Langshisha Ri 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. Thamel's gear shops are a few minutes' walk away and stock most of what a climber discovers they have left at home.

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

Your leader runs the full briefing at the hotel: the seventeen-day plan, the acclimatisation profile, the summit day, and the decisions that get made on the mountain and by whom.

Then the equipment check. Boots are tried with crampons on, harnesses fitted over the layers you will actually climb in, and anything unsuitable swapped for rental kit here rather than discovered at altitude.

Our office lodges the climbing permit, the Langtang National Park permit and the TIMS card, which need your passport and photographs. The afternoon is free. Overnight in Kathmandu.

North out of the Kathmandu valley over the rim at Kakani and down to the Trishuli, then up a hill road that climbs to Dhunche at 1,960 m — the district headquarters and the Langtang National Park entrance.

The road is rough, winding and spectacular, with the Ganesh Himal opening to the north-west and the Tibetan border a few kilometres east for much of the way.

Syabrubesi (1,460 m) sits at the confluence of the Bhote Koshi and the Langtang Khola. Around 7 to 8 hours, and the shortest road approach to any climbing region in Nepal. Overnight at Syabrubesi.

East into the Langtang gorge, following the river upstream on a trail that crosses it several times on suspension bridges and climbs steadily through dense forest.

This is one of the best forests on any trekking route in Nepal — oak, maple and rhododendron, thick with moss and langur monkeys, and in spring loud with birds. Red panda live here, though almost nobody sees one.

Lama Hotel (2,470 m) is a handful of lodges in a clearing beside the river, hemmed in by the gorge and dark by four in the afternoon. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Lama Hotel.

Up through the last of the forest to Ghoda Tabela, where the gorge opens and the valley becomes a broad glacial trough with Langtang Lirung filling the northern wall.

The walking is easier and the country turns Tamang — yak pasture, stone walls, mani stones and water-driven prayer wheels.

Langtang Village (3,430 m) was destroyed on 25 April 2015 when the earthquake brought a section of hillside and glacier down on it, killing most of the inhabitants and the visitors staying there. The village has been rebuilt on safer ground beside the debris field, and there is a memorial with the names on it. It is worth stopping at. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Langtang Village.

A short and beautiful morning up the widening valley past mani walls, chortens and the largest prayer wheel in the region, with the glaciers of Langtang Lirung hanging above on the left.

Kyanjin Gompa (3,870 m) is the highest settlement in the valley — a small monastery, a cheese factory started with Swiss help in the 1950s, and a scatter of lodges under the mountain.

It is also the base for everything above: Kyanjin Ri, Tserko Ri, the Langshisha Kharka and all three of the climbing peaks in this valley are reached from here. Around 3 to 4 hours. Overnight at Kyanjin Gompa.

Climb high, sleep low. The morning goes up Tserko Ri (4,984 m), a steep but non-technical four-hour ascent on a well-worn path directly above the village.

The height gained is the point — touching 5,000 m and sleeping 1,100 m lower is what makes the climbing possible. The view from the top runs the length of the valley: Langtang Lirung, Langshisha Ri, Dorje Lakpa and the Jugal Himal, with the Tibetan border ridges to the north.

Back down for a late lunch and rest. Your leader takes the first saturation readings this evening. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Kyanjin Gompa.

East up the valley from Kyanjin on a trail that thins within an hour and gives out entirely at the Langshisha Kharka, a grazing meadow three to four hours along.

Beyond it the route goes onto the moraine of the Langtang glacier — boulder ground, no path, cairns where the crew has left them — and climbs east with the border ridges of Tibet closing the head of the valley.

Langshisha Ri Base Camp (4,600 m) is a tented camp on a flat shelf on the moraine. There is nobody here. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at base camp.

A working day on the glacier ice above camp. Every climber is taken through rope-team travel with correct spacing, crevasse rescue with a hauling system, jumaring on fixed line with a pack, changing over at anchors, and abseiling.

