Mera Peak Climbing - 15 days

We welcome you to one of the most historically preserved capital cities of the world, Kathmandu which also is widely known as the “City of Temple” for its eccentric designs of temple architecture. As you finish airport customs and get to the waiting terminal, you shall meet our representative who will be waiting anxiously for you at the arrival terminal of the airport.

You will be greeted and welcomed and transferred to your hotel. A pre-trip meeting will be organized later this evening to introduce you to your guide and to finish other formalities.  You will need to pack and be ready for your adventure that is going, to begin with, the early morning flight to Lukla tomorrow.

Note: Since you don't have a leisure day in Kathmandu and your adventure is starting immediately the next day, we suggest you book a flight that arrives in the morning or early afternoon today so that you get some time to rest and do last-minute preparation for your adventure.

Leaving behind the 2,000-year-old ancient city of Kathmandu, we now take a scenic flight to the small hill airstrip of Lukla which is situated 138 kilometers away from Kathmandu in a northeast direction. During your 40-minute flight period, you can witness hypnotic Himalayan scenery even before reaching Lukla airport, hence it is suggested if possible to take the left pane of the plane and have your cameras ready to shot a dramatic view of snowcapped mountains.

Lukla is an airport town located at the elevation of 2,800 m above sea level and additionally acts as an entrance gateway to the Everest region of Nepal.

Now after collecting our luggage and with our trekking crew, we shall head eastward down from Lukla to commence our first walk into the spectacular Khumbu valley where natural and cultural diversity prevails throughout every trekking trail of this region.

We walk on a rocky and steep trail, cross a suspension bridge, walk past several streams over logs, we arrive at your Chutang Village where we will spend the night today.

The day today is going to be quite tough and long as we trek through a demanding high Himalayan pass, the Zatra La.

We leave Chutang after breakfast and give a glance to Numbur Himal and Lukla to the west. The rhododendron forest will be quickly replaced by moorland as we gain elevation.

From the top of the pass, the view is amazing but it's usually too windy there to stop for a longer time. We quickly trek down and again take ascent through pasture fields and reach Thuli Kharka.

Note: Zatra La pass is situated at an elevation of 4,600 meters above sea level due to which it can be a very strenuous experience for trekkers who hate a high uphill climb. It's very windy on top of Zatra La pass and if the weather is bad and snowy, we need to take care, it can be slippery, may need to use crampons too.

Due to the reason that we get to an altitude of 4600m from 3475m and have to sleep at 4300m at Thulikharka, on just the second day of our trek, this Mera peak-15 days program is only suggested for trekkers/climbers who have previous experience of high altitude trekking. For novices, we highly recommend doing the Mera peak-19 days program that takes climbers to the Mera peak slowly.

It is another beautiful day as the sun revives the sparkling beauty all around us creating dazzling mountain scenery for you to wake up.

The trail undulates quite a bit before we reach one final notch covered in prayer flags, almost acting like finish lines flags for the real descent to actually begin. From this notch, we can see the view of the impressive Mera peak.

We again reach the tree line and descend into the forest of small bamboo and thick moss over huge gnarled trees. We start hearing roaring for Hinku River slowly as we enter the Maklu-Barn National Park.

The final phase of this day trek takes us to some more steep hikes on a heavily forested trail with undulating paths and waterfalls while traveling alongside a river before arriving at the sandy boulder choked site which is Kothe village.

It's an easy and short day today. After again checking our permits at Kothe, we walk towards the north. With steep ascents, there is a dramatic change in the environment with fewer forested trails.

Today we see nice views of beautiful Kyashar peak (6800m), Charpate Himal, and Kusum Kanguru (6367m) to our left. Mera Peak looms directly above us to the east covered in ice.  Peak 41 (6648) is seen on the northeast.

We cross small streams over log bridges and the main Hinku river becomes smaller and smaller as we go up high into the valley.

We also come across a small Buddhist monastery built around a cave on the cliffside. If we meet monks there, we can ask for a puja ceremony for good luck for our summit attempt. We walk about an hour to Thagnak from the monastery.

Today is a short day but we are going to reach an altitude of 5,000 meters. We can leave Thagnak relaxed around 9 am. We hike due east, with Mera La directly ahead, Mera Glacier spilling over the Mera La pass and down into the valley. Below Mera La would be where we climb onto the glacier to reach the high camp and the summit.

The trail steeply climbs through a moraine field and traverse through ridges made up of debris which are deposited along the sides of Dig Glacier and moving into the meadows of Dig Kharka, we receive an unimaginable mountain view of Charpate Himal and some more beautiful views of the north face of the potent Mera Peak. After climbing a steep hill out of a basin below Mera Peak’s North Face, Khare comes into view

Khare is a collection of small teahouses along a steep frozen stream. One can easily get the feeling of exhaustion and tiredness increased due to the thin air.

