Chulu Far East 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 sixteen-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 onto open moraine, gaining a thousand metres, with the peak coming into view at the head of the valley — a broad snow dome rather than the sharp ridges of its neighbours.

Chulu Far East Base Camp (4,650 m) is a tented camp on flat ground below the moraine, with the whole Annapurna range filling the southern horizon behind you. Around 5 hours. Overnight at base camp.

The training day, and on a first climb it is the most useful day of the trip. On the glacier ice above camp you work through fitting crampons and walking in them, ice axe technique and self-arrest, moving as a roped team, ascending fixed line on a jumar, and abseiling.

None of it is difficult on flat ground in daylight, which is exactly why we do it here rather than at three in the morning on the slope.

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

A short morning up the moraine, gaining 590 m in three hours with a light load while the crew moves the camp.

High camp (5,240 m) sits on rubble at the lip of the glacier. It is lower than the high camps on the other two Chulus, which makes for a noticeably better night's sleep before a summit day.

The rest of the day is preparation: kit laid out, rope teams assigned, an early dinner, and your guide's weather call and turnaround time. Asleep by seven. Overnight at high camp.

Roped and moving by three in the morning — a later start than most 6,000 m peaks, because the day is shorter. The glacier crossing takes under an hour on a marked line, weaving past a few open crevasses in the dark.

Then the snow slope: 35 to 40 degrees, climbed steadily for two to three hours as the sky lightens over Manaslu, with a short fixed section on the steeper ground near the top.

The summit (6,059 m) is a broad dome with room to stand about on, which after a first climb is a considerable relief. Annapurna II, III and IV, Gangapurna and Tilicho stand across the valley, with Manaslu east, Dhaulagiri west and the Tibetan plateau running north.

The descent reverses the slope and the glacier to high camp and then base camp. Eight to eleven hours. Overnight at base camp.

The day held in reserve. Wind is the usual reason a Chulu attempt is turned back — the valley funnels it and the summit dome is fully exposed — and a second chance is worth more than any amount of equipment.

If yesterday failed on conditions, 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 starts down toward Ngawal and Pisang, banking a spare day against the drive out. Overnight at base camp or Ngawal.

Camp comes down after breakfast and the group descends the side valley to Ngawal, then takes the high route back east past Ghyaru — walked now in the opposite direction, with the Annapurnas ahead rather than behind.

The descent from Ghyaru to the Marsyangdi is steep and long, and thick air arrives with every hundred metres lost.

Upper Pisang (3,300 m) in the afternoon, with a lodge, a hot shower and a menu after four nights in tents. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Upper Pisang.

Back down the Marsyangdi past the Paungda Danda, the 1,500 m curved rock slab that fills the southern side of the valley, and through the apple orchard at Bhratang.

The trees come back as the valley drops — juniper, then fir, then blue pine — and with them warmth and the smell of resin after a fortnight of dry high country.

Chame (2,670 m) has hot springs beside the river, which after a summit and four nights in tents is worth the short walk. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Chame.

A long day on the road. The jeep grinds down the Marsyangdi gorge to Besisahar on a rough road cut into the valley wall — spectacular, slow and not for anyone who dislikes exposure on a road — and then joins the highway east.

The Prithvi Highway follows the Trishuli back to the Kathmandu valley, with a lunch stop at a riverside restaurant. Nine to eleven hours in total, depending on the road.

Back in Kathmandu in the evening. A shower, a proper meal, and your summit certificate 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, Pokhara, Lumbini or a Kathmandu valley tour. Safe travels — Chulu West and Pisang Peak are the two our returning Far East climbers most often ask about, and both are a natural next step.