Crevasse work gets the most time, because the glacier between base camp and high camp is broken and is crossed roped in the dark tomorrow.

In the afternoon we walk part-way up the moraine toward high camp and back — 400 m gained and lost. Meanwhile the Sherpas are above, marking the glacier route and fixing the ice slope. Overnight at base camp.

Roped from the moment the group leaves camp. The route works up the crevassed glacier on the line the Sherpas marked, weaving between open holes and over one or two snow bridges, for five to six hours with a moderate load.

High camp (5,400 m) is a set of platforms stamped out on the glacier itself, below the south face, and it is fully exposed to the wind coming over the border ridges from Tibet.

The rest of the day is preparation: kit laid out, rope teams assigned, an early dinner, and your leader's weather call and turnaround time. Overnight at high camp.

Roped and moving by two in the morning. The first hour crosses the upper glacier to the foot of the face, and then the climbing begins.

The ice slope runs at 45 to 50 degrees on fixed rope for three to four hours, sustained and unrelenting, with the sun arriving somewhere around 6,000 m.

The top of the slope gives onto a corniced summit ridge, taken one at a time with the Sherpas probing the crest. From the summit (6,427 m): Langtang Lirung down the whole length of the valley to the west, Dorje Lakpa and the Jugal Himal south, the Tibetan plateau north over the border ridges, and Shishapangma on the horizon.

The descent abseils the slope and reverses the glacier to high camp and then base camp. Eleven to fourteen hours. Overnight at base camp.

The day held in reserve. Wind off the border ridges is the usual reason a Langshisha attempt is turned back, and fresh snow on the crevassed glacier is the other — it hides the marked route and slows the crossing enough to lose the day against the clock.

If yesterday failed, the group returns to high camp today and climbs tomorrow, with the ropes already fixed and the glacier route marked.

If the summit went to plan, camp comes down and the group starts down the moraine toward the Langshisha Kharka and Kyanjin, banking a day against the Syabrubesi road. Overnight at base camp or Kyanjin Gompa.

Camp comes down after breakfast and the group descends the moraine west, back past the Langshisha Kharka and onto the trail.

The valley opens and softens as it drops, and by the middle of the afternoon there is grass, then yak pasture, then the chortens and mani walls above Kyanjin.

Kyanjin Gompa (3,870 m) means a lodge, a stove, a menu and the cheese factory, which after five nights on a glacier is a considerable amount of civilisation. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Kyanjin Gompa.

Down the valley past Langtang Village and its memorial, with the debris field of the 2015 landslide beside the trail and the rebuilt village on the safer ground next to it.

Below Ghoda Tabela the valley narrows into the gorge again and the forest closes in — oak, maple and rhododendron, moss, langur monkeys and birds after a week above the treeline.

Lama Hotel (2,470 m) is dark by four in the afternoon and warm enough to sit outside, which after a glacier camp is worth noticing. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Lama Hotel.

The last walking day, down the gorge beside the river through the best forest on the route, crossing and re-crossing on suspension bridges.

The air warms with every hundred metres and by the afternoon it is subtropical again — bamboo, terraces and villages after ten days of glacier and rock.

Syabrubesi (1,460 m) in the afternoon. The evening is the end-of-trip dinner with the guide, the climbing Sherpas, the cook crew and the porters, and the point at which tips are given. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Syabrubesi.

The rough hill road back over Dhunche and down to the Trishuli, then up over the valley rim at Kakani and into Kathmandu.

Seven to eight hours, and the first three of them are slow — the Syabrubesi road is one of the rougher ones in Nepal and it does not improve for being driven in the other direction.

Back in Kathmandu in the afternoon. A hot shower, a proper meal, and your summit certificate presented over dinner. 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 — Dorje Lakpa and Langtang Lirung are the two our returning Langshisha climbers ask about, and both are a serious step up from here.