Lhotse 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 today's schedule. Most climbers arrive with two or three duffels of equipment shipped or carried in; unpack tonight and lay everything out, because the next two days are spent turning it into a working expedition load.

Your expedition leader calls at the hotel in the evening to introduce themselves and set the plan for the morning. Overnight in Kathmandu.

A full working day. Your leader takes the fifty-day plan apart stage by stage — the approach, base camp, the rotations, the oxygen plan, the summit window and the reserve days — and then goes through the route itself.

The equipment inspection is item by item and takes hours: boots, crampons, harness, ascender, belay device, screwgates, down suit, mitts, goggles, headlamps and batteries. Anything missing or unsuitable is bought or hired in Kathmandu today, not discovered at 7,000 m.

Your oxygen mask and regulator are fitted and tested against your own face and hood, which is the single most useful hour of the day. 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 permit is issued, the rules are read out and the waste-management deposit is registered.

Meanwhile the expedition cargo is weighed, sealed into barrels and dispatched — some by air to Lukla, the rest by helicopter sling load or yak, depending on the season and the weight.

The afternoon is free, and it is the last one for two months with hot water, restaurants and thick air. Most climbers use it for the last phone calls home rather than for sightseeing. 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 when the peak-season schedule applies.

The expedition load is divided between porters and yaks over tea, which on a trip of this size takes a good part of the morning and involves a great deal of cheerful arguing.

The trail drops north through Chaurikharka and Ghat to Phakding (2,610 m), past mani walls and water-driven prayer wheels. 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 over the Nuptse–Lhotse ridge partway up on a clear morning.

Namche Bazaar (3,440 m) is the last town — bakeries, an ATM, gear shops and a hot shower. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Namche.

Climb high, sleep low. The morning walk goes up to the Everest View Hotel (3,880 m), whose terrace looks straight up the valley at Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse and Ama Dablam.

From there to Khumjung and Khunde beneath Khumbi Yul Lha, past the monastery with its disputed yeti scalp and the hospital built by Edmund Hillary's foundation in 1966, which is still the referral point for the whole valley.

The afternoon is free. Your leader takes the first oxygen saturation and resting pulse readings tonight, and will keep taking them daily for the next two months. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Namche.

Two hours of near-level balcony trail out of Namche, high above the Dudh Koshi, with Ama Dablam ahead almost the whole way.

At Phunki Thenga the trail drops to the river and climbs 600 m through rhododendron and birch to the saddle.

Tengboche (3,860 m) holds the largest monastery in the Khumbu. Every Everest expedition since the 1950s has stopped here, and many take a blessing from the Rinpoche before going up the valley. The afternoon ceremony is open to visitors. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Tengboche.

Down through Deboche, over the Imja Khola above a narrow gorge, and up to Pangboche (3,930 m), the oldest permanent Sherpa settlement in the Khumbu and home to a great many of the climbing Sherpas working on the mountain this season.

Above Pangboche the last trees give out and the valley opens into a wide grey trough of moraine and grazing land, walled by Ama Dablam, Lhotse and Taboche.

Dingboche (4,410 m) sits among stone-walled potato and barley fields at the junction of the Imja and Khumbu valleys. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Dingboche.

The first time above 5,000 m. We climb the ridge behind the village to Nangkartshang (5,083 m) — steep and non-technical, two to three hours on scree and rock.

Makalu appears over the eastern ridge, with Lhotse, Island Peak, Taboche and Cholatse arranged around you. On an expedition this is also the first honest read on how each climber is adapting, and your leader watches the group as much as the view.

Back for a late lunch and rest. Four litres of water, more food than anyone feels like, and an evening saturation check. Around 4 to 5 hours. Overnight at Dingboche.

North-west onto a broad ridge, then along the shelf above the Pheriche valley to Thukla (4,620 m) and the steep pull up the terminal moraine of the Khumbu glacier.

