Makalu Base Camp with Sherpani Col and Mera 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.

Rest is the only item on today's schedule. Unpack and lay out your equipment tonight — tomorrow it is inspected item by item, and Kathmandu is the last place anything can be replaced.

Your expedition 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-nine day plan apart stage by stage — the approach up the Barun, base camp, the rotations, the summit window and the reserve days — and then goes through the route itself.

The equipment inspection is item by item: boots, crampons, harness, ascender, belay device, screwgates, down clothing, mitts, goggles, headlamps and batteries. Anything missing or unsuitable is bought or hired here today.

Because the Barun approach is a week of walking from the airstrip with no resupply, the packing is done carefully and weighed. 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 regulations are read out and the waste-management deposit is registered.

Meanwhile the expedition cargo is weighed, sealed into barrels and dispatched to Tumlingtar, where porters and pack animals will take it up the Barun.

The afternoon is free, and it is the last one with hot water, restaurants and thick air for a long time. Overnight in Kathmandu.

A forty-five minute flight east to Tumlingtar (405 m), a grass airstrip on a plateau above the Arun river in subtropical eastern Nepal. It is hot, green and about as far from a glacier as Nepal gets.

From the airstrip a jeep road climbs north for four to five hours through rice terraces, banana and cardamom, gaining a thousand metres on a rough and spectacular hill road.

Num (1,560 m) sits on a ridge crest with the Arun gorge dropping away on both sides. It is the road head; from tomorrow everything moves on foot. Overnight at Num.

A day that loses and regains eight hundred metres and ends almost where it started. The trail drops steeply off the Num ridge through terraced farmland to the Arun river at around 700 m, crossing it on a suspension bridge.

Then straight back up the other side, through villages, bamboo and cardamom gardens, in heat and humidity that comes as a surprise on the way to an 8,000 m peak.

Seduwa (1,540 m) is the entrance to the Makalu Barun National Park, where permits are checked. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Seduwa.

A gentler day climbing steadily north through farmland and forest, past scattered Rai hamlets, millet terraces and grazing buffalo.

The country here is entirely unlike the Khumbu — subtropical hill Nepal, with the mountains still hidden behind ridges — and the walking is through working farmland rather than trekking infrastructure.

Tashigaon (2,100 m) is the last permanent village in the valley and the last place to buy anything. Above it there is nothing but forest, ridge and, eventually, glacier. Around 4 to 5 hours. Overnight at Tashigaon.

The hardest day of the approach: 1,400 m of ascent on a relentless staircase of a trail, through dense rhododendron and oak forest hung with moss, with almost no flat ground anywhere on it.

The forest is genuinely beautiful and genuinely exhausting, and in spring the rhododendrons are in full flower for the whole climb.

Khongma Danda (3,500 m) is a small clearing on the ridge crest, the first camp with a view, and the first cold night. Six to seven hours. Overnight at Khongma Danda.

Out of the forest and onto the ridge. The trail climbs past a series of small lakes to the Shipton La (4,220 m), named for Eric Shipton, who came this way in 1952 on the reconnaissance that found the route to Makalu.

From the pass the mountains finally appear: Chamlang to the north-west, the Barun valley opening below, and on a clear morning the top of Makalu itself.

A rough descent along the ridge leads to Dobato (3,800 m), a camp on open ground with the whole approach behind you and the valley ahead. Six to seven hours. Overnight at Dobato.

A steep descent off the ridge into the Barun valley itself, dropping through fir and birch to the river and then turning north up the valley floor.

The Barun is one of the great valleys of Nepal and almost nobody sees it. Walls rise two thousand metres on both sides, waterfalls come off hanging glaciers, and the forest is old and undisturbed — this is protected habitat for red panda, musk deer and snow leopard.

Yangle Kharka (3,600 m) is a grazing meadow beside the river, and the loss of height here is useful acclimatisation. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Yangle Kharka.

North up the valley floor, climbing steadily as the walls close in and the forest gives out. The trail passes through summer grazing settlements — stone huts used by herders from Tashigaon for a few months a year, empty the rest of the time.

Above the last trees the valley becomes rock, moraine and grass, and the scale of it becomes obvious: Chamlang's south face on one side, the Barun glacier ahead, and Makalu still hidden behind a shoulder.

Langmale Kharka (4,410 m) is the last grazing camp. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Langmale Kharka.

