So I’ve been thinking of what my one big trip for this year would be and it looks like I’ll be returning to Nepal again. I did the Annapurna Circuit in March/April 2010 and it was such an amazing trip that I’ve decided to re-visit the country and do something bigger and higher this time. So I’m looking at climbing Island Peak and Trek up to Everest Base Camp!
Everest Base camp is at 5,364m, which is lower than Annapurna’s Thorong-La Pass which sits at 5,416m. So we’re going to be doing Island Peak, which is at 6,189m. (For comparison, Mount Everest is at 8,848m).
It’s looking to be a 2.5 weeks trek, where we fly from Kathmandu into Lukha (at 2,800m). There we’ll trek to Namche Bazar and spend an extra day to acclimatise there before leaving ‘civilization’ and heading into the mountains. It’ll be tea house camping for most of the way, meaning we’ll get a bed to sleep in and hot food each day. We’ll do Everest Base Camp first before heading to Island Peak. There’s camping involved in Island Peak as we near the summit and there will be ice-climbing too.
So if any of my friends are interested in joining me on this expedition, please let me know and I’ll send you more information. I’m working out cost estimates at the moment and looking what climbing/snow equipment we can hire and how much it’ll cost. We’ll need to hire a Sherpa to summit Island Peak but you have the option of hiring a porter to help carry your equipment for all or part of the trek. Also don’t worry if you don’t know how to ice climb, we’ll be spending a morning learning and getting some practice on that.
Below is a map of the where we’re planning on trekking.
Looking forward to hearing from some of you who might be keen in doing this trek!
