Short Mera Peak Climbing

You land at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu (1,400 m) and our representative meets you in the arrivals hall and drives you to your hotel in Thamel.

Because this itinerary has no preparation day, the briefing and equipment check happen this evening. Bring everything you intend to climb in. Your guide runs through the fifteen-day plan, the compressed acclimatisation profile and the summit day, then fits harnesses and checks boots with crampons on.

This is the only opportunity to swap unsuitable kit for rental equipment, and single boots will be replaced with doubles here rather than debated at 5,800 m. Our office lodges the climbing permit and national park paperwork with your passport and photographs. 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.

Loads are sorted over tea with the porters, and then the trail turns east while everyone else on your flight heads north toward Namche. Within twenty minutes the path is empty, climbing through rhododendron and pine.

Chutanga (3,050 m) is a handful of simple lodges in a forest clearing below the Zatrwa La. The afternoon is deliberately quiet — tomorrow is the hardest walking day of the trip. Around 3 to 4 hours. Overnight at Chutanga.

The hardest day before the summit, and on this schedule it comes early. From Chutanga the trail climbs for four to five hours on rough ground through boulder fields and over a series of false crests, each looking like the pass and none of them being it.

The Zatrwa La (4,610 m) is a narrow notch marked with cairns and prayer flags, usually windy and occasionally snowed in, in which case crampons come out. Beyond it the whole Hinku valley opens out to the east.

The descent is steep and loose to Thuli Kharka (4,300 m), a yak pasture with two basic lodges. Your guide takes saturation readings this evening and pays close attention to them, because this is the day the compressed profile is tested. Seven to eight hours. Overnight at Thuli Kharka.

A descent of 700 m that is the most valuable day in the itinerary. Sleeping a thousand metres below yesterday's pass is what lets a fifteen-day schedule work at all, and it is not a day we would ever remove.

The trail traverses the hillside then drops steeply through rhododendron, birch and juniper to the valley floor, following the Hinku Khola upstream on a path cut into the bank above the water.

Kothe (3,600 m) is a line of simple lodges on the riverbank with forest on both sides — warm, green, and the last thick air of the trip. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Kothe.

Back up the valley, gently, following the Hinku Khola north through the last of the trees. The trail passes the painted rock and small shrine at Gondishung, where a two-hundred-year-old gompa sits beneath an overhanging boulder.

The forest thins and the valley opens, with Mera's south face ahead and the Kusum Kanguru ridge behind. This is where the Hinku stops being a forest walk.

Thagnak (4,350 m) is a summer grazing settlement of stone huts and a few lodges on the moraine. Around 4 to 5 hours. Overnight at Thagnak.

The one full acclimatisation day this itinerary keeps, and it is kept because it is the one that matters most. We walk up the moraine to Sabai Tsho, a glacial lake at around 4,700 m held behind a wall of debris.

The lake burst its moraine dam in 1998 and sent a flood down the valley that took out bridges and pasture as far as Kothe. The scoured banks are still visible on the trail you walked yesterday.

Back down to Thagnak with 350 m gained and lost. Rest, four litres of water, and more food than you feel like eating. Your guide reviews everyone's saturation trend tonight and decides whether tomorrow proceeds as planned. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Thagnak.

A short day with a serious altitude gain, walked slowly and deliberately. The trail climbs the lateral moraine of the Dig glacier on loose rock, the valley narrowing and ice appearing on both sides.

Over the moraine crest the ground opens into a bowl and Mera Peak shows itself properly for the first time, the broad white glacier of the standard route running up to a summit that looks much closer than it is.

Khare (5,045 m) is a cluster of stone lodges, the highest settlement in the valley and the base for the climb. Everyone walks slowly here and that is normal. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Khare.

A full training day on the glacier ice above Khare, and one of the parts of the schedule we will not compress. Crampons fitted and walked in on flat and angled ice, ice axe technique including self-arrest, roped team travel with correct spacing, ascending fixed line on a jumar, and abseiling.

Rope-team work gets the most time, because the Mera glacier is crevassed and most of the summit route is climbed roped together rather than on fixed line. Your guide works with each climber individually.

The afternoon is rest and a final gear sort — what goes to high camp, what stays at Khare. Early dinner and early sleep. Around 4 hours of training. Overnight at Khare.

Crampons go on within an hour of leaving Khare. The route climbs steeply onto the glacier and up to the Mera La (5,415 m), the broad snow col between the Hinku and Hongu valleys, with the group roped from here on.

From the col the route traverses the glacier north-east to a rock shelf at 5,800 m, the only flat ground for some distance. Four to five hours with a moderate load.

The camp faces east directly at Makalu, with Everest and Lhotse to the north and Kanchenjunga on the horizon. It is also cold enough that dinner is eaten in a down jacket at four in the afternoon, and everyone is in a sleeping bag by six. Overnight at high camp.

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

The sun arrives somewhere around 6,100 m and changes the whole character of the day. Above it lies the only real obstacle, a short step of 40 to 45 degrees below the central summit, fixed by our Sherpas the day before and climbed on a jumar.

From the summit (6,476 m), Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu and Kanchenjunga stand around you, with Baruntse, Chamlang and Ama Dablam filling the gaps. Then down the whole thing — high camp, the Mera La, off the ice, and into Khare in the afternoon. Nine to twelve hours. Overnight at Khare.

A long descent and, after yesterday, a welcome one — nearly 1,500 m down the valley it took four days to climb. 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 were useless at 5,000 m start working again.

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

The last climb of the trip, regaining the 700 m lost on the way in. The trail leaves the river and works up through forest, steep in places, back toward the pass.

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

Thuli Kharka (4,300 m) gives a final evening looking east over the Hinku, with Mera at the head of the valley and the route you climbed now readable from bottom to top. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Thuli Kharka.

An early start for the pass. Two to three hours of rough ground to the Zatrwa La (4,610 m), and the crossing is usually easier westbound because you are fitter and far better acclimatised than you were ten days ago.

A last look east at 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) in the afternoon, with a hot shower and a menu beyond dal bhat. The evening is the end-of-trip dinner with the guide, Sherpas 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 in peak season.

Delays are routine 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 and your guide handles the booking.

The afternoon is free for a long shower and Thamel. Your summit certificate 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 somewhere with a roof terrace.

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 are glad to arrange Chitwan, Pokhara, Lumbini or a Kathmandu valley tour. Safe travels, and we hope to climb with you again.