Samdo 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.

North-east out of the village on a yak trail that leaves the Circuit within twenty minutes and climbs into the side valley below the peak.

The path works up through grazing land and then onto moraine, gaining a thousand metres, with the glacier appearing at the head of the valley.

Samdo Peak Base Camp (4,900 m) is a tented camp on flat ground below the moraine crest, with Manaslu filling the southern horizon behind you and Tibet over the ridge to the north. Around 4 to 5 hours. Overnight at base camp.

The training day, and on a first climb it is the most useful day of the trip. 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, ascending fixed line on a jumar, and abseiling.

None of it is difficult on flat ground in daylight, which is exactly why it is done here rather than at three in the morning on the slope.

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

A short morning up the moraine, gaining 600 m in three hours with a light load while the crew moves the camp.

High camp (5,500 m) sits on rubble at the lip of the glacier, exposed to the wind that comes down off the plateau every afternoon and cold as soon as the sun goes.

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. Overnight at high camp.

Roped and moving by three in the morning. The glacier crossing takes under an hour on a marked line, weaving past a few open crevasses in the dark.

Then the snow slope: 35 to 40 degrees, climbed steadily for two to three hours as the sky lightens over Ganesh Himal, with a short fixed section on the steeper ground near the top.

The summit (6,335 m) is a broad snow crest with room to stand about on. Manaslu fills the south at close range with Himal Chuli and Ngadi Chuli beyond it, Cheo Himal, Himlung and Kang Guru stand to the west across the Larkya La, and to the north the brown Tibetan plateau runs to the horizon.

The descent reverses the slope and the glacier to high camp and then base camp. Eight to eleven hours. Overnight at base camp.

The day held in reserve. Wind off the plateau is the usual reason a Samdo attempt is turned back, 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 walks back to Samdo, resting properly in a lodge before the Larkya La. Overnight at base camp or Samdo.

A short day up the valley to the foot of the pass, climbing gently across open moraine and grazing ground with blue sheep frequently visible on the slopes.

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.

Everyone eats early and sleeps early, because the Larkya La is crossed in the dark to beat the wind that gets up on it by mid-morning. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Dharamsala.

Away by four in the morning by headlamp. 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 view west is one of the great ones in Nepal: Himlung, Cheo Himal, Gyaji Kang, Kang Guru and Annapurna II, with the whole Marsyangdi system falling away below.

The descent is long and steep on moraine and scree, losing 1,500 m to Bimthang (3,590 m) — a meadow of grass and pine below Manaslu's west face, and after five weeks above the treeline it is a startling amount of green. 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.