Gangapurna 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 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 twenty-nine 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.

West along the high route from Ngawal, contouring above the Marsyangdi with the whole Annapurna range opposite, then dropping to the valley floor and following it to Manang.

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. It is the last place with any of that.

The expedition's final resupply happens here, and the porters and pack animals for the lake are engaged. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Manang.

The morning walk goes up to the Gangapurna glacier lake and the viewpoint above it, an hour of climbing for a full view of Gangapurna's ice fall and the Annapurna wall behind it.

The Himalayan Rescue Association clinic gives a free altitude talk each afternoon in season, and it is worth attending even on an expedition — the doctors see more altitude illness in a Manang autumn than most people see in a career.

The afternoon is rest and the last hot shower for a fortnight. Your leader takes saturation readings and reviews the team before committing to the lake. Overnight at Manang.

South out of Manang past the Gangapurna glacier lake — the turquoise pool that every Circuit trekker walks to in the afternoon — and then onto the moraine above it, on ground that carries no traffic at all.

The climb is steep and steady, a thousand metres onto the shelf beneath the north face, with the ice fall directly overhead and audible.

Gangapurna Base Camp (4,600 m) is established properly today: mess, kitchen, storage and toilet tents alongside the sleeping tents. Manang is visible below, close enough to see the lodges, which is a strange thing from an expedition base camp. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at base camp.

The puja is held this morning. A lama comes up from Manang, a chorten is built, juniper is burned, and every piece of climbing equipment is stacked at the altar to be blessed.

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

The ice fall above the camp cracks and collapses at intervals through the day and night, which is both spectacular and a standing reminder of what the lower face involves. Overnight at base camp.

The day that decides who goes above Camp 1. On the ice below 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.

Your leader is assessing speed above all else. On this mountain the safety margin on the lower face is made of how fast the team moves through the serac ground, and a climber who is competent but slow is a problem for everyone on the rope.

Anyone the leader is not satisfied with is told today. Meanwhile the Sherpas begin marking the glacier and fixing the ground toward Camp 1. Overnight at base camp.

An acclimatisation walk up the moraine toward 5,000 m and back, on ground that asks nothing technical.

From up there the whole line is legible: the crevassed glacier, the serac ground the route has to cross, the shelf where Camp 1 goes, and the ice face above it. Your leader spends an hour with binoculars going through it with the team.

The afternoon is rest and packing for the rotation. The satellite forecast comes in the evening, and from now on the whole camp thinks in terms of cold nights rather than clear days. Overnight at base camp.

The first time on the mountain, and it starts at two in the morning because the serac ground has to be crossed in the cold.

The route works through the crevassed glacier roped and on marked line, then across the exposed section below the ice fall — moved through steadily, without stopping — and onto fixed rope up to the shelf. Six to seven hours.

Camp 1 (5,600 m) sits above the hazard, which is the first thing anyone notices about it. The night here is the point of the rotation, and it also gives your leader a proper look at how each climber performs on the actual route. Overnight at Camp 1.

An early descent, timed once again to be through the serac ground before the sun reaches it. Down the fixed ropes and across the glacier in three to four hours.

Descending to recover is deliberate: adaptation from last night's altitude consolidates far better at 4,600 m than it would higher, and a rested team crosses the hazardous ground 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 genuine rest day. Eating past the point of appetite, four litres of fluid, an afternoon asleep, and staying off the legs.

Equipment work fills the gaps: tools sharpened, crampons checked, harnesses inspected for wear, and boots dried.

Manang is half a day below and a couple of climbers usually walk down for a bakery run, which is a luxury no other expedition in this catalogue offers and is worth taking. Overnight at base camp.

The last day before the push, spent on the plan rather than the hill. 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.

The Sherpa team returns from the face with the report that matters: how the ice is taking screws, how the seracs are behaving, and whether the corniced ridge above Camp 2 is in condition.

The forecast arrives in the evening and the go decision is taken on the two together. A warm spell means waiting, however clear the sky. Overnight at base camp.

Another two o'clock start, and the glacier and serac ground go faster the second time — five hours or so for a crossing that took six or seven on the rotation. Familiarity with a hazardous section is worth as much as fitness on it.

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

Camp 1 (5,600 m) by mid-morning, with the whole rest of the day to lie down, drink and eat. Your leader confirms tomorrow's timings and the load split 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 six to seven hours.

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

Camp 2 (6,300 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 (6,800 m) is two or three tents on the smallest usable ground on the mountain, and it is the coldest night of the expedition by a distance.

Dinner is early and minimal. Kit is laid out, rope pairs confirmed, and your leader restates the turnaround time. The corniced ridge above is the last thing anyone sees before the headlamps go on. 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 that defines the route.

The summit ridge is long, narrow and corniced, taken one at a time with the Sherpas probing the crest ahead. It runs above 7,000 m for hours and it is not hurried — this is where the turnaround time earns its place.

The summit (7,455 m) looks north straight down onto Manang and the Marsyangdi with the Chulu peaks beyond, west along the range to Tilicho and Dhaulagiri, and south over the wall into the Annapurna Sanctuary — both sides of the massif from one point.

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 — slow work and not optional, since nothing is left on the mountain.

The glacier and the serac ground are crossed in the cold of the early morning, and for the last time.

Base camp (4,600 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 three reserve days, and on Gangapurna they are used more often than not. A warm spell or fresh snow closes the lower face for days at a time regardless of what the sky is doing.

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 — and rest half a day above Manang, with the option of walking down for a proper meal, is an unusual luxury after a 7,455 m summit. Overnight at base camp.

The second reserve day. Three of them exist because the serac hazard on the lower face is condition-dependent on a timescale of days, and one day in hand frequently is not enough.

If a second attempt is running, the team is at Camp 1 or Camp 2 tonight rather than here.

If the expedition is finished, today is when the camps above come down — the high camp, Camp 2 and Camp 1 are stripped by the Sherpa team, and everything comes off the face. Overnight at base camp.

The last 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 Manang goes back down, and the Department of Tourism deposit is refunded against it.

The chorten from the puja stays with its prayer flags. Below, the lights of Manang come on at dusk — a village most of whose visitors have spent a fortnight photographing this mountain without knowing anyone was on it. Overnight at base camp.

Down the moraine past the glacier lake and into Manang (3,540 m) in three to four hours — the shortest walk out of any expedition in this catalogue.

Manang has bakeries, gear shops, ATMs, hot showers and a cinema that shows mountaineering films every afternoon. After a fortnight at 4,600 m under a serac field, all of that lands hard.

The afternoon is free and 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. Overnight at Manang.

A jeep takes over from Manang on the rough road down the upper Marsyangdi, through Humde and Pisang and past the Paungda Danda rock slab.

It is a jarring transition — hours of vehicle after two weeks on foot and on ice — but it saves two days of retracing ground already walked on the way in.

Chame (2,670 m) has hot springs beside the river, which after an expedition is worth the short walk. Around 4 hours of driving. 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, 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.

Back in Kathmandu in the evening. The expedition reports to the Department of Tourism and your summit certificate is presented over dinner. Overnight in Kathmandu.

The expedition 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. Any equipment being shipped home is handled by our office.

Safe travels. Climbers who summit Gangapurna have done something a very small number of people have, and Annapurna I — visible from your base camp — is the question that usually comes next.