My Big One?

As I started talking to people about my blog and more importantly my project itself, I found 2 of them who summited the Mera Peak. There is a debate about the actual altitude of the summit, currently estimated above 6400m. The more I think about my project, the more I think my decision will favour the Mera Peak, but „with style“. By this I would mean crossing the Amphu Lapcha pass after conquering the Mera Peak, and then climbing the Island Peak.

The Mera Peak, although pretty high (very subjective statement on my behalf), is known as an „easy“ wander up a glacier. If you take care of your acclimatisation in the previous days/weeks, the Mera Peak should not be too much of an issue, allowing you to conquer the „highest trekking peak“ of the Himalayas. Meaning without ridiculous effort you can summit a 6400m+ mountain. I make it sound like a walk in the park, but in further posts I will have to explain that it's still far from easy to summit at that kind of altitude. These days the real summit is sat above a roughly 50m wall which you need one last shot of power to ascend. From „base camp“ and from the summit you can see the Cho Oyu, Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Kangchenjunga. This alone is good enough a reason to go for this option!!

 The sight from the Mera Peak over a bunch of 8000m Mountains.

This Amphu Lapcha pass seems like an interesting challenge. No real technical move expected, but ease with crampons and ice axe is required to progress through seracs up to the pass. Then some abseiling and a walk down to the area below the Island Peak, which involves walking past the Baruntse. This sounds like an amazing experience in itself!

Amphu Lapcha Pass is not a walk in the park!

Island Peak, unlike I've said earlier in this blog, is slightly more technical, only because of this „little“ wall that has to be ascended. Doing the trip in this sequence, acclimatisation shouldn't be a problem anymore at this stage, so Island Peak should be doable.

This little wall on the Island Peak would not be an issue at 3000m, but at 6000m it's a different story!

This expedition would give me the best chances of success on a 6000m peak that requires basic mountaineering skills. It would show me some of the most amazing mountains on the planet, allowing me to claim Nepal on my beginner's mountaineer resume. I might be able to go bigger and higher, but like I've done in alpine adventures, a decent build-up starting with reasonable objectives carries the least risks of me giving up at the first try because it's too crazy/cold/dangerous/tiring etc... I regard a Mera Peak + Amphu Lhapcha + Island Peak expedition as something crazy enough anyway, totally fitting the purpose of my „The Big One“ project.

Now I'm pretty sure about what I want to do, the next steps are:

- Pick the organisation that will work the best for me, the most practicable compromise of quality, safety, price, dates, service. Definitely a subject for a further post.

- List and procure the required equipment. Also definitely worth a couple of posts. Seems like my alpine gear will not do the trick!

- Train hard enough to be fit for purpose, but easy enough not to be totally broken when flying to Nepal (nor 10 years later when my knees can't take any more of this!). Also a good point to discuss on this blog!