Mera Peak Climbing and Amphu Laptsa Pass

The very feeling of Mera peak climbing adventure passing through Amphu Laptsa Pass has finally brought you here at cultural city of Kathmandu. This adventure begins after you arrive at Tribhuwan International Airport. You finish your visa and custom formalities that will bring you out of the arrival terminals. Crossing the indoor pavement, you will see one of our office representatives holding a display board with your name on it. He will assist you in transfer to your chosen hotel. Overnight stay at hotel in Kathmandu.

Before we fly and hike up to mountains, we first go for day sightseeing around culturally affluent capital city of Kathmandu. Usually, we shall go for UNESCO world heritage sites like Kathmandu durbar square, Swayambhunath stupa, Pashupatinath temple and Boudhanath Stupa. Visiting these heritage sites will give plenty of opportunities to immerse into see and learn lifestyle, history and story of this ancient town of temples, palaces, busy streets and avenue.

Later our professional trekking guide will meet you and assist you in verifying all your peak climbing, trekking gears are bought and ready. Later you will stay overnight at same hotel in Kathmandu. Meal includes breakfast only.

It shall be an early good morning as are requested to get up and be ready early before 6am. Our office representative will pick you up from your hotel and transfer to domestic arena at Tribhuwan International Airport. He will also assist you in getting boarding pass and you will be on scenic mountain flight from Kathmandu to Lukla. Be seated at left side of airplane as far as possible to enjoy great views over your left window. After you land at Lukla airstrip, meet our porter crew how will be carrying our duffel baggage and our trekking activity begins as we walk via forests, pass Surke, have our Pakhapani. In this way, we pass along Sherpa inhabited traditional villages, jungles and hills that finally takes us to Chutang for our first overnight stay at local teahouse. It will be only 2 to 3 hours of walk today with meals including breakfast, lunch and dinner.

You must have known that proper acclimatization is a key to make any high altitude Himalayan adventure a successful one. Assisting the same, we will we hiking towards nearby hill, ascend to top for great landscape views and later return to Chutanga for lunch and until end of the day. Later we stay overnight second time on same teahouse in Chutanga. Meal includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Our day shall be more of challenging one today as we will be first ascending towards Zatra La that will gain more or less 1300m and pass that Zatra la. There won’t be snow on spring season(best one) and high chances of snow during autumn(October). Even though there is no snow, it is considered as tough task to get this high in a day. Therefore we walk very slowly as we don’t want any type of altitude sickness on our first few days of hiking. If any symptoms are seen, then please you are requested to inform our professional and trained climbing guide who will assist you the best solution. In the scenario of snowfall there, we might use ice axe and crampons to pass the trail. Steep ascend to Thuli Kharka brings our stop for the day where we can see number of tea houses. We stay overnight at any one of them. We shall walk for 6 to 7 hours today. Meal includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

A warm good morning at heart of Himalayas brings us a good cup of tea/coffee with breakfast. After having which, we get ready for today’s adventure to Kothe. We can spot the Hinku River below us and enjoy stunning views of southern side of Mera Peak. In this way, we go steep downhill through beautiful rhododendron and pine forests to riverside dam. We have our lunch here at one of the restaurant, cross suspension bridge and gradually make our way through ridge to boulder type topographical settings of Khote. More or less we will be walking for 5 to 6 hours today. Stay overnight at local teahouse and meal includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Riverside walk via dense beautiful forest, takes us passing along the unbounded boulders. Therefore, very careful walk following the instructions of climbing guide is required. It can be matter of life and death at these landslide prone areas. Right decision at right time is the key for survival and successful cross the trail. Making our way through Hinku Drangka we find confluence of two river streams here and trail opens up to valley that finally take us towards Tagnag at approx 4366m above sea level. Usually local inhabitants descend down to this place from higher altitudes during winter. There are quite a few tea houses and lodges here. And we stay overnight at one of the local tea house. Total walking hours will be from 5 to 6 hours. Meal includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

