Kanjirowa 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.

Rest is the only item on the schedule. Unpack and lay out your equipment tonight — it is inspected tomorrow, and Kathmandu is the last place anything can be replaced before a base camp six days from an airstrip.

Your expedition leader calls at the hotel 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 two flights, the six-day approach past Phoksundo Lake, base camp, the rotation, the summit and the reserve days — and is honest about the fact that the route has to be found as well as climbed.

The equipment inspection is item by item: ice tools, crampons, boots, harness, ascender, belay device, screwgates and down clothing.

Because the approach carries everything on porters and pack animals with no resupply, the packing is done carefully and weighed. 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.

The Shey Phoksundo National Park and Lower Dolpo restricted area permits are lodged at the same time, and the cargo is weighed, sealed into barrels and dispatched to Nepalgunj for the Juphal flights.

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

A one-hour flight west to Nepalgunj (150 m), on the Terai plain a few kilometres from the Indian border.

It is flat, hot and often above 35°C, and it is the least mountainous place any of our expeditions passes through. It is also the hub for every flight into Dolpo and the far west, which is why the trip goes this way.

The afternoon is spent in an air-conditioned hotel doing nothing. Your leader confirms the Juphal flight for the morning. Overnight in Nepalgunj.

An early flight north into the hills — forty-five minutes from the Terai to Juphal (2,475 m), a short airstrip on a hillside above the Thuli Bheri, and a rise of more than two thousand metres in under an hour.

The flight is weather-dependent and cancels regularly, which is why the itinerary carries spare days at both ends.

From the airstrip the trail drops to the river and follows it east to Dunai (2,140 m), the administrative headquarters of Dolpa and the last town of any size. Around 2 to 3 hours. Overnight at Dunai.

West from Dunai and then north into the Suli Gad gorge, entering Shey Phoksundo National Park at the checkpoint and following the river upstream.

The gorge is forested with pine, walnut and rhododendron, deep enough that the light goes early, and it holds the best wildlife on any of our approaches — blue sheep on the slopes above, and a snow leopard population that researchers have collared in this park.

Chhepka (2,720 m) is a handful of houses and a park post beside the river. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Chhepka.

North up the gorge and then the steep climb to the lip of the hanging valley, past the Phoksundo waterfall — nearly 170 m and the highest in Nepal.

And then the lake. Phoksundo (3,611 m) is the deepest in Nepal at around 145 m, and its colour is a turquoise that photographs look faked. There are no fish in it and no outflow visible for part of its length.

Ringmo is a Bon village of flat-roofed stone houses at the near end — Bon being the pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet, still practised across Dolpo — with a gompa on the shore. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Ringmo.

The famous section. The trail leaves Ringmo and traverses the cliff above the western shore on a narrow ledge cut into the rock, with the lake a long way below and nothing between — the path that appears in every photograph of Dolpo, and the reason pack animals go one at a time.

It is straightforward in dry conditions and genuinely hazardous after rain, and the group is spaced out and moves without loads across the worst of it.

Beyond the lake the valley opens into meadow and the trail follows the river north. Camp at around 4,000 m in the upper valley. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at the upper camp.

West off the main Dolpo trail into a side valley that carries nobody — no trekking route, no herders' path beyond the first hour, and no cairns except what the crew leaves.

The country here is high, dry and bare, and the walking is on grass and then moraine with the Kanjiroba Himal opening ahead.

Camp at around 4,400 m, the last one below base camp. From here the expedition is entirely self-contained and there is no possibility of resupply. Around 6 hours. Overnight at the approach camp.

Up onto the moraine below the glacier, gaining 400 m on boulder ground with the peak coming into view at the head of the cirque.

Kanjirowa Base Camp (4,800 m) is established today: mess, kitchen, storage, communications and toilet tents alongside the sleeping tents. Home for the next fortnight, and six days' walk from the nearest airstrip.

