This is an absolutely amazing city, jam packed with people, motor-bikes, bright colours, beeping horns and cows!!
I met up with Adventure Thamserku tour guide and owner, Dawa Sherpa to prepare for the trek and he starts off with some bad news. It has been snowing heavily in the Everest region and as Mera Peak is situated in a remote valley it is totally snowed in.
This means that if we attempt this trek we will be breaking trail in snow at minimum knee deep and possibly upto our waists for as much as two weeks!! That is certainly not fun and would seriously compromise our chances of summiting. No other operators are taking the Mera route at the moment and so it looks like it has already been summited for the last time this season.
So what to do.....
Dawa has suggested a slightly longer more technically challenging trek instead finishing up with summiting Island Peak which is 200m lower than Mera Peak but is steeper and more technical. Exciting!!
Starting from Lukla we head to Namche Bazar on the established Everest Base Camp Trail but then head North West to Thame and the Renjo Pass. This is the start of the classic 3 valley trek and we will go over Renjo Pass, Cho La Pass and finally Kongma La Pass before arriving at Island Peak (6190m) for the summit attempt.
Looks like it's going to be lots of fun - Camping in the high passes will be interesting- at least 8 nights of that.
A highlight should be Gokyo Ri which at 5357m has probably one of the most spectacular views in the Everst Region, taking in every major peak from Cho Oyu, past Everest itself and on to Lhotse. Camera at the ready!!
I will try and update as much as I can and hopefully I can change the name on my WWF sign to Island Peak before I get there.
Michael Scully, Appco Group Deutschland
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