Chulu East 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.

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 nineteen-day plan, the acclimatisation profile, the summit day hour by hour, 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 5,300 m.

Our office lodges the climbing permit, the Annapurna Conservation Area permit and the TIMS card today, which needs your passport and photographs. The afternoon is free. Overnight in Kathmandu.

A long day on the road. The Prithvi Highway runs west out of the Kathmandu valley beside the Trishuli, and at Mugling the route turns north for Besisahar, the old start of the Annapurna Circuit.

From Besisahar the tarmac ends and a jeep takes over, grinding up the Marsyangdi gorge on a rough road cut into the valley wall — spectacular, slow and not for anyone who dislikes exposure on a road.

Dharapani (1,860 m) sits at the junction with the Dudh Khola, where the Manaslu Circuit comes in from the east. Around 9 to 10 hours in total. Overnight at Dharapani.

The walking starts. The trail climbs north-west up the Marsyangdi through Bagarchhap and Danaque, and the vegetation changes as it goes — subtropical scrub gives way to blue pine, and the air cools noticeably.

At Timang the valley opens and Manaslu shows behind you for the first time, an 8,000 m wall filling the eastern skyline.

Chame (2,670 m) is the district headquarters, with a bank, a police check post and hot springs beside the river. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Chame.

Through pine and fir up a steep narrowing valley to Bhratang, where an apple orchard sits improbably in the gorge, and then past the Paungda Danda — a 1,500 m curved rock slab that fills the whole southern side of the valley and looks like the wall of a stadium.

Above it the valley opens into the dry upper Marsyangdi, the trees thin out, and the character turns Tibetan.

Upper Pisang (3,300 m) is a village of flat-roofed stone houses on the hillside with a gompa above it and Annapurna II directly opposite. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Upper Pisang.

The high route, and it is worth the extra climb. The trail contours and climbs above the north side of the valley to Ghyaru (3,730 m), a village of packed stone alleys that has not changed much in centuries.

The whole Annapurna range stands opposite for the entire walk — Annapurna II, III and IV, and Gangapurna — across a valley two kilometres deep. It is one of the great balcony walks in Nepal.

Ngawal (3,660 m) is a similar village an hour further on, with the Chulu peaks rising directly behind it to the north. Around 4 to 5 hours. Overnight at Ngawal.

Climb high, sleep low. The morning walk goes up the ridge behind the village toward 4,200 m, on open hillside with juniper and grazing yaks, and comes back down.

The height gained is the point, and the view is the bonus: the Annapurnas across the valley, the Marsyangdi running west toward Manang, and above you the flank of the Chulu massif with the base camp approach visible on it.

Back in Ngawal by early afternoon. Your guide takes the first oxygen saturation readings tonight, and the crew sorts loads for the climb. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Ngawal.

North-east out of Ngawal on a yak trail that leaves the Circuit within twenty minutes and climbs into a side valley almost nobody walks up.

The path works up through juniper scrub and grazing land and then onto moraine, gaining more than 1,200 m, with the valley narrowing and the glacier appearing at its head.

Chulu East Base Camp (4,900 m) is a tented camp below the moraine crest, with the north-east ridge visible in profile above and the whole Annapurna range filling the southern horizon behind you. Around 6 hours. Overnight at base camp.

A working day on the glacier ice above camp, and on an AD- peak it is a skills check rather than a beginner's lesson. Rope-team travel with correct spacing, jumaring on a steep fixed line with a pack, changing over at anchors, and abseiling.

Extra time goes on moving one at a time on an exposed crest and on short-roping, because the upper ridge is corniced and the fixed line does not run the whole way.

In the afternoon we walk part-way toward high camp and back — 300 m gained and lost. Meanwhile the Sherpas are above, fixing the ridge. Overnight at base camp.

A steep morning up the moraine, gaining 630 m in three to four hours with a moderate load while the crew moves the camp.

High camp (5,530 m) sits on rubble at the lip of the glacier, exposed to the wind that funnels down this valley every afternoon. It is the windiest and coldest night of the trip.

The rest of the day is preparation: kit laid out, rope teams assigned, an early dinner, and your guide's weather call and a hard turnaround time. On a ridge this long the turnaround is what decides the day. Overnight at high camp.

Roped and moving by one in the morning. The first hours cross the crevassed glacier in the dark on the line the Sherpas marked, with the team spaced correctly, and then gain the foot of the ridge.

