Island Peak Climbing With Helicopter Return

You land at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu (1,400 m), where our representative meets you and drives you to your hotel in Thamel.

Nothing is required of you today beyond resting and adjusting to the time difference. The gear shops of Thamel are close by if anything is missing from your kit.

Your climbing guide comes to the hotel in the evening to introduce themselves and confirm tomorrow's schedule. Overnight in Kathmandu.

The full briefing at the hotel: the fifteen-day plan, the acclimatisation profile, the summit day hour by hour, and the way the helicopter departure works — weights, shuttles and what happens if the morning is clouded in.

Then the equipment check. Boots are tried with crampons on, harnesses fitted over real layers, and anything unsuitable swapped for rental kit here rather than at 5,600 m.

Our office lodges the NMA climbing permit and park paperwork with your passport and photographs. The afternoon is free — Boudhanath or Patan are both easy from Thamel. Overnight in Kathmandu.

An early flight into Lukla (2,840 m) — thirty-five minutes from Kathmandu, or a pre-dawn drive to Manthali and a twenty-minute hop when the peak-season schedule applies.

Loads are sorted with the porters over tea, and the trail drops north through Chaurikharka and Ghat, past mani walls and prayer wheels turned by the river.

Phakding (2,610 m) lies lower than Lukla, which makes an easy first night. Around 3 to 4 hours. Overnight at Phakding.

Five prayer-flagged suspension bridges carry the trail across the Dudh Koshi and up through blue pine to Monjo, where permits are checked at the Sagarmatha National Park gate.

Beyond Jorsalle the Hillary Bridge crosses high above the confluence, and then the trail turns uphill for 600 m of steady climbing to Namche — the first real effort of the trip, and the first sight of Everest partway up on a clear morning.

Namche Bazaar (3,440 m) has bakeries, gear shops and an ATM, built into a natural amphitheatre. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Namche.

Climb high, sleep low. The morning goes up to the Everest View Hotel (3,880 m), whose terrace looks straight up the valley at Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse and Ama Dablam.

From there to Khumjung and Khunde under the green wall of Khumbi Yul Lha, with the monastery's yeti scalp and the hospital built by Edmund Hillary's foundation in 1966.

Afternoon free in Namche for the Sherpa Culture Museum and the Saturday market. First oxygen saturation readings tonight. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Namche.

Two hours of near-level balcony trail out of Namche, high above the Dudh Koshi, with Ama Dablam ahead the whole way.

At Phunki Thenga the trail drops to the river and climbs 600 m through rhododendron and birch to the saddle — a long pull with the altitude now working against you.

Tengboche (3,860 m) holds the largest monastery in the Khumbu, rebuilt after the 1989 fire. The afternoon prayer ceremony is open to visitors. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Tengboche.

Down through Deboche, over the Imja Khola above a gorge, and up to Pangboche (3,930 m), the oldest permanent Sherpa settlement in the valley.

Above Pangboche the trees give out and the valley opens into a wide grey trough of moraine and grazing land, walled by Ama Dablam and Lhotse with Island Peak at its head.

Dingboche (4,410 m) sits among stone-walled potato and barley fields at the junction of the Imja and Khumbu valleys. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Dingboche.

The most important day of the approach. We climb the ridge behind the village to Nangkartshang (5,083 m) — steep, non-technical, two to three hours on scree and rock.

Touching 5,000 m and sleeping 600 m lower is what makes the summit push possible. Makalu appears over the eastern ridge, with Lhotse, Ama Dablam, Taboche and Island Peak arranged around you.

Back down for a late lunch and rest. Four litres of water, more food than you feel like, and an evening saturation check. Around 4 to 5 hours. Overnight at Dingboche.

A short, gentle day east up the Imja valley on the moraine, climbing steadily through grazing land beneath the 3,000 m south face of Lhotse.

Chhukung (4,730 m) is a handful of lodges on the moraine — the last teahouse before base camp, and the place you will fly out from in six days' time. Worth noting the landing zone as you arrive.

The afternoon is a short acclimatisation walk toward Chhukung Ri and a final gear sort before the tents. Around 3 hours. Overnight at Chhukung.

A half day of walking. The trail leaves Chhukung south-east, crosses a stream on planks, and follows the moraine of the Imja and Lhotse glaciers up a broad stony valley.

Island Peak Base Camp (5,087 m) stands on sandy flats between the moraine walls, and the cook crew has camp up before you arrive.

The afternoon is for settling in, checking crampons over the layers you will actually climb in, and sleeping. Your guide talks through the summit timings. Around 3 to 4 hours. Overnight at base camp.

The morning is the training day on the glacier below camp — crampons until they feel normal, ice axe technique, ascending a fixed line on a jumar, abseiling on a figure-of-eight, and clipping past anchors. Easy on flat ground in daylight, which is the point.

After lunch the group moves up the rock shoulder to high camp (5,600 m), two to three hours with a light load.

Early dinner, boots and harness laid out, asleep by seven. It is a cold night and a short one. Overnight at high camp.

Up at one, moving by two. A steep gully of loose rock by headlamp leads onto the ridge and up to the glacier at around 5,900 m, where you fit crampons and rope up.

The glacier weaves between crevasses to the foot of the headwall — around 100 m of ice at 45 to 50 degrees on fixed rope — which tops out on a corniced ridge followed one at a time to the summit.

Island Peak (6,189 m) looks across at the Lhotse wall, Makalu, Baruntse, Ama Dablam and Nuptse. Then abseil the headwall, reverse the glacier and the gully, and reach base camp in the afternoon. Twelve to fifteen hours. Overnight at base camp.

The day held in reserve. If yesterday was turned back by wind, fresh snow or a member's condition, this is the second attempt, and your guide makes that call at base camp on what is actually in front of them.

If the summit went to plan, camp comes down after a slow breakfast and the group walks the easy two to three hours back to Chhukung (4,730 m) — the only walking your legs have to do after the climb.

An afternoon in a lodge with a stove, a shower if the water is running, and the first proper sleep in days. Your guide confirms the helicopter timing with Kathmandu this evening. Overnight at Chhukung.

Duffels are weighed after breakfast and the group waits for the machine. Helicopters fly the Khumbu in the morning when the air is cold and still, so the departure is early and the wait, if there is one, is for cloud to lift.

The AS350 B3e takes up to five at this altitude, so a larger group flies in shuttles about an hour apart. The route runs down the Imja valley past Ama Dablam, over the Tengboche saddle, above Namche and into the Dudh Koshi gorge, usually with a fuel stop at Lukla, then out over the terraced middle hills.

Fifty minutes of flying and you are in Kathmandu (1,400 m), two weeks of trail compressed into one view. The afternoon is free and the summit certificate is presented in the evening. Overnight in Kathmandu.

The trip ends today. Depending on your flight time there may be a last morning in Kathmandu for shopping or a walk around Thamel.

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 are glad to arrange Chitwan, Pokhara, Lumbini or a Kathmandu valley tour. Safe travels, and we hope to climb with you again.