Dorje Lakpa 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 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 leader calls at the hotel in the evening to introduce themselves and confirm tomorrow's plan. Overnight in Kathmandu.

Your leader runs the full briefing at the hotel: the twenty-eight 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 the layers you will actually climb in, and anything unsuitable swapped for rental kit here rather than discovered at altitude.

Our office lodges the climbing permit, the Langtang National Park permit and the TIMS card, which need your passport and photographs. The afternoon is free. 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 royalty permit is issued, the regulations are read out and the waste-management deposit is registered.

Meanwhile the expedition cargo is weighed, sealed into barrels and dispatched to Syabrubesi, where porters and pack animals take it up the valley.

Langtang is the closest expedition to Kathmandu of any in this catalogue, and the logistics are correspondingly quick — cargo can be at the road head the same evening. Overnight in Kathmandu.

North out of the Kathmandu valley over the rim at Kakani and down to the Trishuli, then up a hill road that climbs to Dhunche at 1,960 m — the district headquarters and the Langtang National Park entrance.

The road is rough, winding and spectacular, with the Ganesh Himal opening to the north-west and the Tibetan border a few kilometres east for much of the way.

Syabrubesi (1,460 m) sits at the confluence of the Bhote Koshi and the Langtang Khola. Around 7 to 8 hours, and the shortest road approach to any climbing region in Nepal. Overnight at Syabrubesi.

East into the Langtang gorge, following the river upstream on a trail that crosses it several times on suspension bridges and climbs steadily through dense forest.

This is one of the best forests on any trekking route in Nepal — oak, maple and rhododendron, thick with moss and langur monkeys, and in spring loud with birds. Red panda live here, though almost nobody sees one.

Lama Hotel (2,470 m) is a handful of lodges in a clearing beside the river, hemmed in by the gorge and dark by four in the afternoon. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Lama Hotel.

Up through the last of the forest to Ghoda Tabela, where the gorge opens and the valley becomes a broad glacial trough with Langtang Lirung filling the northern wall.

The walking is easier and the country turns Tamang — yak pasture, stone walls, mani stones and water-driven prayer wheels.

Langtang Village (3,430 m) was destroyed on 25 April 2015 when the earthquake brought a section of hillside and glacier down on it, killing most of the inhabitants and the visitors staying there. The village has been rebuilt on safer ground beside the debris field, and there is a memorial with the names on it. It is worth stopping at. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Langtang Village.

A short and beautiful morning up the widening valley past mani walls, chortens and the largest prayer wheel in the region, with the glaciers of Langtang Lirung hanging above on the left.

Kyanjin Gompa (3,870 m) is the highest settlement in the valley — a small monastery, a cheese factory started with Swiss help in the 1950s, and a scatter of lodges under the mountain.

It is also the base for everything above: Kyanjin Ri, Tserko Ri, the Langshisha Kharka and all three of the climbing peaks in this valley are reached from here. Around 3 to 4 hours. Overnight at Kyanjin Gompa.

Climb high, sleep low. The morning goes up Tserko Ri (4,984 m), a steep but non-technical four-hour ascent on a well-worn path directly above the village.

The height gained is the point — touching 5,000 m and sleeping 1,100 m lower is what makes the climbing possible. The view from the top runs the length of the valley: Langtang Lirung, Langshisha Ri, Dorje Lakpa and the Jugal Himal, with the Tibetan border ridges to the north.

Back down for a late lunch and rest. Your leader takes the first saturation readings this evening. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Kyanjin Gompa.

East up the valley from Kyanjin on a trail that thins within an hour and gives out entirely at the Kharka.

The valley is wide, brown and empty here, walled by Dorje Lakpa and the Jugal Himal on the southern side and by the border ridges to the north. Yak herders bring animals up in summer and there is nobody at all in the climbing seasons.

Langshisha Kharka (4,100 m) is a grazing meadow and the last flat ground before the moraine. Around 4 hours. Overnight at the Kharka.

South off the valley floor and onto the moraine below the face, climbing 600 m on boulder ground with no path and cairns where the crew has left them.

