Himlung Himal 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. Unpack and lay out your equipment tonight — it is inspected tomorrow, and Kathmandu is the last place anything can be replaced.

Your leader calls at the hotel in the evening to introduce themselves and set tomorrow's plan. Overnight in Kathmandu.

A full working day. Your leader takes the twenty-nine day plan apart stage by stage — the drive to Koto, the walk into Nar Phu, base camp, the rotations, the summit and the reserve days — and then goes through the route itself.

The equipment inspection covers boots, crampons, harness, ascender, belay device, screwgates and down clothing, item by item. Anything missing or unsuitable is bought or hired here today.

Our office lodges the Nar Phu Restricted Area Permit and the conservation permit, which require your passport, photographs and a licensed guide named on the paperwork. 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 toward Besisahar, where jeeps and then pack animals take it up the Marsyangdi and into Nar Phu.

The afternoon is free, and it is the last one with hot water and restaurants for a month. 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.

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. Overnight at Dharapani.

A short and rough drive up the Marsyangdi through Bagarchhap and Danaque to Chame, the district headquarters, and on to Koto.

The valley climbs into blue pine and the air cools noticeably. Manaslu shows behind to the east as the road turns.

Koto (2,600 m) is an ordinary Circuit village with one unusual feature: a police check post beside a bridge over the Nar Khola, and beyond it the entrance to the Nar Phu restricted area. Permits are checked here and from tomorrow the trail carries almost nobody. Around 3 hours. Overnight at Koto.

North across the bridge and into the Nar Khola gorge, which within an hour becomes one of the most dramatic pieces of trail in Nepal — a narrow slot with the river a long way below, the path cut into the rock and crossing on bridges hung between cliffs.

The gorge is forested with pine and juniper and there is nobody in it. Nar Phu was closed to foreigners until 2002 and still takes a restricted-area permit and a licensed guide.

Meta (3,560 m) is a summer settlement on a shelf where the gorge finally opens out, with the first chortens and the first view north to the Peri Himal. Around 7 to 8 hours. Overnight at Meta.

A short day north along the high shelf on the eastern side of the valley, with the country turning dry and Tibetan and the trees giving out.

The trail passes Chyakhu and the ruins at Junam, old winter settlements now mostly abandoned, and the erosion pillars and cave dwellings that make this valley look unlike anywhere else in Nepal.

Kyang (3,820 m) is a scatter of stone winter houses used by the Phu villagers for their herds, mostly empty. It is the quietest night of the approach. Around 4 to 5 hours. Overnight at Kyang.

North up the Phu Khola through a landscape of eroded pillars, canyon walls and abandoned forts, on a trail that carries perhaps a few hundred foreigners a year.

The valley opens at the top and Phu (4,080 m) appears: a village of stacked flat-roofed houses built on and into a rock spur, with a ruined dzong above it and the Tashi Lhakhang Gompa — one of the most important in the region — on a rise beyond.

It is a genuinely medieval place, Tibetan in language and architecture, and it was closed to outsiders within living memory. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Phu.

Climb high, sleep low. The morning walk goes up the ridge behind the village toward 4,700 m, on open ground with the Peri Himal opening out to the north.

From the high point the whole head of the valley is visible — Himlung, Nemjung, Gyaji Kang and Cheo Himal — with the Tibetan border a few kilometres beyond them.

The afternoon is free for the village and the Tashi Lhakhang Gompa, and for the last conversations with anyone before base camp. Your leader takes the first saturation readings tonight. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Phu.

North out of Phu on a herders' trail that leaves the village fields within twenty minutes and climbs into the empty upper valley.

The ground is dry moraine and grazing land, brown and wind-scoured, with the Peri Himal opening ahead — Himlung, Nemjung, Gyaji Kang and Cheo Himal in a line along the Tibetan border.

Himlung Base Camp (4,900 m) is established today: mess, kitchen, storage, communications and toilet tents alongside the sleeping tents. Home for the next three weeks, and the last building you have seen is four hours behind you. Around 5 hours. Overnight at base camp.

The puja is held this morning. A lama comes up from Phu, a stone 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.

Prayer flags go up over the camp. In autumn there may be two or three other expeditions here, which makes Himlung base camp sociable by the standards of a restricted valley. Overnight at base camp.

A full working day on the glacier below camp. Every climber works through roped team travel with correct spacing, crevasse rescue with a hauling system, jumaring on fixed line with a pack, changing over at anchors, and abseiling.

Rope-team travel gets the most attention because the ground between base camp and Camp 1 is crevassed glacier crossed in the dark on push mornings.

Your leader is assessing as much as teaching, and anyone who needs more time gets the afternoon. Meanwhile the Sherpas are above, marking the glacier and fixing toward Camp 1. Overnight at base camp.

An acclimatisation walk up the moraine toward 5,300 m and back, on ground that asks nothing technical.

From up there the whole route is legible — the glacier, the shelf where Camp 1 goes, the long snow slope above it and the broad summit ridge — and your leader spends an hour going through it with the team.

