Mera Peak Expedition
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 มิ.ย. 2024
- Video from my expedition to climb Mera Peak (6,461m) in the Nepalese Himalayas in April 2022.
The expedition was organised through Jagged Globe who were excellent, as were our amazing Sherpa team who are the kings of the mountains and the loveliest of people.
Detailed route information is below, with the trip starting and ending with flights from the unique Tenzing-Hilary Airport at Lukla, the gateway to the Himalaya. Taking off and landing at Lukla is one of the most tense travel experiences you can have, with maybe the notable exception of any taxi ride in Kathmandu.
All video taken with GoPro Hero 7. Summit footage was a bit thin on the ground as I was channelling all of my energy into breathing and walking and batteries were low so the footage includes some summit photos.Watching the sun rise over Everest, Lhotse, Ama Dablam, Makalu and all those other beautiful mountains will stay with me forever. As will stepping across those bottomless crevasses.
Route, distance, and ascent details.
Day 1 - Lukla to Paiya. 10.7km. 643m ascent. 642m descent
Day 2 - Paiya to Panggom. 12.35km. 965m ascent. 805m descent
Day 3 - Panggom to Nashing Dingma. 9.27km. 831m ascent. 1,252m descent
Day 4 - Nashing Dingma to Chalem Kharka. 6.50km. 900m ascent. 98m descent
Day 5 - Chalem Kharka to Khola Kharka. 5.62km. 886m ascent. 225m descent
Day 6 - Khola Kharka to Kothe. 8.68km. 349m ascent. 944m descent
Day 7 - Kothe to Tangnag. 9.58km. 563m ascent. 7m descent
Day 8 - Tangnag acclimatastion walk. 4.44km. 479m ascent. 479m descent
Day 9 - Tangnag to Khare. 5.89km. 685m ascent. 50m descent
Day 10 - Rest day. Short acclimatisation walk
Day 11 - Khare to Mera La Glacier acclimatisation. 5.92km. 556m ascent. 556m descent
Day 12 - Khare to Mera Peak High Camp. 4.36km. 723m ascent. 0m descent
Day 13 part 1 - High Camp to Mera Peak Summit. 4.88km. 674m ascent. 674m descent
Day 13 part 2 - High Camp to Khare. 4.52km 36m ascent. 860m descent
Day 14 - Khare to Kothe. 14.81km. 21m ascent. 1328m descent
Day 15 - Kothe to Thule Kharka. 7.40km. 1103m ascent. 360m descent
Day 16 - Thule Kharka to Lukla. 10.29km. 503m ascent. 1780m descent
Total distance 125.21km
Total ascent 9,917m
Watch From Bangladesh...
Love your video...
Thanks Imran - glad you enjoyed it
Thanks Paul,your Video recording was really nice.🇧🇩
Nice video 😢😮😮😅😅😅😅😅
Wow
Bravo
Dhanyabad
Thanks for posting! It brought back some memories; some have faded and some things have progressed since I summeted in 1990. We walked from Jiri to Lukla, over 6 days, to help acclimatise and after Lukla, it was all self-help, but progression days to the summit were reduced as a result of our long walk in. It doesn't look too commercialised, which is pleasing!
All of the bad memories from my trip have faded so only good ones remain. You'll be glad to hear that much of the trail feels remote and distant from the real world. It's an amazing place, even if there is no air there.
Was interesting to see how things have changed over the years. Like you Phil, I climbed Mera back in 1988 and again in1990. In 1988 we approached from Hille above the Arun Valley to the east crossing the Salpa Pass on the way - that was a real wilderness experience. In 1990 we too entered from Jiri by way of the Pangkongma La Pass. In those days the Hinku Valley was a true wilderness - only a shepherd's hut at Tagnag and no permanent settlement of any kind at Khare (base camp). Everything looks far too commercialised now and the real sense of adventure and exploration has been sadly diminished. I am glad we did it when we did. Every time I see another video of this climb it brings tears of sadness to my eyes !
Wow......Nice video
Thank you 🙏
Excellent video, thank you.
Thanks for the feedback 👍
What a breathtaking place. Gods country.
Indeed - I think about it almost everyday.
Day-to-Day Annapurna Base camp Trek with Guide
This looks incredible, like something I could go along with. No so high a chance of getting dead, super high reward. Love it!
It’s amazing - and yes, much less chance of getting dead than other Himalayan mountains but you need to acclimatise well and be with people who know what they are doing
Amazing video, thinking of doing this for myself in October
Thanks Alex - it's tough but I'd highly recommend this as an intro to high altitude mountaineering. Do your research and find a good company / guides to go with and you'll enjoy it all the more.
Thanks for this video ! I did the Mera Peak last year (december) and it was amazing ! Good job guys !
Thanks for the feedback. You’ll know how tough it is then! It is amazing though
@@paultaylor1092 For sure ! It was tough and very cold ( -35 degrees Celcius on summit) but really amazing. Nepal is amazing too ! Going back next year to climb Himlung Himal on april / mai 2023
What part of Dec did you go? And how many days from the day going to Luka and coming back to it?
Really appreciate the video. We are lining up for a spring 2023 trip. Looks like you had a nice big group. Did everyone summit? Did you just trek to summit as rope team or did you ever need fixed lines and ascenders on your trip?
