Tilicho Peak 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 in Thamel.

Rest is the only item on today's schedule. Thamel's gear shops are a few minutes' walk away and stock most of what a climber discovers they have left at home.

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

Your guide runs the full briefing at the hotel: the thirty-day plan, the acclimatisation profile, the summit day hour by hour, and the decisions that get made on the mountain and by whom.

Then the equipment check. Boots are tried with crampons on, harnesses fitted over the layers you will actually climb in, and anything unsuitable swapped for rental kit here rather than discovered at 5,300 m.

Our office lodges the climbing permit, the Annapurna Conservation Area permit and the TIMS card today, which needs your passport and photographs. The afternoon is free. Overnight in Kathmandu.

A long day on the road. The Prithvi Highway runs west out of the Kathmandu valley beside the Trishuli, and at Mugling the route turns north for Besisahar, the old start of the Annapurna Circuit.

From Besisahar the tarmac ends and a jeep takes over, grinding up the Marsyangdi gorge on a rough road cut into the valley wall — spectacular, slow and not for anyone who dislikes exposure on a road.

Dharapani (1,860 m) sits at the junction with the Dudh Khola, where the Manaslu Circuit comes in from the east. Around 9 to 10 hours in total. Overnight at Dharapani.

The walking starts. The trail climbs north-west up the Marsyangdi through Bagarchhap and Danaque, and the vegetation changes as it goes — subtropical scrub gives way to blue pine, and the air cools noticeably.

At Timang the valley opens and Manaslu shows behind you for the first time, an 8,000 m wall filling the eastern skyline.

Chame (2,670 m) is the district headquarters, with a bank, a police check post and hot springs beside the river. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Chame.

Through pine and fir up a steep narrowing valley to Bhratang, where an apple orchard sits improbably in the gorge, and then past the Paungda Danda — a 1,500 m curved rock slab that fills the whole southern side of the valley and looks like the wall of a stadium.

Above it the valley opens into the dry upper Marsyangdi, the trees thin out, and the character turns Tibetan.

Upper Pisang (3,300 m) is a village of flat-roofed stone houses on the hillside with a gompa above it and Annapurna II directly opposite. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Upper Pisang.

The high route, and it is worth the extra climb. The trail contours and climbs above the north side of the valley to Ghyaru (3,730 m), a village of packed stone alleys that has not changed much in centuries.

The whole Annapurna range stands opposite for the entire walk — Annapurna II, III and IV, and Gangapurna — across a valley two kilometres deep. It is one of the great balcony walks in Nepal.

Ngawal (3,660 m) is a similar village an hour further on, with the Chulu peaks rising directly behind it to the north. Around 4 to 5 hours. Overnight at Ngawal.

Climb high, sleep low. The morning walk goes up the ridge behind the village toward 4,200 m, on open hillside with juniper and grazing yaks, and comes back down.

The height gained is the point, and the view is the bonus: the Annapurnas across the valley, the Marsyangdi running west toward Manang, and above you the flank of the Chulu massif with the base camp approach visible on it.

Back in Ngawal by early afternoon. Your guide takes the first oxygen saturation readings tonight, and the crew sorts loads for the climb. Around 4 hours. Overnight at Ngawal.

West along the high route from Ngawal, contouring above the Marsyangdi with the whole Annapurna range opposite, then dropping to the valley floor and following it to Manang.

Manang (3,540 m) is a substantial Tibetan-style town of flat-roofed houses with bakeries, gear shops, ATMs and a cinema that shows mountaineering films every afternoon. It is the last place with any of that.

The expedition's final resupply happens here, and the porters and pack animals for the lake are engaged. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Manang.

The morning walk goes up to the Gangapurna glacier lake and the viewpoint above it, an hour of climbing for a full view of Gangapurna's ice fall and the Annapurna wall behind it.

The Himalayan Rescue Association clinic gives a free altitude talk each afternoon in season, and it is worth attending even on an expedition — the doctors see more altitude illness in a Manang autumn than most people see in a career.

The afternoon is rest and the last hot shower for a fortnight. Your leader takes saturation readings and reviews the team before committing to the lake. Overnight at Manang.

West out of Manang and off the Circuit, following the Khangsar Khola on a trail that carries a fraction of the traffic of the main route.

Khangsar (3,750 m) is a compact Tibetan village of stone houses and barley terraces, with a ruined gompa above it and a handful of lodges. It calls itself the last village before Tilicho and it is right.

A short day by design — the altitude climbs from here and the trail ahead is the one Tilicho is known for. Around 3 to 4 hours. Overnight at Khangsar.

