Larkya 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.

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-one day plan apart stage by stage — the approach up the Budhi Gandaki, base camp, the acclimatisation, 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 Manaslu Restricted Area Permit and the conservation permits, which require your passport, photographs and a licensed guide named on the paperwork. Overnight in Kathmandu.

West out of the Kathmandu valley on the Prithvi Highway, then north at Dhading Besi onto a rough hill road that follows the Budhi Gandaki upstream.

The tarmac gives out at Arughat and the last three hours are a jeep road cut into the gorge wall — slow, dusty and spectacular, with the river a long way below.

Machha Khola (930 m) is a strip of lodges beside the river at the road head. It is subtropical, hot and green, and about as far from an 8,000 m peak as Nepal gets. Around 8 to 9 hours. Overnight at Machha Khola.

The walking starts. The trail follows the Budhi Gandaki north through a deepening gorge, crossing and re-crossing the river on suspension bridges and traversing sections cut into the cliff.

It is warm, humid work through rice terraces, millet and bamboo, past the hot springs at Tatopani and the village of Dobhan.

Jagat (1,340 m) is a compact village of stone-paved streets and slate roofs, and the checkpoint where the Manaslu Restricted Area begins — permits are checked here and a licensed guide is required from this point. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Jagat.

North up the gorge, which narrows sharply above Jagat and stays narrow. The trail climbs and drops repeatedly on staircases cut into the rock, crossing the river on high bridges.

Somewhere around Philim the country begins to change: the rice gives out, pine appears, and the first mani walls and chortens stand beside the trail.

Deng (1,860 m) is a handful of houses on a shelf above the river, and the first village that feels Tibetan rather than Nepali hill country. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Deng.

Steadily up the gorge through pine and fir, past mani walls with carved stones stacked by generations of villagers, and across the river several more times.

The gorge finally opens above Ghap, and the walking gets easier as the valley widens into the Nubri.

Namrung (2,630 m) sits behind a stone gateway — a genuine entrance arch to the upper valley — and is the first village of the Nubri proper. The houses are Tibetan, the language is Tibetan, and Manaslu appears ahead for the first time. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Namrung.

Up through barley fields and pine forest to Lihi and Sho, villages of flat-roofed stone houses with prayer flags on every roof and yaks in the lanes.

The valley opens further and the mountains come out: Manaslu ahead, Ganesh Himal behind, and the Naike and Larkya peaks beginning to show.

Lho (3,180 m) is one of the finest village positions in Nepal. The Ribung Gompa stands on a bluff above it looking straight up the valley at the north face of Manaslu, and the sunset from its courtyard is the reason most people remember the place. Around 4 to 5 hours. Overnight at Lho.

A short day with the mountain in front of you the whole way. The trail climbs through Shyala, a village in a bowl with Manaslu, Ngadi Chuli and Himal Chuli around it, and then contours to Samagaon.

Samagaon (3,530 m) is the largest village in the Nubri — several hundred flat-roofed stone houses, a big gompa, potato fields and a great many yaks. The people here are Tibetan by origin and the border is a day's walk north.

It is also the base for everything above: Manaslu Base Camp, Birendra Tal and the Pungyen Gompa are all within a day. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Samagaon.

Climb high, sleep low. The morning walk goes up to the Pungyen Gompa (4,000 m) on a shelf east of the village, a steep climb of an hour and a half with a full view of Manaslu's glaciers.

The gompa is named for the mountain's Tibetan protector deity and was destroyed twice — most famously after the 1953 Japanese expedition, when villagers blamed the climbers for an avalanche that killed eighteen people and rebuilt it a third time.

The alternative is Birendra Tal, the glacial lake below the base camp trail, which is gentler and equally worth the walk. Back in Samagaon for the afternoon. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Samagaon.

North-west up the Budhi Gandaki, which above Samagaon stops being a gorge and becomes a wide brown valley of grazing land with the river braiding across it.

The walking is easy and the scale is enormous. Manaslu is behind, the Larkya peaks ahead, and the Tibetan border is a day north over the Lajyang La.

Samdo (3,875 m) is the highest permanent village in the Nubri — flat-roofed stone houses, barley terraces, yaks and a way of life that still involves trading over the border. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Samdo.

Climb high, sleep low. The morning walk goes north up the valley toward the Lajyang La, the old trading pass into Tibet, gaining 600 m to around 4,500 m before turning back.

It is open, brown, wind-scoured country with blue sheep on the slopes and, from the high point, a view straight into Tibet — the plateau visible as a different colour of landscape entirely.

Back in Samdo for the afternoon. Your guide takes saturation readings this evening and the crew sorts the loads for base camp. Around 4 to 5 hours. Overnight at Samdo.

