expedition passing through is a real event in the local economy.

There is a shop, a mobile signal and, if the season has been good, cold beer. The team eats together tonight with the whole crew. Overnight in a simple lodge.

A jeep day on the rough road that now reaches Yamphudin — five to seven hours of slow, bumpy driving along the Kabeli valley and over the ridges to Taplejung (1,820 m).

The road is a recent arrival and it has changed this valley considerably: goods that used to be carried in on backs now come by jeep, and the three days of ridge walking that the old route out required have been reduced to a single drive. It is not a comfortable one, but it buys back most of a week.

Taplejung has hot showers, restaurants and shops, all of which feel like unreasonable luxury after two weeks. The crew are settled up with here and the group eats together. Overnight in a guesthouse.

The long drive south in reverse — eight to ten hours down the hill road through Ilam and its tea gardens and out onto the Terai plain at Bhadrapur (91 m).

It is a full day and the heat builds steadily through the afternoon until it is genuinely oppressive by the time the jeeps reach the flat. The hills unwind behind you the whole way, and there is a last view of the high peaks from the ridge above Ilam if the air is clear.

Bhadrapur is a hot, busy border town with nothing to detain a visitor, but the hotel has air conditioning and a shower, and after two weeks of camp washing that is the only thing on anyone's mind. Overnight in Bhadrapur.

The fifty-minute flight west to Kathmandu (1,400 m), back along the length of the Nepalese lowlands with the Himalaya out of the right-hand windows for the entire journey — Kanchenjunga first, then Makalu, Everest and Lhotse, then the ranges of central Nepal.

You are transferred to your hotel and the afternoon is your own. Most people do the same three things in the same order: a very long shower, clean clothes, and a meal cooked by somebody who had a full kitchen to work in.

Your climbing permit is closed out with the NMA and any summit certificate is processed by our office. In the evening the group eats together in Thamel. Overnight in Kathmandu.

This day is deliberately empty and it exists because of the road and the flight rather than the mountain. The Taplejung hill road closes after heavy rain and the Bhadrapur service can be delayed, and a group 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 and Swayambhunath are all worth the afternoon, and Thamel has whatever you want to take home.

Your guide is available for a debrief and the summit certificate is handed over. Overnight in Kathmandu.

The trip ends today. If your flight is a late one there is time for a last slow morning in Kathmandu, which is a much easier city 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 hired equipment is returned by our office.

Safe travels. Bokta sees fewer climbers in a season than Island Peak sees in a morning, and a summit looking straight into the south face of Kanchenjunga is one that very few people anywhere have stood on.