The top of that climb is the Thukla memorial — a field of stone chortens and plaques for climbers who died on Everest and the peaks around it, including Scott Fischer and Babu Chiri Sherpa. Every expedition walks through it on the way up, and it is a quiet twenty minutes.

Lobuche (4,940 m) is a handful of lodges on the moraine beside the glacier. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Lobuche.

A deliberate extra night below 5,000 m before committing to base camp. The morning is an acclimatisation walk up the ridge behind the lodges toward Lobuche East, gaining 400 to 500 m and coming back down.

The afternoon is rest, and for most people a slightly uneasy one — from tomorrow the expedition proper begins, and there is nothing left to prepare.

Your leader reviews saturation readings and appetite across the team tonight. Anyone whose numbers are drifting the wrong way spends an extra day here rather than starting the expedition already behind. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Lobuche.

North along the lateral moraine of the Khumbu glacier to Gorak Shep (5,164 m), the last flat ground and the site of the 1953 base camp, then out onto the glacier itself.

The final two hours pick a line through ice pinnacles and rubble, following the cairns and the yak trail, with the Khumbu Icefall ahead getting steadily more legible — and steadily less abstract.

Everest Base Camp (5,364 m) is a small city of tents on the moraine, and ours is already standing when you arrive. Your leader shows you the camp, the routine and the radio schedule. Around 5 hours. Overnight at base camp.

A day of low effort and a great deal of quiet organisation. Personal tents are set up properly, the mess tent routine and mealtimes are established, and the charging, water and toilet arrangements are explained.

Your leader runs the oxygen systems check: mask, regulator and hose fitted to your own face and hood again, at altitude this time, and the flow rates and changeover drill walked through.

The afternoon is spent walking gently on the moraine and doing nothing strenuous. At 5,364 m the first two days are about letting the body catch up, not about proving anything. Overnight at base camp.

The puja, and on Everest it is not optional. A lama comes up from Pangboche, a stone chorten is built, juniper is burned, and every piece of climbing equipment on the expedition — axes, crampons, harnesses, boots, oxygen masks — is stacked at the altar to be blessed.

No Sherpa on our team will set foot in the Khumbu Icefall before it has been done. Prayer flags are strung from the chorten out across the camp, rice is thrown, and the ceremony usually finishes with chang and dancing.

It matters practically as well as spiritually: it is the day the whole team, climbers and Sherpas together, first behaves like one group. Overnight at base camp.

A full working day on the ice near camp. Ladders are laid over crevasses and rigged with hand lines, and every climber crosses them repeatedly in crampons until it stops being interesting — first horizontal, then angled, then two lashed together with a bend in the middle.

Alongside that: jumaring on fixed line, changing over at anchors, abseiling, and arresting a slip on hard ice. The changeover drill gets the most repetition, because in the Icefall you will do it several hundred times and it has to be automatic.

Your leader watches each climber and keeps anyone who needs it back for the afternoon. Overnight at base camp.

A genuine rest day before the first rotation. Eating, drinking and sleeping, with a short walk on the moraine in the afternoon and nothing more.

The Icefall Doctors — the Sherpa team employed by the SPCC to fix and maintain the route through the Icefall each season — have been working since early April, and today your leader confirms with them and with the other expeditions that the route is open and stable to Camp 1.

Loads for the rotation are packed and weighed in the evening, and the departure time is set for something around two in the morning. Overnight at base camp.

Out of camp between two and three in the morning, in the cold, because the Khumbu Icefall is at its most stable before the sun reaches it.

What follows is five to seven hours of the most concentrated ground on the mountain: a collapsing, refreezing jumble of seracs and crevasses, crossed on aluminium ladders lashed end to end and climbed on fixed rope, with the route changing week to week as the glacier moves. You clip, cross, unclip, and keep moving. Nobody stops in the exposed sections.

The Icefall relents at the top and opens into the flat white bowl at the entrance to the Western Cwm. Camp 1 (6,065 m) stands on the snow there. Overnight at Camp 1.