Dorje Lakpa Base Camp (4,700 m) is established today: mess, kitchen, storage, communications and toilet tents alongside the sleeping tents. Home for the next fortnight.

The afternoon is spent reading the route from below — the crevassed glacier, the shelf where Camp 1 goes, the ice face and the long corniced ridge above it, which from here looks a great deal longer than it does from Kyanjin. Around 4 hours. Overnight at base camp.

The puja is held this morning. A stone chorten is built, juniper is burned, and every piece of climbing equipment is stacked at the altar to be blessed. No Sherpa on the team will go onto the face before it is done.

The rest of the day is low effort: tents arranged, the mess routine established, radio schedules explained, and the water and charging arrangements sorted.

Prayer flags go up over the camp. The silence in the upper Langtang is complete — no aircraft, no engines, no other party — and it takes most people a day to notice it. Overnight at base camp.

The day that decides who goes above Camp 1. On the ice above camp each climber is put through two-tool movement on steep ice, screw placement, jumaring on a loaded line over an edge, and abseiling from a hanging stance.

Rope-team travel and crevasse rescue get a second session, because the glacier below Camp 1 is broken and is crossed roped in the dark on push mornings.

Your leader is assessing efficiency under fatigue rather than best-case technique. Anyone not satisfactory is told today. Meanwhile the Sherpas begin marking the glacier and fixing toward Camp 1. Overnight at base camp.

An acclimatisation walk up the moraine toward 5,100 m and back, on ground that asks nothing technical.

From up there the whole of the upper Langtang is visible — Langshisha Ri at the head of the valley, Langtang Lirung down the whole length of it to the west, and the Tibetan border ridges to the north.

The afternoon is rest and packing for the rotation. Your leader goes through the season's line on the face with binoculars, which on a mountain nobody else has fixed is a conversation worth having properly. Overnight at base camp.

The first time on the mountain, and it starts in the dark. The route crosses the crevassed glacier roped and on marked line — two to three hours of weaving between open holes — and then climbs fixed rope onto the shelf.

Camp 1 (5,500 m) sits above the glacier with the whole upper Langtang below and the ice face rising directly overhead. Six to seven hours with a personal load.

The night here is the point of the rotation, and it gives your leader a proper look at how each climber performs on the route rather than on the practice ice. Overnight at Camp 1.

Down the fixed ropes and back across the glacier in the cold of the morning, three to four hours, before the sun softens the snow bridges.

Descending to recover is deliberate: adaptation from last night's altitude consolidates far better at 4,700 m than it would higher, and a rested team moves faster on the push.

The Sherpa team spends the day carrying loads and fixing the ice face above Camp 1 toward Camp 2. Overnight at base camp.

A rest day and a preparation day in one. The morning is for eating, drinking and sleeping; the afternoon is for the plan.

Kit is split into what goes up and what stays, rope pairs are set, radios tested, and your leader briefs the five-day sequence stage by stage with timings and a hard turnaround time for the summit ridge.

The Sherpa team returns with the report on the state of the face and the ridge, and the satellite forecast arrives in the evening. The go decision is taken on the two together. Overnight at base camp.

Another pre-dawn start, and the glacier goes faster the second time — four hours or so for a crossing that took six or seven on the rotation, on a line the team now knows.

Loads are light: the camps above are already stocked by the Sherpa team, so climbers carry personal equipment only.

Camp 1 (5,500 m) by mid-morning, with the rest of the day to lie down, drink and eat. Your leader confirms tomorrow's timings before dark. Overnight at Camp 1.

The day the mountain shows its grade. Above Camp 1 the face steepens into sustained ice at 50 to 55 degrees on fixed rope, and it stays that way for five to six hours.

There is no easy ground and nowhere flat to stop. Climbers front-point, clip past anchors and keep moving, and the northern aspect means hands are the limiting factor rather than legs.

Camp 2 (6,100 m) is a handful of tents on platforms cut into the face, small and steep-sided enough that everyone stays clipped in. Overnight at Camp 2.

A deliberately short day — three to four hours of fixed ice to the shoulder, arriving by late morning so the team has most of the day lying down.