While we are on our Mera Peak climbing and Amphu Laptsa Pass adventure, we will be moving from Tagnag to Khare today. We basically follow the moraine of Dig glacier towards dig Kharka where plenty of awesome views of surrounding peaks is seen. With plenty of excellent views of surrounding snow capped mountains, our route passes through snout of Hinku nup and Shar glaciers, a steep trail that brings us to our teahouse at Khare. Beautiful views of snowcapped Himalayan peaks including Mera is visible from Khare. We stay overnight at our tea house in Khare. Walking activity will be more or less 3 to 4 hours and meal includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We have our early meal at our local lodge and our professional climbing guide will assist you in preparing your gear for ice climbing above this place called Khare. Initially we need to walk for 1-2 hours to see even close views of Mera peak and later in afternoon, climbing guide will also help you in teaching how to use the climbing gears. Understanding the climbing techniques and also take your hands on rope and other equipments on glacier. Later we get back to our teahouse in Khare for overnight stay. Meal includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Altitude kind of strikes here at this point above 5350m. Slight headaches is normal, but if condition worsens you need to descend down immediately. Take plenty of garlic soups and water to rehydrate your body and fight altitude sickness. Therefore, it will be a short distance walk from Khare to Mera Peak Base Camp, but due to high altitude, we make our every step slowly and carefully. Initially we climb to crest of moraine above Khare and then steep slope via uneven trail to arrive at lower side of Mera glacier. Further crossing the Mera La pass we go down towards Hongu and set up our first camp in this adventure at Mera Peak base camp. We stay overnight at tented camp. Walking hours would be 3 to 4 hours and meal includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We today setup our camp at higher altitude that yesterday called high camp. Basically, base camp above initial base camp is known as high camp. We need to use our crampons to walk through ice. Following the steps of our climbing guide, we walk carefully over glacier too. It is very challenging and tough walk to high camp. We should always keep our eye on what our climbing leader says. Hidden creavases are the most dangerous one covered with fresh snow. Therefore experience comes into play here. After you arrive at Mera Peak high camp, you get excellent views of nearby Himalayan peaks including Makalu, Baruntse, Amadablam, Lhotse and even Everest. Our excitement will be at highest peak today as tomorrow we will be our summit day of Mera Peak. We stay overnight at tented camp at Mera high camp. Walking time would be arounf 4 to 5 hours and meal includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Ho Ho Ho! It will be the most important day of our trip as we will be summiting Mera Peak today. We shall be achieving our goals first by getting up very early at 2 am in the morning. With all preparations and getting ready, we bring our climbing gears, equipments and techniques into action. In the beginning hour, we start our climb walking over glacier, then gradually approaching at snow humped ridge. Here at this point there is no steep climb or descend, but approximately 30 degrees slope walk. Due to slippery icy walk and high altitude above 6000 meters, we head to western direction. We follow the footsteps of climbing leader, grabbing the rope, and use of axe, jumar, finally we step at summit of Mera Peak. The feeling and views after reaching top of Mera Peak is indescriptible in words. Of course it is the matter of proud and we congratulate each other is successful summit attempt at Mera Peak. Due to extreme conditions at top, after short while, we return down to high camp, then to Honku valley and at Kongma Dingma. It will be total walking of 6 to 7 hours today. We will be most probably at our tented camp before noon, Therefore, we take good rest, and breathing shall becomes easy here at lower vallely. Meal includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

