Kang Guru 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-eight 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.

West and then north out of Meta on the other arm of the valley, climbing steadily past chortens and mani walls with the country turning dry and Tibetan.

The approach to Nar (4,110 m) is through a line of enormous chortens on a bluff, and then the village itself: a walled settlement of stacked stone houses with four gompas, barley terraces and a great many yaks, on a shelf above the gorge.

It is one of the more remarkable villages in Nepal and it sees a few hundred foreigners a year. Kang Guru rises directly above it to the south-west. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Nar.

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 and the Kang La visible to the west.

From the high point the route on Kang Guru is legible for the first time — the glacier, the shelf where Camp 1 goes, the ice face and the corniced ridge above it — and your leader spends an hour going through it.

The afternoon is free for the village and its gompas. Your leader takes the first saturation readings tonight, and the crew engages pack animals for base camp. Around 4 to 5 hours. Overnight at Nar.

South-west out of Nar on a herders' trail into the side valley below the peak, climbing 500 m over rough moraine.

Kang Guru Base Camp (4,600 m) is established today, and the siting of it is the most deliberate decision on this expedition. Camp goes on ground clear of the run-out from the slopes above rather than in the flattest or most convenient spot, which costs some walking every day and is the direct lesson of 2005.

Mess, kitchen, storage, communications and toilet tents alongside the sleeping tents. Home for the next fortnight. Around 4 hours. Overnight at base camp.

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

On this mountain the ceremony is attended with particular care by the Nepali staff. Eleven of the eighteen people killed here in 2005 were Nepali crew, and the relationship between this peak and the villages below it has not recovered.

The rest of the day is low effort: tents arranged, the mess routine established, radio schedules and the camp's evacuation plan explained. 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 5,000 m and back, on ground that asks nothing technical.

The morning is also a chance to look at the mountain's avalanche terrain from a distance and in daylight, which your leader does deliberately with the whole team: where the run-outs go, which slopes load, and where the route is exposed.

The afternoon is rest and packing for the rotation. The satellite forecast arrives in the evening, and from now on the precipitation number matters more than the wind. Overnight at base camp.

The first time on the mountain, and it starts before dawn because the exposed ground has to be crossed while it is frozen.

The route works through the crevassed glacier roped and on marked line, then climbs fixed rope onto the shelf where Camp 1 stands. Five to six hours with a personal load.

Camp 1 (5,400 m) sits above the glacier with Nar visible far below and the ice face rising directly overhead. The night here is the point of the rotation, and it gives your leader a proper look at how each climber moves on the route. Overnight at Camp 1.

An early descent, down the fixed ropes and across the glacier in the cold of the morning, 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 exposed 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 in the dry sun of the upper valley.

Your leader takes saturation and pulse readings and reviews the forecast. On this mountain the question asked every evening is not only whether the weather is good but whether anything has fallen on the slopes above the route. 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 slopes above the route are loaded, and whether the corniced ridge is in condition.

The forecast arrives in the evening and the go decision is taken on the two together. Recent snow means waiting, however clear the sky, and that is not a judgement call your leader will be talked out of. 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 five or six on the rotation.

Loads are light: the camps above are already stocked by the Sherpa team, so climbers carry personal equipment only, which also means less time in the exposed ground.

Camp 1 (5,400 m) by mid-morning, with the rest of the day to lie down, drink and eat. Overnight at Camp 1.

The day the mountain shows its grade. Above Camp 1 the face steepens into sustained ice at 45 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 by the top of it most people understand why the assessment day mattered.

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 summit 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. The corniced ridge 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 narrow, corniced and exposed on both sides, taken one at a time with the Sherpas probing the crest ahead. It goes on for hours and it is not hurried — this is where the turnaround time earns its place.

The summit (6,981 m) looks north over the Peri Himal into Tibet, east across the valley to Himlung and Nemjung, south-west to the Annapurnas and Tilicho, and straight down onto Nar, three thousand metres below and the only human settlement in view.

The descent is a long sequence of abseils down the ridge and the face to high camp and then Camp 2. Twelve to sixteen 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.

The glacier and the exposed ground below it 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 this mountain they exist as much to allow waiting as to allow a second attempt. Snow that falls on the slopes above the route closes it for days regardless of how clear the sky is afterwards.

If the summit was missed, the team rests today and goes back up tomorrow with the ropes still fixed — provided nothing has fallen. Your leader weighs that first and the party's reserves second.

If the summit went to plan, this is rest in a valley with two villages in it and no other expedition anywhere. Overnight at base camp.

The second reserve day. Three of them exist because the conditions that make this mountain safe are specific and do not arrive to order.

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 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, and there is a second, older one on the moraine below the camp. Most teams spend some of the last evening at it. Overnight at base camp.

Down the moraine to Nar, past the line of chortens on the bluff and through the village where most of the crew has family or friends.

From Nar the trail drops south-east down the valley to Meta, losing height fast, with the juniper and then the first pine reappearing as the walls close in.

Meta (3,560 m) in the late afternoon, and the first lodge in a fortnight. Around 7 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 climbing.

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

A short drive to Chame (2,670 m), which has hot springs beside the river. 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. Very few climbers have been on Kang Guru in the last twenty years, and whatever the outcome, a team that went there and came home is a good outcome.