High camp (6,500 m) is two or three tents on the smallest usable ground on the mountain, directly beneath the ridge, and it is the coldest night of the expedition.

Dinner is early and minimal. Kit is laid out, rope pairs confirmed, and your leader restates the turnaround time — on a ridge this long it is what decides tomorrow. Overnight at high camp.

Moving by one in the morning, roped and on fixed line. Steep ice above camp leads within a couple of hours onto the feature the mountain is built around.

The summit ridge is long, narrow and corniced, running over subsidiary tops before the main summit, taken one at a time with the Sherpas probing the crest ahead. It goes on for hours and it is the reason parties turn back — not because it is desperate, but because it does not end when they expect it to.

The main summit (6,966 m) drops away on every side. Langtang Lirung stands west down the valley, Shishapangma and the Tibetan plateau north, the Jugal Himal south, and on a clear morning the Kathmandu valley is visible beyond it.

The descent is a long sequence of abseils down the ridge and the face to high camp and then Camp 2. Fourteen to eighteen hours. Overnight at Camp 2.

Camp 2 comes down and the whole face is abseiled, with the fixed rope stripped as the team descends. On a mountain this rarely visited, leaving rope behind is not an option — it stays for decades and helps nobody.

The crevassed glacier is crossed roped in the cold of the early morning for the last time.

Base camp (4,700 m) in the middle of the day, with thick air by comparison, a hot meal and the first unbroken sleep in five days. Seven to nine hours. Overnight at base camp.

The first of two reserve days. On a mountain whose summit day is decided by the length of a ridge rather than by any single difficulty, a second attempt on fresher legs is worth a great deal.

If the summit was missed, the team rests today and goes back up tomorrow with the ropes still fixed. Your leader weighs the party's remaining reserves as heavily as the forecast.

If the summit went to plan, this is rest in an empty valley with the whole upper Langtang to look at. Overnight at base camp.

The second reserve day and the end of the expedition's margin. If it is not needed for the climb, base camp comes down today.

The waste management is done properly: everything carried up from Syabrubesi goes back out on porters, and the Department of Tourism deposit is refunded against it.

The chorten from the puja stays with its prayer flags. Most teams spend the last of the light looking east along the ridge, which after a fortnight is a shape everyone in camp knows by heart. Overnight at base camp.

Camp comes down after breakfast and the group descends the moraine to the Langshisha Kharka and back onto the trail.

The valley opens and softens as it drops west, and by the afternoon there is grass, then yak pasture, then the chortens and mani walls above Kyanjin.

Kyanjin Gompa (3,870 m) means a lodge, a stove, a menu and the cheese factory. The evening is the end-of-expedition dinner with the leader, the climbing Sherpas, the cook crew and the porters, and the point at which the summit bonus and tips are given. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Kyanjin Gompa.

Down the valley past Langtang Village and its memorial, with the debris field of the 2015 landslide beside the trail and the rebuilt village on the safer ground next to it.

Below Ghoda Tabela the valley narrows into the gorge again and the forest closes in — oak, maple and rhododendron, moss, langur monkeys and birds after a week above the treeline.

Lama Hotel (2,470 m) is dark by four in the afternoon and warm enough to sit outside, which after a glacier camp is worth noticing. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Lama Hotel.

The last walking day, down the gorge beside the river through the best forest on the route, crossing and re-crossing on suspension bridges.

The air warms with every hundred metres and by the afternoon it is subtropical again — bamboo, terraces and villages after ten days of glacier and rock.

Syabrubesi (1,460 m) in the afternoon. A quiet evening in Syabrubesi at the end of a long expedition. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Syabrubesi.

The rough hill road back over Dhunche and down to the Trishuli, then up over the valley rim at Kakani and into Kathmandu.

Seven to eight hours, and the first three of them are slow — the Syabrubesi road is one of the rougher ones in Nepal and it does not improve for being driven in the other direction.

Back in Kathmandu in the afternoon. A hot 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 — Langtang Lirung, across the valley and a grade harder, is the question our returning Dorje Lakpa climbers most often ask.