The afternoon is spent reading the route with your leader, which on a mountain with no established line is a longer conversation than usual — the glacier, the shelf where Camp 1 might go, the ice face and the ridge above it. Around 4 to 5 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 glacier 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. There is no signal here, no other expedition anywhere in the range, and Dolpo behind you is one of the emptiest inhabited regions in Asia. 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, is crossed roped in the dark, and there is nobody within a hundred kilometres to assist.

Your leader is assessing efficiency under fatigue. Anyone not satisfactory is told today. Meanwhile the Sherpas begin finding and fixing the line toward Camp 1. Overnight at base camp.

An acclimatisation walk up the moraine toward 5,200 m and back, on ground that asks nothing technical.

The morning is also a working reconnaissance — your leader and the Sherpa team spend an hour with binoculars agreeing this season's line, which on a mountain nobody has fixed is the most consequential conversation of the expedition.

The afternoon is rest and packing for the rotation. The satellite forecast arrives in the evening. 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 the line the Sherpas marked, weaving between open holes, and then climbs fixed rope onto the shelf.

Camp 1 (5,500 m) sits above the glacier with the whole empty valley system of western Dolpo 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 ground nobody has climbed recently. 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 4,800 m than it would higher.

The Sherpa team spends the day carrying loads and fixing the ice face above Camp 1 toward Camp 2, which on unclimbed-in-decades ground is slow work. 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 with timings and a hard turnaround time for the summit ridge.

The Sherpa team returns with the report on the state of the ice 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 to five hours 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 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 hours or so of fixed ice to the shoulder, arriving by late morning so the team has most of the day lying down.

High camp (6,450 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 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 goes on for hours and it is where the turnaround time earns its place.

The summit (6,883 m) looks north over Dolpo to the Tibetan border, east along the Kanjiroba Himal, south-east to Dhaulagiri and Putha Hiunchuli, and south over the folded middle hills. Phoksundo Lake is a small turquoise mark far below to the east.

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 (4,800 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. Dolpo's weather is drier than the central Himalaya and no more predictable, and on a summit day defined by the length of a ridge, 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 a range with nobody else in it, which after a fortnight is a strange and rather good thing to have. 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 Juphal goes back out on porters and pack animals, and the Department of Tourism deposit is refunded against it. In country this remote, what an expedition leaves behind stays.

The chorten from the puja stays with its prayer flags. Most teams spend the last of the light looking north into Dolpo, which from up here goes on further than it seems it should. Overnight at base camp.

Down the moraine and east out of the side valley, retracing the approach with the whole load on porters and pack animals.

The grass comes back within a few hours, and by the afternoon the trail rejoins the main Dolpo route at the head of the lake.

Camp at the northern end of Phoksundo at around 4,000 m, with the turquoise water below and the cliff traverse to be walked again tomorrow. Around 8 hours. Overnight at the upper camp.

Back across the cliff traverse above the lake — spaced out, without loads and carefully, as on the way in — and down through Ringmo to the waterfall and the top of the gorge.

Then the long descent into the Suli Gad, losing more than a thousand metres with the forest closing in and the air thickening and warming all the way.

Chhepka (2,720 m) in the late afternoon, back among pine and walnut with the river loud outside the tent. Around 8 hours. Overnight at Chhepka.

The last walking day, down the Suli Gad and out of Shey Phoksundo National Park to the Thuli Bheri, then west to Dunai.

Dunai has shops, a bank and the first cold drink in three weeks, and most groups take longer over lunch than they intend to.

Juphal (2,475 m) is a short steep hour above the river. The cargo is weighed for the morning flight and the Dolpo crew go home from here. 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 to 8 hours. Overnight at Juphal.

An early flight south to Nepalgunj (150 m) — forty-five minutes and a drop of more than two thousand metres, from hill country to the Terai plain in a single descent.

The connecting flight to Kathmandu follows in the afternoon, weather and schedules permitting. Both legs are weather-dependent, which is why the itinerary carries spare days.

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 Kanjirowa, and whatever the outcome, a team that reached the Kanjiroba Himal and came home has done something genuinely uncommon.