The last day of the approach, climbing onto the moraine of the Barun glacier and following it north on rough ground with the valley narrowing to its head.

And then Makalu appears — all of it at once, from base to summit, a four-thousand-metre pyramid of rock and ice at the head of the valley. It is one of the great first sights in the Himalaya, and it stops most people where they stand.

Makalu Base Camp (4,870 m) sits on the moraine below the south-east face. After eight days of walking from the road head, the expedition is finally at the mountain. Around 5 hours. Overnight at base camp.

A day at the foot of the fifth-highest mountain on earth, and one of the objectives of the trip rather than a rest stop.

The morning walk goes north up the moraine of the Barun glacier toward Makalu's advance base camp, gaining 400 to 500 m and returning. It is straightforward walking on rough ground, and it puts the whole south-east face — nearly four vertical kilometres of it — directly above you.

The afternoon is rest, and the first serious conversation about the cols: your guide runs through the three days ahead, the camps, the abseil, and the point of no return. Overnight at base camp.

A full working day on the glacier ice, and the day that decides who crosses. Each member is taken through crampon technique, moving as a roped team, ascending fixed line on a jumar with a pack, and abseiling on a loaded rope.

The abseil gets the most repetition, because in three days you will descend 100 m of fixed rope off the West Col with a glacier below you and no alternative.

Your guide is assessing rather than teaching, and anyone not ready is told today. Turning back from here means walking out down the Barun, which is a long way but an entirely safe one. Overnight at base camp.

West off the Makalu trail and onto the glacier, climbing 800 m on moraine and then ice to the camp beneath the col. Five to six hours, roped for the last of it.

Sherpani Col Base Camp (5,700 m) is a bleak, exposed camp on the glacier with the col directly above. It is the last place the group can turn round without committing.

The afternoon is preparation: harnesses, crampons and descenders checked, the order of crossing set, and loads redistributed. The Sherpas go up to fix the col so the rope is in place before the group arrives. An early night — tomorrow starts at three. Overnight at Sherpani Col base camp.

Moving by four in the morning, roped and in crampons. The route climbs the glacier and then a steepening snow slope on fixed rope to the Sherpani Col (6,180 m), arriving as the sun comes onto the crest.

The view from the col is the reward for the whole approach: Makalu immediately behind, Chamlang and Baruntse ahead across the glacier, and Everest and Lhotse showing beyond them.

The descent onto the western glacier is roped and steady, and camp goes up at around 6,100 m on the ice. This is the highest camp on any trekking route in Nepal, it is bitterly cold, and the group is now fully committed — there is no way back over the col with laden crew. Eight to ten hours. Overnight between the cols.

The technical crux of the traverse. A short glacier climb from camp leads to the West Col (6,143 m), and then the ground simply stops — the western side drops away steeply onto the Hongu glacier.

The crew has rigged fixed ropes overnight, and the crossing is made by abseiling around 100 m in stages, with every rucksack and every crew load lowered separately so that nobody descends under weight. It is slow, cold and completely absorbing, and it takes most of the morning for a full group.

Below the abseil the Hongu glacier leads down to the flat ground near Baruntse base camp (5,400 m), where camp goes up. The committed section is behind you. Nine to eleven hours. Overnight in the Hongu.

A rest day, and after three days above 6,000 m and a 100 m abseil it is not a formality. The group has just completed the hardest part of the traverse and most people sleep through the middle of the day.

It is also the reserve day for the cols. If weather held the group at Sherpani Col base camp, this is the day that absorbs the delay.

The Hongu here is completely empty — no village, no lodge, no trail markers, and usually no other party. Baruntse stands at the head of the basin and Chamlang closes the eastern side. Overnight in the Hongu.

South down the Hongu on moraine and glacier, following the valley away from Baruntse. There is no trail in any developed sense — the route is a line the crew knows, marked by the occasional cairn.

Seto Pokhari (5,035 m) is a chain of glacial lakes sacred to Hindus and Buddhists alike, visited by pilgrims in summer and by essentially nobody in the climbing seasons.

Camp goes up on the shore with Baruntse behind and the cols you crossed two days ago now visible as a notch high on the eastern skyline. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Seto Pokhari.

Further south down the Hongu on moraine and grass, losing height gently with the valley widening around you.

This is the easiest walking day since Tashigaon, and after a fortnight of altitude and technical ground most people spend it noticing things — the lichen on the boulders, the birds, the first grass in days.