Hi there - thanks for the feedback. To answer your questions we had 7 out of 9 clients summit. One got sick at high camp so did not leave their tent and one got within a few hundred metres of the top but just ran out of energy. There were fixed ropes at the top of the first section of the Mera glacier on the way to Mera La which was pretty steep but we did not use our ascenders. There was another short section of the rope just below the summit but again we used this as a handrail and did not use the ascenders. The views from the top are amazing so hopefully you'll get to go next spring.
Looks excellent! Ill be there in October!
You’ll love it (at some point a month or two after you have forgotten the pain!).
Have fun, the Himalayas are stunning and Nepal and the Nepali people are amazing
Hi Nicholas can you recommend a company for the climb
@@85etranger Well I have not travelled with them yet, but World Expeditions is the one I am going with. They are Aussie based and are quite good with emails and communication.
Really nice, wanted to find out though if you’d had any issues with acclimatisation or any sickness at all.
We are doing mera in 2024 and where considering island peak also but it is going to be 30 days.
Mera peak itself was gonna be 23 days to give really good acclimatisation but seen you done it a lot less.
If you could let me know that would be great.
Thank you
Hi - our total trip time was planned for 23 days with some spare days in there so it may be similar. All of our team had some problems with altitude to varying extents but no more than can be expected. I went with Jagged Globe who had a sensible acclimatisation profile and this really helped. I had headaches at 4500m in the middle of the trip but was fine on summit night. I think any trip that goes straight over the Zawtra La from Lukla would be taking a chance with acclimatisation. I’ve done an article on the whole thing at the link below. You’ll love it. It’s an amazing trip and Nepal is stunning
www.baldhiker.com/climbing-mera-peak-in-nepal/
@@paultaylor1092 thank you for the reply , yeah I think it’s about the same amount of time tbh.
Had a quick read of your article, will have a proper look when I get home from the gym.
I’m the same as yourself, done everything in the uk, and done all the main ridges and scrambles aswel , crib goch, striding edge, cmd arête, Tryfan north ridge etc.
Doing the cairngorms 4000’s in dec/jan this year aswel.
Like everything it’s progression and I’ve always wanted to climb one of the peaks in Nepal or Pakistan but never thought I would get the chance.
So really looking forward to testing ourselves
@@Pmcnbear you’ll love it. If you’ve done that sort of stuff you’ll be fine. There’s a bit of technical stuff on the glacier but not too difficult. There is more technical work on the way to Island Peak if you add that on. Everything above 5000m is tough but if you can keep putting one foot in front of the other then you’ll get there
Hi Paul! Thanks for the awesome video!! May i ask whether you got buy travel insurance for your trip to Mera Peak?
Hi - thanks for the feedback. I looked at a few different providers but it came down to the BMC or Snowcard and I went with the latter as they were cheaper. Their policy also allowed me to reduce the excesses on the parts of the policy I did not need where I had cover from the annual travel insurance I have with my bank account. This reduced the premium by effectively only including those high altitude bits of cover that my standard policy did not meet.
waoww but where is the snow? 😢😢
I think at lower levels in the valleys, snow is seldomly there, but the Sherpas said that the glaciers have shrank a lot in recent years.
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Hi Paul Great video
Apologies for the question , just hard to get the info on this , we have been told you can hire the double plastic boots for summit day in Kare , Would you recommend this or buy before travel and ensure a good boot.
many thanks
Thanks for the feedback - re the double boots yes you can hire them in Khare but I don’t know how good they are and specifically how warm they are. All my group either purchased them or hired them on the UK but of course they are expensive. I got a good deal at outside.co.uk on a pair of La Sportiva G2 SM but that is no longer available but eBay may be worth a look. Buy them now and resell afterwards. All of that said, the mountain Sherpas did use the plastic boots from Khare and they know what they doing. I’ve written a blog on the trip here if you want some more useful info…
www.baldhiker.com/climbing-mera-peak-in-nepal/
Thanks for the feedback - re the double boots yes you can hire them in Khare but I don’t know how good they are and specifically how warm they are. All my group either purchased them or hired them on the UK but of course they are expensive. I got a good deal at outside.co.uk on a pair of La Sportiva G2 SM but that is no longer available but eBay may be worth a look. Buy them now and resell afterwards. All of that said, the mountain Sherpas did use the plastic boots from Khare and they know what they doing. I’ve written a blog on the trip here if you want some more useful info…
www.baldhiker.com/climbing-mera-peak-in-nepal/
Much appreciated Paul
I think I’ll just buy , probably a good insurance policy for the feet
Thanks again
Beautiful video. I did EBC and the 3 Passes Trek in 2019, and Mera and Island Peak are my next goals. How did Mera compare to Kilimanjaro in terms of difficulty?
Mera was more technical in that there were some short roped sections and you needed to be tied in together on the glacier. And overall it was more physically demanding because it was a much longer trek - I was much thinner coming off Mera than Kilimanjaro. I had more mountain sickness on Kili though, but suspect that was because we went up too quickly.
@@paultaylor1092 many thanks, Paul!
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Cost per person & guide contact please?
I went with Jagged Globe who I can not recommend highly enough. Cost was around £4,200 but might have changed.