A short day and a strange one. The Western Cwm is a broad, almost level glacier basin walled by Everest, Nuptse and Lhotse, and it is one of the hottest places on the mountain — the sun reflects off three walls of snow with nowhere for the heat to go, and a windless morning here can reach 30°C.

The route weaves between crevasses on fixed line for three to four hours, with the Lhotse Face growing ahead all the way.

Camp 2 (6,400 m) sits on the moraine at the foot of that face and serves as the expedition's advance base camp — a cook tent, a dining tent and sleeping tents, staffed for the season. Overnight at Camp 2.

A day at 6,400 m doing very little, which is exactly the point of a rotation. Sleeping at this altitude is what the body has to learn to do, and it learns it by being made to.

In the morning the team walks an hour or so up toward the bergschrund at the foot of the Lhotse Face and back, to look at the ground the next rotation will climb and to gain a little height.

The rest of the day is spent in the dining tent, drinking and forcing food down. Appetite falls off sharply above 6,000 m, and eating badly here is what leaves climbers short three weeks later. Overnight at Camp 2.

An early start down the Cwm to Camp 1 and then back through the Icefall, timed once again to be out of it before the sun softens the seracs.

Descending the Icefall is faster than climbing it and no less demanding of attention — the ladders are crossed facing forward with the hand lines taut, and tired legs are the usual cause of trouble.

Base camp (5,364 m) by late morning. The first rotation is done: the team has slept at 6,400 m and crossed the Icefall twice, and everybody now knows what that involves. Overnight at base camp.

The first of three recovery days, and the hardest one to spend well because most people feel worse today than they did yesterday. That is normal — the fatigue of a rotation arrives late.

The prescription is unglamorous: sleep, drink four to five litres, and eat considerably more than you want to. The cook crew works hard on appetite at this stage of an expedition and the menu improves accordingly.

Your leader takes saturation and pulse readings and reviews them against the baseline from Namche. Anyone whose numbers or weight are dropping gets a conversation rather than a schedule. Overnight at base camp.

The second recovery day, and the one on which people generally start feeling human again. Base camp settles into its rhythm: breakfast late, cards and reading in the dining tent, a walk to another team's camp in the afternoon, dinner early.

There is work going on around you. The Sherpa team is carrying loads through the Icefall to stock Camp 2 and Camp 3 with tents, oxygen, food and fuel, and the route-fixing team is working its way up the Lhotse Face toward the South Col.

The evening weather briefing in the communications tent becomes a fixture from about now, and the whole camp starts paying attention to it. Overnight at base camp.

The last day before the second rotation, spent on preparation rather than effort. Personal loads are packed for four nights above base camp, crampons and harnesses are checked after their first hard use, and boots are dried properly.

Your leader briefs the rotation in detail: base camp straight through to Camp 2 in one push this time, a rest day there, and then a climb of the Lhotse Face to touch Camp 3 at 7,200 m before returning.

The Camp 3 touch is the single most valuable piece of acclimatisation in the expedition, and it is also the first time the team is on genuinely steep ground at altitude. Departure is set for the small hours. Overnight at base camp.

A long day, and a demonstration of how far the acclimatisation has come. The Icefall that took six or seven hours on the first rotation now takes four or five, and the team pushes straight on through Camp 1 and up the Western Cwm without stopping for the night.

Eight to ten hours in total from base camp, most of it in the dark and the cold at the start and in the reflected furnace of the Cwm at the end.

Camp 2 (6,400 m) in the afternoon, where the cook crew has been in residence for a fortnight and there is hot soup waiting. Overnight at Camp 2.

A rest day at 6,400 m, which sounds restful and is not — this is roughly the altitude of Denali, and doing nothing here is still work.

The morning is spent sorting the kit for tomorrow and, for most people, staring at the Lhotse Face. It is 1,000 m of blue ice at 40 to 50 degrees, with the tents of Camp 3 visible as coloured specks on ledges cut into the middle of it, and it looks improbable from below.

Your leader goes through the fixed-rope traffic protocol for the face: which side to pass on, how to clip past an anchor with people above and below, and what to do if something comes down. Overnight at Camp 2.

