Kyajo Ri Peak Climbing

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.

Nothing is required today beyond resting and adjusting to the time difference. Thamel has good technical gear shops within a few minutes' walk if anything is missing.

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

The briefing covers the sixteen-day plan and then spends most of its time on the route itself — the buttress, the ice slopes, the arête, the abseil descent, and where a party normally turns round.

The equipment check on a mixed route is detailed. Boots are fitted with technical crampons and checked for rigidity, harnesses adjusted, and your axe and descender inspected. Your guide will also ask directly about your climbing history and assess it honestly.

Our office lodges the NMA climbing permit and park paperwork with your passport and photographs. The afternoon is free. 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 in peak season.

You meet the porters over tea, sort loads, and start 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 across the Dudh Koshi, then a climb through blue pine to Monjo and the Sagarmatha National Park entrance.

Past Jorsalle the Hillary Bridge crosses high above the confluence, and beyond it the trail turns uphill for 600 m of steady work — with a first view of Everest partway up if the sky is clear.

Namche Bazaar (3,440 m) has bakeries, an ATM and the last serious gear shops. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Namche.

Climb high, sleep low. The morning goes up to the Everest View Hotel (3,880 m), then across to Khumjung and Khunde beneath Khumbi Yul Lha.

From the ridge above Khumjung there is a clear view west into the Kyajo Drangka and, at its head, the peak itself — a sharp pyramid that looks a good deal more serious than the trekking peaks on the other side of the valley. It is a useful thing to see early.

The afternoon is free. Your guide takes the first oxygen saturation readings tonight. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Namche.

West out of Namche on the trail to Tibet, contouring high above the Bhote Koshi through juniper and rhododendron, past water-driven prayer wheels and the small settlements of Phurte and Thamo.

This is a different Khumbu from the Everest trail — no queues at the bridges, working farms rather than lodges, and a valley that until the 1960s carried salt and wool over the Nangpa La from Tibet.

Thame (3,800 m) is the home village of both Tenzing Norgay and Apa Sherpa, with a monastery set into the cliff above it that holds a Mani Rimdu festival each spring. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Thame.

The day the trip leaves the map. From Thame the route crosses the Bhote Koshi and climbs east into the Kyajo Drangka, a hanging valley with no lodges, no teahouses and no trekking route in it.

The trail is a yak path through juniper scrub and then open pasture, steep in places, following the stream up into a narrowing valley with rock walls closing on both sides.

Camp goes up at around 4,200 m on a grazing meadow. From here on the group is self-contained — tents, a cook crew, and all food carried in. It is very quiet. Around 4 to 5 hours. Overnight at Kyajo Drangka.

A short day up the valley on moraine and boulder ground, the walls steepening and the peak coming properly into view at the head of the cirque.

Kyajo Ri Base Camp (4,550 m) sits on a flat shelf beside a small tarn with the south-west ridge rising directly above — the buttress, the ice slopes and the summit arête all visible from the mess tent, which is unusual and useful.

The afternoon is spent studying the line with your guide, who will walk you through the route section by section, and resting. Around 3 hours. Overnight at base camp.

A working day, and on a mixed route it is a skills check rather than a beginner's lesson. On the rock and ice above camp your guide runs each climber through moving in crampons on rock, jumaring on mixed ground where the rope runs over edges, placing feet on small holds in stiff boots, and abseiling on a loaded rope.

Anyone whose technique is not up to the ground gets the afternoon as well, and if it is still not there, your guide will say so before the group commits. That conversation is easier here than at 5,800 m.

Meanwhile the Sherpas are on the mountain fixing the buttress and the lower ice slopes. A short acclimatisation walk to 4,900 m rounds off the day. Overnight at base camp.

A steep 750 m on moraine, scree and then snow, four to five hours with a moderate load while the crew moves the camp.

High camp (5,300 m) is a set of platforms on a north-facing shoulder — exposed, shaded from mid-afternoon, and cold. There is room for a handful of tents and nothing else.

The rest of the day is preparation: harnesses, crampons, axes and descenders laid out, the order of climbing set, and an early dinner. Your guide gives the final weather call and the turnaround time tonight. Asleep by seven. Overnight at high camp.

Moving by one in the morning. A short glacier crossing leads to the rock buttress, climbed on fixed line in crampons on ground that would be a straightforward scramble in boots and is not straightforward at all in the dark at 5,500 m.

Above the buttress the route moves onto snow and ice at 45 to 55 degrees for several hours, the angle easing and steepening in turn, and then onto the summit arête — narrow, corniced, and climbed one at a time with the whole Kyajo Drangka dropping away on both sides.

The summit (6,186 m) is a small pyramid with room for two or three people, looking east across the Khumbu to Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse and Ama Dablam, and west into the Bhote Koshi toward the Nangpa La and Tibet.

The descent is by abseil, station by station, and it is slow — four to five hours to high camp, then on down to base camp. Twelve to fourteen hours in total. Overnight at base camp.

The day held in reserve, and on a mixed route it is used often. Fresh snow on the buttress makes rockfall a real hazard and can close the route for twenty-four hours even in otherwise good weather.

If the summit was missed, the group returns to high camp today and climbs tomorrow, with the fixed ropes already in place. Your guide makes that decision on the state of the party as much as the forecast — a team that came back exhausted does not go up again the next day.

If the climb went to plan, this is a genuine rest day at base camp, or the group starts down the valley early and banks a spare day against the Lukla flights. Overnight at base camp or Thame.

Camp comes down after breakfast and the whole valley is descended in a day — moraine, then pasture, then juniper scrub, following the stream back down the Kyajo Drangka to the Bhote Koshi.

From the valley mouth the trail contours south-east above the river, past Thamo and Phurte, rejoining the Everest trail at the top of Namche.

Namche Bazaar (3,440 m) after four nights of tents is a considerable shock — hot water, bakeries, a beer and other people. Around 7 to 8 hours. Overnight at Namche.

The last walking day. Steeply down from Namche to the Hillary Bridge, then along the Dudh Koshi through Jorsalle and Monjo, checking out of the national park.

Through Phakding and past the mani walls, then the final climb to Lukla (2,840 m), always longer than it looks on the last day.

The evening is the end-of-trip dinner with the guide, climbing Sherpas, cook crew and porters, and the point at which tips are given. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Lukla.

Lukla flights leave early, before the valley wind builds. Thirty-five minutes to Kathmandu, or a landing at Manthali with a road transfer onward in peak season.

Delays are routine rather than exceptional, which is why no international departure is scheduled for today. If Lukla closes entirely, a helicopter seat can usually be arranged at your own cost.

The afternoon is free for a long shower and Thamel. Your summit certificate is presented in the evening. Overnight in Kathmandu.

The trip 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.

If you are staying on in Nepal, we can arrange Chitwan, Pokhara, Lumbini or a Kathmandu valley tour. Safe travels — climbers who enjoy Kyajo Ri usually look at Cholatse or Ama Dablam next, and both are a natural step up from here.