Today after breakfast, we will prepare our gear for ice climbing practice towards the Mera Peak base camp or just above Khare. We walk a couple of hours from where there are good views of the Mera La and the route up the mountain.

Climbing gears and techniques of ice climbing, abseiling, cramponing, etc., will be practiced for few hours and we take tuition from our climbing guide on these techniques. Our climbing guide will also share some sensible tips on how we can keep ourselves safe in the mountains under several conditions. Our guide will also share their stories as a part of experience sharing.

This training session is significant and helpful, particularly if we are novice climbers. After few hours of at the work out on the glacier, we leisurely walk back to Khare and after the final preparation of our equipment and packing of our mountain bags, you will have overnight rest in our teahouse in Khare.

We do not spend nights at Mera Peak base camp because it is felt unnecessary by climbers. So, we spend time at higher altitudes for a long time today and sleep back at Khare.

We keep in mind to keep very slow speed to allow time for acclimatization. Walking at this altitude, every step is a struggle. The altitude and the below-freezing temperature makes the walk strenuous and challenging.

We climb the crest of the moraine above Khare and then up a steep slope of snow to reach a boulder-strewn bowl below the lower tongue of the Mera Glacier.

Although no technical climb today, making our way to Mera High Camp can be hazardous if it has recently snowed, as there are a number of crevasses here. We make our way to the top of the rock band, which is marked by a large cairn.

We set up a high camp and from here the views are superb. From Mera High Camp, we can see magnificent views of the five highest peaks in the world shooting up on the horizon- Mount Everest (8848m), Lhotse (8516m), Cho Oyu (8188m), Makalu (8485m), and Kanchenjunga (8586m). We also get good views of  Mt. Baruntse (7129m), Mt. Gaurishanker (7134m), and Chamlang (7319m. This night we spend in tented camp at Mera High Camp.

Today is the day we reach our target, the summit of Mera peak. We wake up at 2 am, and after breakfast, the group will put on crampons and rope up before setting out for the summit.

A well-acclimatized party will take 3 – 4 hours from the high camp to get to the central summit of Mera peak. If time and conditions permit, we may opt to traverse to the slightly higher north summit. The decision as to whether we attempt the trip leader will take the north summit as per the conditions.

From the summit we enjoy the magnificent views of Mt. Everest (8,848m/29,029ft), Cho-Oyu (8,201m/26,906ft), Lhotse (8,516m/27,940ft), Makalu (8,463m/27,766ft), Nuptse (7,855m/25,770ft), Lobuche East (6,145m/20,160ft), Chamlang (7,319m/24,013ft) and even Kangchenjunga (8,586m/28,169ft).

Some of our crew waiting at high camp will be waiting for us. After having tea and some food at High camp, we trek back to Khare to celebrate our success on Mera Peak.

We keep this day as a backup day just to use in case if the targeted summit day is unfavorable to attempt the summit due to unstable weather, snow storms, etc Nevertheless in the case that we may postpone our attempt to summit the peak today then this day will behave as a contingency day for our climb.

After a great success of Mera peak climbing we descend through Hinku valley to Kothe for our overnight stop in a local teahouse. We start to feel more and more energetic as we get to higher oxygen level zones. We are very happy on our successful trip and enjoy the evening with local food and drinks and relax at Kothe.

Today, we again climb up through the lush forest on the west side of the Hinku Valley to Thuli Kharka below the Zatwra La. It’s nice walk through the Red Rhododendron forest. If the weather is clear, we can enjoy the views of Mera peak can and remote valleys leading up to its south side throughout our walk today.Walking time 5-6 hrsIncluded Meals: B, L, D

Two hours up from Thuli Kharka we walk to reach Zatra La pass. While from the pass section and from the top we see beautiful view of Lukla valley. Cho yu, Numbur Himal, Kusum Khangru, Kongde peak and so many others.

From Zatrwa La we walk all the way down to Chutanga and then straight forward easy walk takes us to Lukla village where we conclude the trekking and this evening we again celebrage our successful trek and climb with good food and drinks with our crew.

We shall wake up and have our breakfast prior to our flight departure. The picturesque flight back will similarly take us about 40 minutes to arrive at the domestic airport of Kathmandu. After landing in Kathmandu, you shall meet with our representative who will be there waiting for your arrival. Then after you and your trekking friends will be taken to the hotel where you are to stay the following night. Today you can just spend your whole day resting or you can go out in the streets of the Thamel area to purchase some last-minute souvenirs for your friends and families back home. Later return back to your hotel to pack up your luggage for your departure tomorrow.

Our Mera peak-15 days adventure comes to an end today.

We hope you got what you came looking for in Nepal with us on our splendid mountain adventure to Mera Peak. A representative of Icicles Adventure shall help you get transferred to the International airport today for your flight back home. At last, we bid you farewell and wish for your safe departure back to your homeland, wishing you come back soon.