Lobuche East 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 asked of you today. Rest, eat, and if you have the energy, walk out into Thamel — the gear shops here stock most of what a climber discovers they have forgotten.

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

The briefing is longer than it would be for an easier peak. Your guide walks through the eighteen-day plan, the acclimatisation profile, and summit day in detail — the buttress, the ice slope, the ridge, and specifically the notch beyond the false summit and what crossing it involves.

Then the equipment check. Boots are fitted with crampons, harnesses adjusted over climbing layers, and your own hardware inspected. Anything unsuitable is replaced with rental kit here rather than at 5,400 m.

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, landing on the sloping runway cut into the hillside.

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, with the Dudh Koshi loud below.

Phakding (2,610 m) is lower than Lukla, which makes for a gentle first night. Around 3 to 4 hours. Overnight at Phakding.

The trail crosses the Dudh Koshi five times on prayer-flagged suspension bridges, climbing through blue pine and rhododendron to Monjo and the Sagarmatha National Park entrance.

Beyond Jorsalle the Hillary Bridge spans the confluence high above the water, and then the trail turns uphill for 600 m — the first honest work of the trip, with a first view of Everest partway up on a clear day.

Namche Bazaar (3,440 m) sits in a natural amphitheatre, with bakeries, gear shops and an ATM. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Namche.

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

On to Khumjung and Khunde beneath Khumbi Yul Lha, with the monastery's contested yeti scalp and the hospital built by Edmund Hillary's foundation in 1966.

The afternoon is free — the Sherpa Culture Museum, the Saturday market, a coffee. Your guide takes the first oxygen saturation readings tonight. 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 path drops to the river, crosses it, and climbs 600 m through rhododendron and birch forest to the saddle — a long pull with thin air working against you.

Tengboche (3,860 m) holds the largest monastery in the Khumbu, rebuilt after the 1989 fire. The afternoon prayer ceremony is open to visitors. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Tengboche.

Down through Deboche, across the Imja Khola above a narrow gorge, and up to Pangboche (3,930 m), the oldest permanent Sherpa settlement in the Khumbu.

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) lies among stone-walled potato and barley fields at the junction of the Imja and Khumbu valleys. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Dingboche.

The day the summit is really built on. We climb the ridge behind the village to Nangkartshang (5,083 m) — steep, non-technical, two to three hours on scree and rock.

Touching 5,000 m and sleeping 600 m lower is the whole mechanism of acclimatisation, and from the top Makalu rises over the eastern ridge with Lhotse, Ama Dablam, Taboche and Cholatse arranged around you.

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

North-west out of Dingboche onto a broad ridge, then along a high 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 Pass memorial, a field of stone chortens and plaques for climbers who died on Everest and the surrounding peaks. Scott Fischer's is here, and Babu Chiri Sherpa's. It is a quiet place to walk through on the way to your own mountain.

Beyond it the trail turns off before Lobuche village and climbs the moraine to Lobuche East Base Camp (4,950 m), where camp is standing when you arrive. Everest Base Camp is visible across the glacier. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at base camp.

A full day at base camp, and it earns its place twice over — as acclimatisation and as preparation. The morning is spent on the ice below camp working through crampon technique, ice axe use, ascending fixed line on a jumar, abseiling, and moving as a roped team.

Because this peak has a long exposed ridge, your guide spends extra time on short-roping and on what to do when the fixed line ends and the team is moving together. Anyone whose technique is rusty gets the attention here rather than on the ridge.

In the afternoon we walk up part of the route toward high camp and come back down — another 300 m gained and lost. Meanwhile our Sherpas are above, fixing the buttress and the ice slope. Overnight at base camp.

A short but steep morning. The route climbs the moraine and then a rock shoulder on loose ground, gaining 450 m in three to four hours with a moderate load — the rest goes up with the crew.

High camp (5,400 m) is a set of tent platforms cut into the shoulder, exposed to the wind and with no shelter of any kind. It is not comfortable and it is not meant to be; it exists to put you within reach of the summit.

The view makes up for some of it — Everest, Nuptse, Pumori and the whole sweep of the Khumbu glacier below. Early dinner, kit laid out, asleep by seven. Overnight at high camp.

Moving by one in the morning. The first hour is loose rock and scree by headlamp to the edge of the glacier, where crampons go on and the group ropes up in the dark.

Then the long work: a snow and ice slope at 40 to 50 degrees, steepening to short harder steps, climbed on fixed line for several hours as the sky lightens behind Makalu. It leads onto the summit ridge — narrow, corniced on the east, and followed one at a time with the drop to the Khumbu glacier on your left.

The false summit at about 5,970 m comes first. Beyond it the ridge dips into a notch and rises again, and that final hour on steep exposed snow is the real thing. From the true summit (6,119 m) the view runs across to Everest, Nuptse, Lhotse, Ama Dablam, Cholatse and Pumori. Down by abseil and fixed line to high camp, then base camp. Ten to fourteen hours. Overnight at base camp.

The day kept in hand. On a peak where wind on an exposed ridge is the usual reason for turning back, 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. If a member turned back at the false summit and wants the true one, and has the legs for it, that is also decided here.

If the climb went as planned, the day is used to start down early — camp comes down and the group walks to Pheriche or Pangboche, banking a spare day against a cancelled Lukla flight later. Overnight at base camp or Pangboche.

Camp comes down after breakfast and the descent begins in earnest. Back down the moraine, past the Thukla memorial chortens and the steep drop beside the glacier snout, into the Pheriche valley.

Through Pheriche, where the Himalayan Rescue Association clinic runs its afternoon altitude talks, and on down the valley on a good trail with the river beside you.

The last stretch climbs gently to Pangboche (3,930 m), where juniper and birch return and the air feels thick enough to be almost comic. The monastery above the village is the oldest in the Khumbu. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Pangboche.

Down through Deboche and up the short climb to Tengboche, where the saddle gives a last full view of Ama Dablam and the Everest massif — different now that you have been up something opposite it.

The steep descent to Phunki Thenga is hard on tired knees, and then the balcony trail contours back around the hillside toward Namche, high above the Dudh Koshi.

Namche Bazaar (3,440 m) arrives in the afternoon with a hot shower, a bakery and a beer. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Namche.

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

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

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

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

Delays are routine here rather than exceptional, which is why no international departure is scheduled for today.

The afternoon is free — a long shower and Thamel. Your summit certificate is presented in the evening, and it names the summit you actually reached. Overnight in Kathmandu.

The trip ends today. Depending on your flight there may be a last morning in Kathmandu for the shopping you did not get to.

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, and we hope to climb with you again.