Mera Peak is usually, and perhaps incorrectly, regarded as the highest official trekking peak in Nepal. The confusion stems from its altitude and location being misreported by the Nepal Mountaineering Association. See the section on the real Mera Peak below.
In any case it remains a popular destination due to its easy standard route, which requires only basic mountaineering skills to achieve an altitude considerably higher than a European or North American peak. For many years the climb was Alpine Grade F (Facile / Easy), but due to recent summit block changes the final 30-40 meters has become Grade PD (Peu difficile / not very hard). See Recent Updates section below.
In addition the Mera Peak trek is superb. The Hinku and Hongu valleys are spectacular Himalayan wilderness.
From the summit of Mera one can see 5 of the 6 highest mountains in the world: Everest, Kangchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, and Cho Oyo. The standard route from the north involves little more than high altitude glacier walking. The ease of reaching this elevation may be its biggest danger but good weather and snow conditions are, of course, necessary for safety and success. The west and south faces of the peak offer difficult technical routes.
The first ascent was on May 20, 1953 by Col. Jimmy Roberts and Sen Tenzing. The region was first explored extensively by British expeditions in the early 50’s before and after the ascent of Everest. Members of those teams included Edmund Hillary, Eric Shipton and Geroge Lowe.
Tribhuvan International Airport (Google Map)
3 Hours Before Flight Time
After your arrival in Tribhuwan International Airport, you will find us outside the airport with the banner of Mountain Ascend Treks. If you arrive in the evening or at the middle of the night, we take you straightly to the hotel by vehicles, such as car, van, depending on the number of passengers. If you arrive in the day, we will take you to our office, where we will talk about your trip in detail, telling you about do’s and don’ts. If you have a free time in the day, then you can use it to visit the places that are around your hotel, most probably, you will be staying in Thamel, which is a lively tourist city. You can also ask any questions related to your trip. If you have made a half-payment to us then you are requested to pay the remaining balance now. As you come to our office, please bring your passport, which has a validity of 6 months, including three copies of passport-sized photos, and a readable copy of your travel insurance paper. This is followed by the signing of the paper of your trip, as well as non-liability disclaimer paper.
After breakfast, you will do the combined sightseeing of Kathmandu and Bhaktapur with a city guide. The former is the city of temple, while the latter is the oldest city of Nepal. These cities have lots of historical monuments, so you will visit these monuments selectively. We have to make a selection because the sightseeing of these cities is of half-day.This much time will be enough to visit Kathmandu Durbar Square, Boudhanath, and Changu Narayan Temple in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur. Not only these, Mountain Ascend Treks will also provide you an option of visiting Pashupatinath Temple, Monkey Temple, and others. In addition to these, Mountain Ascend Treks gives the top-most prioritazation to your favorite places. Your visit is important to us, and we always cooperate with you.
From Kathmandu, you fly to Lukla in a small aircraft, called twin otter. Lukla is the gateway to Mt. Everest. There are 18 to 20 flights per day, and the name of the Lukla Airport is Tenzing-Hillary Airport. Only pilots, who have 7 years experience in aviation, are permitted to fly to Lukla. From there, you head of to the Chutok La pass (2945).
After breakfast, we follow an asceding trekking trail that connects Chutenga with the Zatrawala Pass. After crossing this pass, we continue walking to Zatrabok and enjoy the spectacular view of mountains, such as Numbur Himal, Kongdi RI, Karyolang peak and so on. After sometime, we follow a descending trekking trail that takes us to Khartitang at 3900 m.
After having breakfst, we follow a descending trekking trail that takes us to juniper and rhododendron forest and ultimately to Kothey.
After having our breakfast, we head towards Tangnang, Sabal Tsho-Lake, and the Hinku valley. The trial is scenic, and we see the breath – taking view of Kusum Kanguru.
Today is an acclimatization day, which means, we have to prepare ourselves for tomorrow’s higher altitudes. Your trekking guide/climbing will provide information on this. Acclimatization also means a resting day. It means a time to give a rest to your legs and heart that have walked uphill and that has beated. Further, acclimatization also means hiking to the nearby areas.
We climb up along the lateral moraine of the glacier and see the awesome view of Mera Peak.
Today is an acclimatization day, which means, we have to prepare ourselves for tomorrow’s higher altitudes. Your trekking guide/climbing will provide information on this. Acclimatization also means a resting day. It means a time to give a rest to your legs and heart that have walked uphill and that has beated. Further, acclimatization also means hiking to the nearby areas.
We progress along the snowy glacier and approach the pass.
Today we continue to the high camp. We will be blessed with the stunning panoramas of giant mountains rising above 7000m i.e. Chamlang (7290m), Makalu (8475m) and Baruntse (7220m) to the east, Everest (8848m), Lhotse (8501m) and Nuptse to the north and Ama Dablam, Cho Oyo (8153meters) and Kantega to the west
Today, the whole crew wakes up at around 1 a.m. for preparation. The climbers too have to wake up around 2.30 am. We have our breakfast and put on crampons and rope. Then we embark our journey to the summit. It takes around 4-6 hours to reach the summit of Mera. From the summit, we can see the spectacular views of Mt. Everest (8,848m), Cho-Oyu (8,210m), Lhotse (8,516m), Makalu (8,463m), Kanchenjunga (8,586m) Nuptse (7,855m), Chamlang (7,319m), Baruntse (7 ,129m) Ama Dablam (6,812m) Kangtega (6,779m) and many more. We then retrace our steps down to high camp. After a rest accompanied by some hot soups/tea, we continue down to Khare for the night.
If the weather is unfavorable, we will not be able to summit the Mera Peak on day 12. Day 13 is needed in case we are not able to summit.
We leave the mountains behind and descend to Tangnang and trek along the same trail. At Kothey, we celebrate our success.
We trek back to Zatrabok. The trial offers magnificent view of alpine vegetation like huge rhododendron forest.
Today we head towards Chutenga. The trail ascends until we reach the Zatrawala Pass and then again descend until we reach Chutenga.
The trekking trail descends to the valley and takes you to the suspension bridges over the Dudh Koshi River and is easy to do, and we will be walking most of the time along the Dudh Kosi River. Later this trail joins with Lukla, from where we catch a return flight to Kathmandu, the city of temples. And it is in Lukla, we feel that we have done the world’s best trek in 14 days.
We catch an early morning flight to Kathmandu. After reaching Kathmandu, we can take a rest or do some souvenir shopping. If you are interested, then Mountain Ascend Treks help you in souvenir shopping. Later in the evening, you will have a farewell dinner in a Nepali restaurant, where you can see Nepali dance.Also, there will be Nepali music and songs. Along with these, there is a lot of tourism activities that you can do in Nepal. Some of these are jungle safari, biking, and mountain flight.
Today is the last day of your trip. We make sure that you reach the Tribhuwan International Airport on time for departure.We will take you approximately 3 hours before your scheduled flight. We will keep in touch with you through emails. Since Nepal is the cheapest tourist destination in the world for any tourism activities, Mountain Ascend Treks is always ready to provide you service