At least one extra day is pre-planned while climbing the Himalayan peak. Mainly due to quick change of weather conditions at higher altitudes, attempting summit might not be possible on 1st day. Therefore, this contingency day comes into play. If everything goes according to planned itinerary, then it can be used for one extra ice climbing practice day before summit attempt, once extra day at Sherpa village of Lukla or spend one extra day touring around capital city of Kathmandu. We will take the best choice that suits your interest and overall situation. Accomodation at tented camp if stayed at Khare, at tea house if stayed at Lukla. Meal includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We take our direction towards Amphu Laptsa pass, therefore at first today we hike from Kongma Dingma to Seto Pokhari. These trails and part of Everest region are off the beaten path and more challenging compared to other popular Everest treks like EBC and three passes. Here, we can find the remote to remoteness and get wilderness feeling with less or no crowd surrounding us. Simply we will at out of nowhere in between the lap of Himalayas. We can simply see the stunning views of Himalayas, Baruntse specially, then further hiking towards Seto Pokhari gives us different view of Everest , Lhotse and Nuptse from different angle. The ice lake or white lake or locally called as Seto Pokhari is frozen pond(lake). We shall setup our tented camp here aside. Today total walking time will be from 3 to 4 hours and meal includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Basically, it will be more remote and challending hike from Seto Pokhari to Amphu Laptsa base camp today. With total of approximately 400m elevation, we rarely see any other trekkers even at high season. Due to its remoteness, and challenging tough nature only few can make it up to here. On our trekking route today however, we see sceneries of Mt. Chamling, glaciers lateral moraine, Honku River and pilgrimage site of five lakes at lower elevation. Therefore we can say that we will see from top of the Himalaya, melting down via glaciers to rivers and converting into lakes in a single day. This happens today and this phenomenon is not so common. Later in late afternoon, we pass through Ampu Laptsa’s southern base camp and get ready from tomorrow’s crossing of technical Ampu Laptsa Pass. It shall be total of 4 to 5 hours of walking activity today with meal including breakfast, lunch and dinner. We stay of course at tented camp.

Facing the challenge is like the habit for us today as we will cross popular Amphu Laptsa Pass today. We walk through tough terrains, slopes, glaciers that we trek a fantastic icefall passing a crest crossing 5850m. From views of Island peak, Lhotse, Nuptse via Imja valley to interesting sequential valleys and vistas; we descend down towards our camp via Imja glacier. At the end of the day, we will arrive at Chukkung where we spend overnight in a local teahouse. It shall be 8 to 9 hours of walking activity today with meal includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Today we connect to main Everest trekking trail. Also as there will be drop in altitude, we find taking a gasp of oxygen more easily. Also walking down is easier, but it takes more careful and firm knee to avoid slipping. With support of trekking poles, our downhill walk from Chukkung via Dudhkoshi river becomes more comfortable. Here in this way, during the high season we find many hikers going up and down the trail mainly to Everest base camp, Gokyo and other popular sites. From walking along the rhododendron trees to great views of snow capped Himalayas and cultural influence of Sherpa inhabitants, we finally arrive at Namche Bazar today. We stay at quality lodge in Namche Bazar. Total walking days will be from 6 to 7 hours and meal includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

From Namche, initially we descend through hills, crossing popular Hillary bridge, coming down to river side of Dhudh koshi river, have our lunch at Jorsale or further exit Sagarmatha National park, leave behind Phakding and finally arrive at Lukla after couple of hours walk. Today after arrival at Lukla, we celebrate our successful completion of Mera Peak Climbing and Amphu Laptsa Pass with our crew members. It shall be a great hiking experience full of challenges, achievement and exciting peak climbing and trekking adventure that one can feel proud. Later stay overnight at Lukla and get ready for tomorrow’s flight from Lukla to Kathmandu. Walking time from 6 to 7 hours and meal includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Mostly flight to and from Lukla takes place before noon in the morning. It is mostly because weather is usually good in mornings. After you board your flight from Lukla to Kathmandu, land in TIA airport after 30 minutes flight. Our office representative will assist you in transfer to your hotel and check in. Later enjoy free activites until end of the day and you shall be invited to farewell dinner organized by our company at one of the cultural restaurants in Thamel, Kathmandu. We stay overnight at hote in Kathmandu and meal includes breakfast.

After all these 19 days of Mera Peak climbing and Amphu Laptsa adventure, you will start missing Himalayas, the daily lifestyle and surroundings. After your last minute shopping and packing is done, our office representative will drop you 3 hours earlier your international scheduled flight at airport. With hope to further serve you with many more adventures around Himalayas, farewell friend. Meal includes breakfast.