West up the valley toward the pass, climbing gently across open moraine and grazing ground with blue sheep frequently visible on the slopes above the trail.

Dharamsala (4,460 m) — also called Larkya Phedi — is two basic stone buildings and a scatter of tents in a bleak spot beneath the pass. There is nothing here and there is not meant to be.

It is a short day by design. Above the camp, the peak that gives the pass its name rises to the north, and the route to it is visible from the door. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Dharamsala.

A short climb north off the Circuit trail and onto the moraine below the peak, gaining 440 m on rough boulder ground in two to three hours.

Larkya Peak Base Camp (4,900 m) is a tented camp on flat ground beneath the glacier, and it is fully exposed to the wind that comes over the Larkya La every afternoon. Tents are guyed properly and weighted with rock.

The afternoon is spent reading the route with your guide: the glacier, the ice slope above it, and the short crest that finishes the climb. Manaslu fills the sky to the east. Overnight at base camp.

The training day. On the glacier ice above camp you work through fitting crampons and walking in them, ice axe technique and self-arrest, moving as a roped team with correct spacing, ascending fixed line on a jumar, and abseiling.

Extra time goes on moving one at a time on an exposed crest, because the last twenty minutes of this climb is exactly that and it is not a technique that can be improvised at 6,200 m.

In the afternoon we walk part-way toward high camp and back — 300 m gained and lost. Meanwhile the Sherpas are above, fixing the ice slope and the crest. Overnight at base camp.

A steep morning up the moraine, gaining 700 m in three to four hours with a moderate load while the crew moves the camp.

High camp (5,600 m) sits on rubble at the lip of the glacier, exposed and cold, with the Larkya La visible below to the south as a thin brown saddle.

The rest of the day is preparation: kit laid out, rope teams assigned, an early dinner, and your guide's weather call and turnaround time. Asleep by seven, in a wind that does not stop. Overnight at high camp.

Roped and moving by two in the morning. The first hour or so crosses the crevassed glacier on the line the Sherpas marked yesterday, with the team spaced correctly and headlamps on.

Then the ice slope: 40 to 45 degrees, climbed on fixed rope for two to three hours as the sky lightens over Manaslu, steepening near the top.

The summit is reached along a short exposed crest, taken one at a time. From the summit (6,249 m): Manaslu and Himal Chuli east, Himlung, Cheo Himal and Kang Guru north-west across the Peri Himal, Annapurna II south-west, and directly below, a thousand metres down, the thin line of prayer flags on the Larkya La that you cross tomorrow.

The descent abseils the crest and the slope and reverses the glacier to high camp, then base camp. Nine to twelve hours. Overnight at base camp.

The day held in reserve. Wind at the head of the Nubri is the usual reason a Larkya attempt is turned back — the summit crest is fully exposed to it — and a second chance is worth more than any amount of equipment.

If yesterday failed on conditions, 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 descends to Dharamsala, resting before the pass. Your guide checks the Larkya La conditions with the lodge keepers this evening. Overnight at base camp or Dharamsala.

Away by four in the morning from Dharamsala. The climb to the Larkya La (5,106 m) takes four to five hours across moraine and old snow, past frozen tarns, on a long gradual rise rather than a steep pull.

The pass is a broad saddle hung with prayer flags, and the peak you stood on two days ago rises a thousand metres directly above it — which makes this a very different crossing from the one the trekkers around you are having.

The view west is one of the great ones in Nepal: Himlung, Cheo Himal, Gyaji Kang, Kang Guru and Annapurna II. Then a long steep descent, losing 1,500 m to Bimthang (3,590 m), a meadow of grass and pine below Manaslu's west face. Seven to nine hours. Overnight at Bimthang.

The last walking day, and it is all downhill — steeply through rhododendron and pine forest along the Dudh Khola, past Karche and Goa, losing 1,700 m.

The forest is the first proper one since the Budhi Gandaki and it is full of birds and warmth and the smell of resin.

Dharapani (1,860 m) joins the Annapurna Circuit and the road head, where jeeps take over for the rough drive down the Marsyangdi to Besisahar. 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. Overnight at Besisahar.

A straightforward day on the highway. The road follows the Marsyangdi down to Dumre and then joins the Prithvi Highway east along the Trishuli to the Kathmandu valley, through terraced hills and roadside towns.

Six to seven hours with a lunch stop at a riverside restaurant, and it is the first stretch of tarmac since the drive in. The change of pace after weeks on foot takes most people a while to adjust to.

Back in Kathmandu in the afternoon. Your summit certificate is presented over dinner 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, though most people at this point want a chair and a coffee more than a temple.

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. Larkya Peak on the far side of the pass and Himlung Himal over the ridge in Nar Phu are the two our returning Samdo climbers most often ask about.