Look north from the same spot and the Tibetan border is a few kilometres away over the Peri Himal, with the plateau visible beyond as a different colour of country entirely. Overnight at base camp.

The first time on the mountain. The route crosses the crevassed glacier roped and on marked line, weaving between open holes, and then climbs onto the shelf — four to five hours with a personal load.

Camp 1 (5,450 m) sits on the glacier with the Nar Phu valley falling away south and the snow slope of the upper route rising directly above.

The night here is the point of the exercise. Sleeping at 5,450 m before returning to base camp is what makes a summit push from 6,350 m realistic, and it lets your leader see how each climber performs on the route. Overnight at Camp 1.

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

Descending to recover is deliberate: adaptation from last night's altitude consolidates far better at 4,900 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 slope 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: crampons checked and adjusted, harnesses inspected for wear after a day of jumaring, and boots dried in the thin dry sun of the upper valley.

Your leader takes saturation and pulse readings and reviews them against the baseline from Phu. Anyone whose numbers are drifting gets a conversation rather than a schedule. Overnight at base camp.

The last day before the push, spent on the plan rather than the hill. Personal kit is split into what goes up and what stays, rope pairs are set, radios tested, and your leader briefs the four-day sequence with timings for each stage.

The Sherpa team reports on the state of the fixed ropes and the condition of the summit ridge, which is the information the go decision rests on.

The satellite forecast arrives in the evening, and on this mountain the number that matters is the wind at 7,000 m. A hard turnaround time is set for summit day. Overnight at base camp.

The summit push begins, and the glacier goes faster the second time — three hours or so for a crossing that took four or five 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 (5,450 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.

Up the long snow slope above Camp 1 on fixed rope, four to five hours with a moderate load, the angle easing and steepening in turn but never becoming difficult.

This is the section that teaches what a 7,000 m peak actually asks for: not technique but the ability to keep moving steadily for hours on ground that offers nothing to think about.

Camp 2 (6,000 m) in the early afternoon, on a shelf cut into the slope. Melt snow, force fluid and food, and sleep as well as 6,000 m allows. Overnight at Camp 2.

A deliberately short day — three hours or so up the slope to the shoulder, arriving by late morning so the team has most of the day lying down.

High camp (6,350 m) is a handful of tents on the shoulder, exposed to the wind and cold as soon as the sun goes.

Dinner is early and minimal; appetite at 6,350 m is poor and forcing fluid matters more than food. Kit is laid out, rope pairs confirmed, and your leader restates the turnaround time. Overnight at high camp.

Moving by two in the morning, roped and on fixed line. The route climbs the shoulder and then the broad summit ridge — long, snowy and never technical, with a steeper section of around 45 degrees near the top that is the only real climbing on the mountain.

It is a day about persistence rather than skill. The sun arrives somewhere around 6,800 m and the last stretch is a snow crest to the top.

From the summit (7,126 m) the Tibetan plateau runs north from directly beneath your feet, Manaslu and Peak 29 stand east across the Larkya La, the Annapurnas fill the south-west, and Nemjung, Gyaji Kang and Cheo Himal run west along the border.

The descent reverses the ridge and the slopes to high camp and then Camp 2. Ten to fourteen hours. Overnight at Camp 2.

Camp 2 comes down and the slope is descended on the fixed ropes, with the line stripped as the team goes — slow work and not optional, since nothing is left on the mountain.

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

Base camp (4,900 m) by early afternoon, with thick air by comparison, a hot meal and the first unbroken sleep in four days. Five to seven hours. Overnight at base camp.

The first of three reserve days. Himlung's weather is more settled than most 7,000 m peaks', but wind on the summit ridge still closes it, and a team with days in hand has a second attempt.

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 for a good many climbers on this mountain it is also the first day of thinking seriously about an 8,000 m peak. Overnight at base camp.

The second reserve day. Three of them exist because Nar Phu is four days from the road head and an expedition that runs out of margin here cannot simply extend.

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 mountain. 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 Koto goes back out on pack animals, 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 north at the border, which from here is simply the next ridge. Overnight at base camp.

Down the moraine to Phu, and then the long descent of the valley past Kyang and Chyakhu, through the erosion pillars and the abandoned winter settlements.

It is a big day in distance and an easy one in effort, losing 1,340 m with the walls closing back in and the first juniper reappearing.

Meta (3,560 m) in the late afternoon, and the first lodge since Phu. Around 8 hours. Overnight at Meta.

Down the Nar Khola gorge — the narrow slot with the river far below and the path cut into the rock — which is a great deal more enjoyable descending than it was on the way up.

The pine forest returns, and then the check post at Koto, where the restricted-area permits are surrendered and you are back on the Annapurna Circuit among trekkers who have no idea where you have been.

A short drive up the valley to Chame (2,670 m), which has hot springs beside the river and a menu. 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 7 hours of walking. 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, depending on the road.

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. Himlung is the mountain most of our climbers use as the door into 8,000 m climbing, and Manaslu — visible from your summit, across the Larkya La — is very often the next conversation.