Kongme Dingma (4,850 m) sits below the eastern flank of Mera, and the summit you climb in three days is directly above the camp. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Kongme Dingma.

Roped and in crampons up the glacier to the Mera La (5,415 m), the broad snow col between the Hongu and the Hinku, and over it into the third valley of the trip.

The descent to Khare (5,045 m) is the moment most groups remember from the walk out: after eighteen nights in tents, a stone lodge with a stove in the dining room and a menu on the wall is genuinely startling.

There is beer at Khare, and NTC signal for the first time since the Barun. Six to seven hours. Overnight at Khare.

A rest day with a short piece of work in it. The morning is a refresher on the glacier above Khare — rope-team spacing and the fixed-line technique for Mera's summit step — which after the cols is a formality rather than a lesson.

The rest of the day is genuine rest in a bed, with hot food and a stove, before the last climb of the trip.

Your guide reviews the group's condition and the weather, and confirms who is going up. After two cols above 6,000 m, most people are in the best shape of their trip. Overnight at Khare.

Crampons on within an hour of leaving Khare, back up the glacier to the Mera La and then traversing north-east to the rock shelf at 5,800 m. Four to five hours.

The camp faces east directly at Makalu — which, three weeks ago, you were standing underneath on the other side of the range. Seeing it from here, with the Sherpani Col somewhere on the skyline between, is the moment the traverse makes sense as a single journey.

Dinner in a down jacket at four, sleeping bags by six. Overnight at high camp.

Tea at one, roped and moving by two. The glacier above camp is a broad slope of 25 to 30 degrees in the dark and the cold — never steep, never technical, and relentless.

The sun arrives around 6,100 m, and above it lies the only real obstacle: a short step of 40 to 45 degrees below the central summit, fixed the day before and climbed on a jumar.

From the summit (6,476 m): Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu and Kanchenjunga — five of the six highest mountains on earth — with Baruntse and Chamlang standing over the valley you walked through last week.

Then down the whole thing to Khare. Nine to twelve hours. Overnight at Khare.

The second of the trip's two reserve days, held for the Mera summit. High camp is exposed and the summit slope is entirely at the mercy of wind, and after everything else this trip has asked, losing the peak to a bad morning would be a poor way to finish.

If yesterday was turned back, the group returns to high camp today and climbs tomorrow.

If the summit went to plan, this is a rest day at Khare — a bed, a stove and a menu — or an early start down to Kothe to bank a spare day against the Lukla flights. Overnight at Khare or Kothe.

A long descent and an easy one, losing nearly 1,500 m down the valley. The moraine below Khare gives way to the open bowl at Thagnak, and the trail then drops steadily along the Hinku Khola.

Somewhere below Thagnak the air thickens noticeably, the first juniper appears, and legs that have been working above 5,000 m for a fortnight start behaving normally again.

By Kothe (3,600 m) you are among rhododendron and birch with the river loud outside the lodge. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Kothe.

The last climb of the traverse, regaining 700 m out of the valley floor toward the pass. The trail leaves the river and works up through forest, steep in places.

It is a day that feels harder than its numbers, because the summit is behind you and the body has decided the trip is over. It is not, quite — the Zatrwa La is still there.

Thuli Kharka (4,300 m) gives a last evening looking east over the Hinku toward the Mera La and, somewhere far beyond it, Makalu. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Thuli Kharka.

An early start for the last pass. Two to three hours of rough ground to the Zatrwa La (4,610 m), which after two 6,100 m cols is a walk.

A final look east over the Hinku from the notch, and then a very long descent — 1,800 m through boulder fields, rhododendron forest and farmland to Chutanga and on to Lukla.

Lukla (2,840 m) ends a journey that started on a rice terrace at 400 m in eastern Nepal and crossed two valleys, two glaciated cols and a 6,476 m summit. The evening is the end-of-trip dinner with the guide, Sherpas, cook crew and porters, and the point at which tips are given. Seven to eight 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 peak-season schedule applies.

Delays are routine rather than exceptional and can run to a full day, 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 for Mera Peak 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.

Safe travels. Very few people have crossed the Sherpani and West Cols, and fewer still have done it with Makalu base camp at one end and Mera Peak at the other. Baruntse, whose base camp you camped beside, is the question our returning climbers most often ask about.