The hardest day of the acclimatisation programme and the one that most determines who summits. From the bergschrund the Lhotse Face rises as hard blue ice at 40 to 50 degrees, climbed entirely on fixed rope with a jumar.

It is four to six hours of unrelenting work, front-pointing on ice that takes crampons well and forgives nothing, with the Cwm dropping away below and no comfortable place to stop anywhere on it.

Camp 3 (7,200 m) is a row of tents on platforms hacked into the face itself. The team touches it, spends an hour or so there, and then abseils and down-climbs back to Camp 2 — this rotation is about the altitude reached, not the night spent.

Back at Camp 2 in the late afternoon, thoroughly worked. Overnight at Camp 2.

Down the Western Cwm and through the Icefall in the cold of the morning, reaching base camp before the sun is properly on the seracs.

The acclimatisation programme is now complete. The team has slept at 6,400 m twice and touched 7,200 m, and physiologically there is nothing more to be gained from going higher until the summit push.

Base camp (5,364 m) by midday, and the mood changes noticeably: the work of preparation is finished and everything from here is waiting on weather. Overnight at base camp.

Down the glacier and the moraine to Pheriche (4,371 m), losing a thousand metres and gaining what feels like a completely different atmosphere.

This descent is one of the most valuable decisions in the plan and one of the most commonly skipped. Recovery does not happen at 5,364 m. Six weeks at base camp erodes a climber steadily; a few days at 4,371 m in thicker air, eating real food and sleeping properly, rebuilds one.

Pheriche has lodges with beds, hot showers, bakeries and the Himalayan Rescue Association clinic. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Pheriche.

A day with nothing in it, deliberately. Sleep late, eat everything on the menu, take a hot shower, and walk no further than the bakery.

Most climbers regain a kilogram or two here and, more importantly, sleep properly for the first time in weeks. The improvement in appetite alone is usually obvious within twenty-four hours.

Meanwhile at base camp the Sherpa team is stocking Camp 4 — carrying oxygen, tents, food and fuel to 7,900 m on the Lhotse Face, which is the heaviest and most dangerous work of the entire expedition and is done by people who will then climb it again with you. Overnight at Pheriche.

Back up the valley through Thukla, past the memorial chortens, and along the moraine to base camp — the same ground as the walk in, done now by a body that handles it very differently.

The climb takes five to six hours and is a useful gauge: climbers who come up feeling strong are ready, and those who struggle are told so and given more time.

Base camp (5,364 m) in the afternoon. From tonight the expedition is entirely governed by the forecast, and the evening weather briefing becomes the most attended event of the day. Overnight at base camp.

The waiting starts, and it is a real part of an Everest expedition rather than dead time. The jet stream sits on the summit for most of the year, and the season's windows appear when it lifts — usually somewhere between the tenth and twenty-fifth of May.

Days are spent eating, sleeping, walking gently on the moraine and visiting other camps. Most teams are doing the same thing, and base camp is unusually sociable in this period.

The evening brings the specialist mountain forecast, read out in the communications tent: wind speed at 8,000 m, temperature, precipitation and the confidence attached to each. Your leader cross-checks it against what other expeditions are seeing. Overnight at base camp.

More waiting, and the discipline of it is not to burn energy. Climbers who fill these days with long walks to keep busy arrive at the South Col with less in reserve than those who read a book.

There is one useful piece of work: your leader reviews the oxygen plan with each climber individually — flow rates from Camp 3, at the Col, on summit day, and the changeover points where bottles are swapped and cached for the descent.

Masks and regulators are checked one final time against your own hood and goggles, because a mask that ices or leaks at 8,500 m is a very serious problem. Overnight at base camp.

The summit briefing, and on Lhotse it turns on one thing above all others: the clock at the foot of the couloir. Your leader sets out the schedule, the climber and Sherpa pairings, the radio times, the oxygen changeover points, and a hard turnaround time.