The day the trail earns its reputation. Above Khangsar the path climbs onto a vast eroded scree slope and traverses it for two hours, cut into ground that moves — this is the section that closes after heavy rain and that everyone who has walked it remembers.

It is walked carefully, spaced out, and without stopping in the worst of it. The exposure is real and the ground underfoot is loose.

Tilicho Base Camp (4,150 m) is a lodge settlement at the far end, misleadingly named — the real base camp is a day and 850 m higher. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Tilicho Base Camp.

A long steady climb of 850 m up switchbacks and moraine, and then the ground levels and the lake appears.

Tilicho Lake (4,919 m) is four kilometres of turquoise water at an altitude where water should not be, frozen at the edges for most of the climbing season and completely still. Behind it the north face of the Annapurnas rises straight out of the shore.

Tilicho Peak Base Camp (5,000 m) is established on the shoulder above the western end of the lake — mess, kitchen, storage and toilet tents alongside the sleeping tents, guyed properly and weighted with rock because the wind here is constant. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at base camp.

The puja is held this morning. A stone chorten is built, juniper is burned, and the climbing equipment is stacked at the altar to be blessed. No Sherpa on the team will go onto the mountain before it is done.

The rest of the day is low effort: tents arranged, the mess routine established, radio schedules explained, and the water and charging arrangements sorted.

Prayer flags go up over the camp, and they do not stop moving — the westerly wind off the plateau is the constant here, and learning to live with it is part of the fortnight. Overnight at base camp.

A working day on the ice above camp. Every climber is taken through crampon and axe technique on steep ice, moving as a roped team, ascending fixed line on a jumar with a pack, changing over at anchors, and abseiling.

Rope-team travel gets particular attention because the glacier below Camp 1 is crevassed and is crossed in the dark on summit push mornings.

Your leader is assessing as much as teaching, and anyone who needs more time gets the afternoon. Meanwhile the Sherpas are above, fixing the glacier and the slope toward Camp 1. Overnight at base camp.

An acclimatisation walk up the shoulder toward 5,400 m and back, on ground that asks nothing technical.

The view is the reason people remember this camp. Tilicho Lake lies below with the whole north wall of the Annapurnas rising from its far shore, and to the west the ground falls away toward the Kali Gandaki with Dhaulagiri beyond it — two 8,000 m peaks visible from one hillside, separated by the deepest gorge on earth.

The afternoon is rest and packing for the rotation. Overnight at base camp.

The first time on the mountain. The route crosses the glacier roped in the cold of the morning and then climbs fixed line up a steepening slope — five to six hours with a personal load.

Camp 1 (5,700 m) sits on a shoulder above the glacier with the lake a long way below and the east ridge rising directly overhead.

The night here is the point of the exercise. Sleeping at 5,700 m before returning to base camp is what makes a summit push from 6,300 m realistic, and it lets your leader see how each climber performs on the actual route. Overnight at Camp 1.

Down the fixed ropes and back across the glacier in three to four hours, off the ice before the sun has been on it long.

Descending to recover is deliberate. Adaptation from last night's altitude consolidates far better at 5,000 m than it would higher, and a team that rests properly now climbs faster on the push.

The Sherpa team spends the day carrying loads and fixing the ground above Camp 1 toward the high camp. Overnight at base camp.

A genuine rest day, worked at rather than enjoyed. Eating past the point of appetite, four litres of fluid, an afternoon asleep, and staying off the legs.

There is equipment work too: crampons checked and adjusted, harnesses inspected for wear after a day of jumaring, and boots dried in whatever sun the wind allows.

The Sherpa team is high on the mountain establishing the high camp at 6,300 m. Their report on the state of the east ridge is the information the summit plan actually rests on. Overnight at base camp.

The last day before the push, spent on the plan rather than the hill. Personal kit is split into what goes up and what stays, rope pairs are set, radios tested, and your leader briefs the four-day sequence with timings.

A hard turnaround time is set for summit day. On a ridge that runs above 6,800 m for hours with no shelter, being late is not a matter of inconvenience.

The satellite forecast arrives in the evening, and on this mountain the number that matters is the wind speed at 7,000 m rather than the precipitation. The go decision is taken on it. Overnight at base camp.

The summit push begins, and the ground to Camp 1 goes noticeably faster the second time — four hours or so for a climb that took five or six on the rotation.

Loads are light: the high camp is already stocked by the Sherpa team, so climbers carry personal equipment only.

