Dhampus 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 guide calls at the hotel in the evening to introduce themselves and confirm tomorrow's plan. Overnight in Kathmandu.

Your guide runs the full briefing at the hotel: the sixteen-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 climbing layers, and anything unsuitable swapped for rental kit here rather than discovered above Hidden Valley.

Our office lodges the climbing permit, the Annapurna Conservation Area permit and the TIMS card. The afternoon is free. 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 Machhapuchhre standing over it — and, further west, the bulk of Dhaulagiri. The crew does the final load sort here. Overnight in Pokhara.

An early flight north from Pokhara into the Kali Gandaki — twenty minutes through the deepest gorge on earth, measured between Annapurna and Dhaulagiri, with seven vertical kilometres of relief on either side. It is one of the great scheduled flights anywhere.

Jomsom (2,720 m) is the district headquarters of Mustang, and from the airstrip it is a two-hour walk south down the broad grey riverbed into the wind that funnels up this valley every day of the year.

Marpha (2,670 m) is a Thakali village of whitewashed houses and paved alleys, famous throughout Nepal for its apple orchards and the brandy made from them. Around 2 to 3 hours. Overnight at Marpha.

West out of Marpha and straight up. The trail leaves the apple orchards within twenty minutes and climbs a thousand metres through pine and juniper onto the eastern flank of the Dhaulagiri massif.

It is a hard day and a rewarding one — the Kali Gandaki opens out below with Nilgiri and the Annapurnas across it, and the trail carries almost nobody, being a herders' route rather than part of the Circuit.

Yak Kharka (3,680 m) is a grazing pasture with stone shelters used in summer. Camp goes up here; there are no lodges above Marpha on this side. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Yak Kharka.

Climb high, sleep low. The morning walk goes up the ridge toward 4,300 m and back, on open hillside with juniper and grazing yaks.

The view is the reason to make the effort: the whole Kali Gandaki below, Nilgiri, Annapurna I and Tilicho across the gorge, and behind you the eastern flank of the Dhaulagiri massif rising toward Hidden Valley.

Back at Yak Kharka for the afternoon. Your guide takes the first saturation readings tonight. Around 4 to 5 hours. Overnight at Yak Kharka.

West and up out of the grazing country onto moraine and scree, gaining 900 m on a herders' route that thins to nothing within an hour.

The vegetation stops entirely somewhere around 4,200 m and the country becomes rock, dust and old snow, with the eastern flank of the Dhaulagiri massif above and the Kali Gandaki a long way below and behind.

Dhampus Base Camp (4,600 m) is a tented camp on flat ground below the Dhampus Pass, with the peak rising to the north-west. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at base camp.

The training day, and on a first climb it is the most useful day of the trip. On the snow 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 it is done here rather than at three in the morning on the slope.

In the afternoon we walk up to the Dhampus Pass (5,240 m) and back — a 640 m gain and loss, and the first sight of Hidden Valley on the other side. Meanwhile the Sherpas are above, fixing the steep section. Overnight at base camp.

A short morning up toward the pass and then north along the rim, gaining 600 m in three hours with a light load while the crew moves the camp.

High camp (5,200 m) sits on the edge of Hidden Valley — a flat, wind-scoured basin behind the Dhaulagiri massif with no vegetation and no permanent inhabitants, enclosed on all sides. It is a strange place to sleep.

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. The wind here does not stop. Overnight at high camp.

Roped and moving by three in the morning. 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 the Annapurnas, with a short fixed section on the steeper ground near the top.

The summit (6,012 m) is a broad crest with room to stand about on, and the view is the reason to climb this particular mountain. Dhaulagiri I — the eighth-highest mountain on earth — stands across Hidden Valley at close range; Tukuche Peak is next along the rim; and east across the Kali Gandaki are Nilgiri, Annapurna I and Tilicho, with the brown plateau of Mustang 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 Dhampus attempt is turned back — the summit crest sits on the rim of Hidden Valley and takes everything the basin throws at it — 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 Yak Kharka, banking a day against the Jomsom flight. Overnight at base camp or Yak Kharka.

Camp comes down after breakfast and the group descends the moraine and scree east, losing 900 m with the Kali Gandaki opening below.

The vegetation comes back in stages — first lichen, then grass, then juniper — and the air thickens noticeably with every hundred metres.

Yak Kharka (3,680 m) in the afternoon, in the grazing country with Nilgiri and the Annapurnas across the gorge. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Yak Kharka.

A long descent east down the ridge, losing a thousand metres through pine and juniper back into the apple orchards of Marpha.

Lunch in Marpha is worth taking slowly — it is the best village in the valley and the last stop before the airstrip.

Then two hours north up the broad grey riverbed to Jomsom (2,720 m), into the wind. The evening is the end-of-trip dinner with the guide, the climbing Sherpas, the cook crew and the porters, and the point at which tips are given. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Jomsom.

Jomsom flights leave at first light, before the valley wind makes flying impossible — by ten in the morning nothing moves in or out.

Twenty minutes back down the Kali Gandaki between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna, and the peak you climbed is visible on the right for the first minute of the flight. If the flights are grounded, a jeep down the gorge is the alternative and is included.

Pokhara (822 m) in the morning: lakeside, warm, green and about five thousand metres below where you stood two days ago. The afternoon is free. Overnight in Pokhara.

A morning by Phewa Lake before the road, with the Annapurnas and Machhapuchhre reflected in it on a clear day and Dhaulagiri showing further west.

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.

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 — Tukuche Peak, next along the rim of Hidden Valley and a clear step harder, is the question our returning Dhampus climbers most often ask.