The north-east ridge is the climb: sustained snow and ice at 45 to 50 degrees on fixed rope for several hours, steepening in places, with the sun arriving somewhere around 6,200 m.

The upper ridge is corniced and is followed one at a time with the Sherpas probing ahead. From the summit (6,584 m): Annapurna II, III and IV, Gangapurna and Tilicho across the valley, Manaslu east, Dhaulagiri west, and the Tibetan plateau running north — the same view as from Chulu West, from 165 m higher and after a harder day.

The descent abseils the ridge and reverses the glacier to high camp, then continues to base camp. Twelve to fifteen hours. Overnight at base camp.

The day held in reserve, and on Chulu East it is used more often than on the west peak. Wind on an exposed corniced ridge closes the route even in otherwise clear weather.

If yesterday failed on conditions or on the clock, the group returns to high camp today and climbs tomorrow, with the ropes already fixed and the glacier route marked.

If the summit went to plan, camp comes down and the group walks down to Manang, banking a day for the Thorong La later. Overnight at base camp or Manang.

Camp comes down after breakfast and the group descends the side valley to Ngawal, then follows the high route west and drops to the Marsyangdi.

Manang (3,540 m) is a substantial Tibetan-style town of flat-roofed houses with bakeries, gear shops, ATMs and a cinema that shows mountaineering films every afternoon. After four nights in tents it is a startling amount of civilisation.

The Himalayan Rescue Association runs a clinic here with a free altitude talk each afternoon, which is worth attending before the Thorong La. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Manang.

North-west out of Manang and up the Jarsang valley, leaving the Marsyangdi behind and climbing gently through the last of the juniper into open grazing country.

The valley is dry, brown and wide, with blue sheep frequently visible on the slopes above the trail and lammergeiers working the thermals.

Yak Kharka (4,050 m) is a handful of lodges among grazing land. It is a short day by design — the Thorong La is two days away and the point is to arrive at it rested. Around 3 to 4 hours. Overnight at Yak Kharka.

A short, cautious day. The trail climbs to Ledar and then contours across a steep and eroded hillside above the Jarsang Khola, on ground where rockfall is a genuine consideration and the path is narrow.

Thorong Phedi (4,540 m) — the name simply means the foot of Thorong — is two lodges wedged into a gorge at the base of the pass.

Everyone eats early and sleeps early, because the pass is crossed in the dark to beat the wind that gets up on the top by mid-morning. Around 3 to 4 hours. Overnight at Thorong Phedi.

Away by four in the morning by headlamp, straight into the steep climb above the lodges. The trail zigzags up scree and snow for three to four hours through a series of false summits, each one looking like the pass.

The Thorong La (5,416 m) is a broad saddle buried in prayer flags, with a teahouse that sells the highest cup of tea on the Circuit. After a 6,419 m summit it is a comfortable morning rather than the ordeal it is for most trekkers.

Then the descent — 1,600 m of it, long and hard on the knees, into the Kali Gandaki with Dhaulagiri filling the view ahead. Muktinath (3,800 m) is a temple complex sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists, with 108 water spouts and an eternal flame burning over a spring. Seven to nine hours. Overnight at Muktinath.

Down to Kagbeni and then south along the broad grey riverbed of the Kali Gandaki — the deepest gorge on earth, measured between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna — into the wind that funnels up this valley every day of the year.

Jomsom (2,720 m) is the district headquarters, and the flight to Pokhara leaves in the early morning before the wind makes it impossible. Where the group arrives too late or the flight is grounded, a jeep down the Kali Gandaki is the alternative and is included.

Pokhara (822 m) arrives in the afternoon: lakeside, warm, green, and about 5,600 m below where you stood four days ago. Overnight in Pokhara.

A morning by Phewa Lake before the road, with the Annapurnas and Machhapuchhre reflected in it on a clear day — including, if you know where to look, the Chulu group behind them.

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. The 25-minute flight is available as an add-on if you would rather not spend the day on the road.

Back in Kathmandu in the evening. Your summit certificate is presented over dinner. Overnight in Kathmandu.

The trip ends today. If your flight is a late one there is time for a last morning in Kathmandu — Boudhanath, Patan Durbar Square, or a slow breakfast on a roof terrace.

Our representative collects you from the hotel and drives you to Tribhuvan International Airport about three hours before departure.

If you are staying on in Nepal, we can arrange Chitwan, Lumbini or a Kathmandu valley tour. Safe travels — Tilicho Peak and Singu Chuli are the two our returning Chulu East climbers most often ask about, and both are a fair step on from here.