The couloir is a one-lane road. A party that enters it late is committing to descending it in the dark with people still coming up, and that is the situation the turnaround time exists to prevent. It is stated as a number and it is not negotiable on the face.

Traffic is also planned around: because Lhotse and Everest share Camp 3, your leader will pick a departure that separates the team from the main Everest push where the forecast allows. Overnight at base camp.

The last day at base camp before the push. Loads are packed for five nights above base camp, down suits are unpacked and checked, and boots are warmed and dried.

The Sherpa team confirms three things before anything begins: that Camp 4 is stocked, that the route is fixed through the couloir, and that the gully is clear of fresh loading. If any of those is not true, the push waits.

Dinner is early and the camp is quiet. Departure through the Icefall is set for around two in the morning. Overnight at base camp.

Into the Icefall for the last time on the way up, at two in the morning, and through it faster than ever — the ground is entirely familiar and the acclimatisation is complete.

Straight on through Camp 1 and up the Western Cwm to Camp 2 (6,400 m), seven to nine hours in total, arriving in the reflected heat of the early afternoon.

The rest of the day is spent lying down, drinking and eating. From here the expedition moves upward every day until it summits or turns back. Overnight at Camp 2.

A rest day at 6,400 m built into the push. Arriving at Camp 4 tired is how climbers end up turning round at the foot of the couloir, and a day here is cheap insurance against that.

The day is spent in the dining tent forcing fluid and food, which at this altitude is work rather than pleasure.

From the moraine there is a clear view of the whole upper route — the Face, Camp 3 on its ledges, and above them the dark slot of the Lhotse Couloir running to the summit. It is worth an hour with binoculars and your leader. Overnight at Camp 2.

The Lhotse Face again, and this time the team stays. Four to six hours of front-pointing on hard blue ice at 40 to 50 degrees, entirely on fixed rope, with heavier loads than on the rotation.

Camp 3 (7,200 m) is a row of tents on ledges chopped out of the face. The tents are half-suspended, everyone stays clipped in even inside them, and stepping outside at night is a roped operation.

This is the first night on supplementary oxygen, at a low sleeping flow, and it makes a considerable difference to how the night goes. Overnight at Camp 3.

A short day and a serious one, on oxygen from the moment you leave the tent. The route continues up the face, and at around 7,900 m — where the Everest teams traverse right toward the Yellow Band and the South Col — Lhotse goes straight on.

Three to five hours brings the team to Camp 4 (7,900 m), a handful of tents on cut platforms directly on the face below the couloir. There is no plateau and no shelter; it is a steeper, smaller and less forgiving camp than Everest's South Col.

You are in the Death Zone and the body is now degrading rather than adapting. Nobody sleeps. The team rests on oxygen, melts snow, forces fluid and waits for the departure time. Overnight at Camp 4.

Leaving Camp 4 somewhere between two and four in the morning, on oxygen, at around -30°C. Within an hour the route enters the Lhotse Couloir and stays in it.

The couloir is the climb: a gully cut into the face at 45 to 50 degrees, narrowing in places to a few metres between rock walls, climbed on fixed rope with a jumar for hours. It is sustained, it is fully committing, and there is no way past anyone in front of you. Near the top a short rock band is taken in crampons, and it is the technical crux of the route.

The couloir exits onto the summit ridge, and the summit (8,516 m) is a small rocky point with room for two or three people. Everest's south-east ridge and South Col are directly across the gap, close enough to see figures on them, with Makalu east and the whole Khumbu below.

The descent abseils and down-climbs the couloir, and it is the most demanding part of the day. Back to Camp 4, then on down the face to Camp 2 if the party has the reserves. Fourteen to eighteen hours of movement. Overnight at Camp 2.

Down the Western Cwm and through the Khumbu Icefall for the last time — the final and, statistically, one of the more dangerous acts of the expedition, done on legs that have very little left.

The team goes early and goes carefully. Ladders are crossed one at a time, nobody hurries and nobody stops in the exposed ground.