Camp 1 (5,700 m) by early afternoon, with the rest of the day to lie down, drink and eat. Overnight at Camp 1.

Four to five hours of steepening snow and ice on fixed rope, onto the ridge proper, with heavier loads than on the rotation.

High camp (6,300 m) is a handful of tents on the crest, and it is the most exposed camp of the expedition — there is nothing between it and the wind coming across from Tibet.

Dinner is early and minimal; appetite at 6,300 m is poor and forcing fluid matters more than food. Kit is laid out, rope pairs confirmed, and your leader restates the turnaround time. Overnight at high camp.

Moving by two in the morning, roped and on the fixed line. The east ridge rises steadily above camp — snow and ice, never desperate, corniced in places, and completely exposed to whatever the wind is doing.

Above 6,800 m the ridge runs for hours with no shelter anywhere on it, and this is the section that decides the day. Parties that are behind schedule here are turned round, and the ones that are not simply keep going in the cold.

The summit (7,134 m) looks east along the whole north wall of the Annapurnas to Manang, west across the Kali Gandaki to Dhaulagiri, north over the brown Tibetan plateau, and straight down onto the turquoise of Tilicho Lake two thousand metres below.

The descent reverses the ridge and abseils the steep sections to high camp, then continues to Camp 1. Twelve to sixteen hours. Overnight at Camp 1.

Camp 1 comes down and the slope is abseiled, with the fixed rope stripped as the team descends. Nothing is left on the mountain, and clearing it properly takes hours.

The glacier is crossed roped in the cold of the morning for the last time.

Base camp (5,000 m) by midday, with a hot meal and the first unbroken sleep in four days. Four to six hours. Overnight at base camp.

The first of three reserve days, and on Tilicho they are the most important part of the schedule. The summit ridge is closed by wind far more often than by snow, and wind changes on a timescale of days rather than weeks.

If the summit was missed, the team rests today and goes back up tomorrow with the ropes still fixed. Your leader weighs the party's remaining reserves as heavily as the forecast.

If the summit went to plan, this is rest beside one of the highest lakes on earth, which is a reasonable way to spend a morning. Overnight at base camp.

The second reserve day. Three of them exist because on this mountain the difference between a summit and a failed expedition is frequently a single calm morning, and one day in hand is not enough to catch one.

If a second attempt is running, the team is at Camp 1 or the high camp tonight rather than here.

If the expedition is finished, today is when the camps above come down — the high camp and Camp 1 are stripped by the Sherpa team and everything comes off the mountain. Overnight at base camp.

The last reserve day and the end of the expedition's margin. If it is not needed for the climb, base camp comes down today.

The waste management is done properly: everything the expedition carried up from Manang goes back down on porters and pack animals, and the Department of Tourism deposit is refunded against it.

The chorten from the puja stays with its prayer flags. Most teams spend the last of the light looking at the lake, which in the evening goes from turquoise to black in about ten minutes. Overnight at base camp.

Down past the lake and the long descent of switchbacks to Tilicho Base Camp, then back across the eroded scree slope — walked as carefully on the way out as on the way in, and with rather more relief.

The vegetation returns below the traverse: first grass, then juniper, then the barley terraces above Khangsar.

Khangsar (3,750 m) has lodges, a stove and a menu after a fortnight of tents at 5,000 m in the wind. Around 7 hours. Overnight at Khangsar.

A short walk east back down the Khangsar Khola to Manang, rejoining the Circuit and, for most people, going straight to the bakery.

From Manang a jeep takes over on the rough road down the upper Marsyangdi, through Humde and Pisang and down to Chame (2,670 m).

It is a jarring transition — four hours of vehicle after two weeks on foot — but it saves two days of retracing ground already walked. Chame has hot springs beside the river, which after the expedition is worth the short walk. Around 3 hours of walking and 4 of driving. Overnight at Chame.

A long day on the road. The jeep grinds down the Marsyangdi gorge to Besisahar on a rough road cut into the valley wall, and then joins the highway east.

The Prithvi Highway follows the Trishuli back to the Kathmandu valley, with a lunch stop at a riverside restaurant. Nine to eleven hours in total, depending on the road.

Back in Kathmandu in the evening. The expedition reports to the Department of Tourism and your summit certificate is presented over dinner. Overnight in Kathmandu.

The expedition 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. Any equipment being shipped home is handled by our office.

Safe travels. Climbers who summit Tilicho are generally ready for an 8,000 m peak, and Manaslu, Himlung and Annapurna itself are the three our returning climbers most often ask about.