Base camp (5,364 m), and the moment of walking off the glacier onto the moraine at the end of a summit push is one that most climbers remember more clearly than the summit itself. Overnight at base camp.

The first of four reserve days. In a good season they are spent resting and then walking out early; in most seasons at least one of them is used.

They exist because Everest's summit windows are few and short. A team that has committed everything to a single forecast and been turned back at the Balcony by wind has no expedition left; a team with four days in hand has a second attempt.

If a second push is on, the Sherpa team re-stocks the Col and the climbers rest here today. Your leader assesses each climber honestly — a second summit push after a turned-back first one is only offered to people who came down with something in reserve. Overnight at base camp.

The second reserve day. If a second attempt is running, the team is at Camp 2 tonight rather than here, and this day and the next are the climb to Camp 3 and the Col.

If the mountain has been climbed, the day is spent eating, sleeping and beginning the long process of feeling normal again. Most climbers lose between five and ten kilograms over an Everest expedition and the recovery starts here.

The camp begins to thin out around now as teams finish and leave, and the yak trains start arriving to carry loads down. Overnight at base camp.

The third reserve day, and the point at which the season's arithmetic becomes clear: either the summit has been reached, or a second window is being climbed, or the expedition is over.

Whichever it is, your leader will say so plainly. Lhotse does not reward optimism at this stage, and a leader who keeps a tired team on the mountain past the last honest window is the single most dangerous thing on it.

If the expedition is finished, today is when the higher camps come down: Camp 4, Camp 3 and Camp 2 are stripped by the Sherpa team, and everything comes off the mountain. Overnight at base camp.

The last day at base camp. Tents come down, barrels are packed and weighed, and the yak train assembles on the moraine to carry six weeks of expedition back down the valley.

It is a long day of unglamorous work and it is also when the team says goodbye to the base camp crew — the cook, the kitchen boys and the camp staff who have run the place for six weeks and who most climbers will remember as fondly as anyone.

A final look up at the Icefall, which by now looks entirely different from the way it did in April. Overnight at base camp.

Off the glacier and down the moraine past Gorak Shep and Lobuche, then the steep descent beside the glacier snout to Thukla and the memorial chortens.

Walking through that memorial field on the way down, at the end of a season, is a very different experience from walking through it on the way up.

Pheriche (4,371 m) in the afternoon, with beds, hot showers, bakeries and a menu. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Pheriche.

Down the Khumbu valley through Pangboche, where many of your Sherpa team live and where several will peel off to go home, and on through Deboche to the Tengboche saddle.

The trees come back below Tengboche — rhododendron in flower in late May — and with them birdsong, warmth and air that after six weeks feels almost thick enough to chew.

The steep drop to Phunki Thenga and the balcony trail bring you to Namche Bazaar (3,440 m). 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, where you check out of the national park.

Through Phakding and past the mani walls, then the final climb to Lukla (2,840 m).

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. Your Sherpa team crossed the Icefall many more times than you did, carrying more; the thanks should reflect that. 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 when the schedule requires it.

Delays are routine rather than exceptional and can run to a full day, which is why the itinerary carries a spare day in Kathmandu at the end. If Lukla closes entirely, a helicopter seat can usually be arranged and your leader handles it.

The afternoon is free. A long shower, a proper meal, and the strange business of being at 1,400 m with more oxygen than you know what to do with. Overnight in Kathmandu.

A spare day in Kathmandu, which exists partly for the Lukla weather and partly because nobody should fly home the morning after coming off Everest.

The formal business is completed today: the expedition reports to the Department of Tourism, the waste deposit is reconciled, and the summit certificate is issued and presented.

The rest of the day is yours — shopping in Thamel, a massage, and a team dinner in the evening, which after two months together tends to run long. Overnight in Kathmandu.

The expedition 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 rather than carried is handled by our office.

Safe travels. Whether or not the summit came, fifty days on Lhotse changes how a person thinks about mountains, and we would be glad to see you back — Everest, Makalu and the Everest–Lhotse double are the three our returning Lhotse climbers ask about most.