Island Peak Climbing with Everest Base Camp Trek

Met at Tribhuvan International Airport and transferred to your hotel. Evening briefing covering the trek, the climb, and the equipment you will be issued. Island Peak is a trekking peak, not a technical mountaineering objective, but it does involve fixed ropes, crampons and a headwall, so we go through what that means tonight.

Altitude: 1,400 m.

A working day. We complete permits, including the Nepal Mountaineering Association climbing permit for Island Peak, and run a full equipment check: boots compatible with crampons, harness, helmet, ice axe, jumar and descender. Anything you are missing can be rented or bought in Thamel this afternoon.

If time allows there is a short sightseeing tour of Boudhanath and Swayambhunath.

Walking: 2 to 3 hours of sightseeing.

An early flight to Lukla, from Ramechhap in peak season and from Kathmandu outside it. After meeting the porters we walk down the Dudh Koshi valley through Chheplung and Ghat to Phakding, a short and deliberately easy first day.

Distance: 6.2 km. Walking: 3 to 4 hours. Altitude: 250 m down from Lukla.

Five suspension bridge crossings, the last being the high Hillary Bridge, then park registration at Monjo and the steep two-hour climb to Namche. A first view of Everest between Lhotse and Nuptse partway up on a clear day.

Distance: 10.5 km. Walking: 5 to 6 hours. Altitude gain: 830 m.

Climb high, sleep low. We walk to the Everest View Hotel at 3,880 m and on to Khumjung and Khunde, the Sherpa villages behind the ridge, returning to sleep at Namche. Your guide begins evening oxygen saturation checks tonight and continues them every evening for the rest of the trip.

Distance: 5 to 7 km. Walking: 4 to 5 hours. Climb high: 3,880 m.

The contour trail from Namche with Ama Dablam, Everest and Lhotse in view, then a 600 m drop to the river at Phunki Tenga and a two-hour climb through forest to the monastery at Tengboche. Afternoon prayers are usually at 3 pm and visitors may attend quietly.

Distance: 9.2 km. Walking: 5 to 6 hours. Altitude gain: 430 m net.

Through Deboche and across the Imja Khola to Pangboche, the oldest village in the Khumbu, then up the widening valley as the trees give out. Pheriche is a windswept village on the valley floor with the Himalayan Rescue Association aid post, which runs a free altitude talk most afternoons in season and is worth attending before you go higher.

Distance: 10 km. Walking: 4 to 5 hours. Altitude gain: 420 m.

Up the valley to Dughla, then the steep 45-minute climb of the terminal moraine to the Thukla Pass at 4,830 m and the memorial ground, where chortens stand for climbers and Sherpas lost on Everest and its neighbours.

From the pass the trail follows the Khumbu glacier's lateral moraine to Lobuche, with the west face of Nuptse directly ahead. Cold nights from here on.

Distance: 8 km. Walking: 5 to 6 hours. Altitude gain: 650 m.

Rough walking over glacial moraine to Gorak Shep, then on to Everest Base Camp at the foot of the Khumbu Icefall. In the spring climbing season Base Camp is a small city of tents; in autumn it is empty rock and ice. Either way the icefall itself, cracking and shifting, is the thing you remember.

Back to Gorak Shep for the night. This day is also excellent acclimatisation for the climb ahead.

Distance: 15 km round trip. Walking: 6 to 7 hours. Maximum altitude: 5,364 m.

A pre-dawn climb up Kala Patthar for the classic view of Everest's summit pyramid above the Khumbu, with Pumori behind and Nuptse, Lhotse and Ama Dablam around. Sunrise here is the photograph everyone comes for.

Down to Gorak Shep for breakfast, then back along the moraine to Lobuche for the night, positioning for the Kongma La tomorrow.

Distance: 9 km. Walking: 7 to 8 hours. Maximum altitude: 5,545 m.

The hardest trekking day of the trip and the first of the Everest three passes. We cross the Khumbu glacier in the early morning, following cairns over rock and ice, then climb a long, steep slope to the Kongma La at 5,535 m, marked with prayer flags and a frozen tarn below.

The descent into the Imja valley is steep and loose, dropping to Chhukung. A long day at altitude, and a serious one: your guide will make an early call on whether the group takes the pass or the lower valley route via Dingboche, depending on conditions and how everyone is going.

Distance: 10 km. Walking: 6 to 7 hours. Altitude: up 595 m, then down 805 m.

A short walk up the Imja valley on a sandy trail beside the glacier, with Lhotse's south face rising 3,000 m on your left and Island Peak ahead, sitting in the middle of the glacier basin like the island it is named for.

Base Camp is a tented camp on a gravel flat at 5,200 m. The support crew set up, and the afternoon is for rest, hydration and an early dinner.

Distance: 6 km. Walking: 3 to 4 hours. Altitude gain: 470 m.

A full training day with your climbing guide on the ice near camp: fitting and walking in crampons, ice axe technique and self-arrest, ascending fixed rope with a jumar, abseiling with a figure-of-eight or descender, and rope team protocol on the glacier.

This is not a formality. The headwall on summit day is 100 to 150 m of fixed rope at 45 to 50 degrees at over 6,000 m, and everyone climbs it faster and safer for having practised. The afternoon is rest, with an early night before a midnight start.

Up at around midnight, breakfast, and walking by 1 am. The first three hours climb a steep rocky gully and ridge by headlamp to the glacier at around 5,800 m, where you rope up and put on crampons.

The glacier section crosses crevassed ground, sometimes with a ladder over the largest, to the foot of the headwall. The headwall is the crux: 100 to 150 m of fixed rope on 45 to 50 degree snow and ice, jumaring at 6,000 m. Above it a narrow, exposed summit ridge leads to the top at 6,189 m, with Lhotse, Nuptse, Makalu, Baruntse and Ama Dablam spread out around you.

The descent abseils the headwall and retraces the glacier and gully to Base Camp. A 10 to 14 hour day, and a genuinely hard one.

Distance: 10 km round trip. Climbing: 10 to 14 hours. Altitude gain: 989 m.

A long descent out of the Imja valley through Chhukung and Dingboche and down to Pangboche, dropping over 1,200 m into thicker air and, usually, the first properly comfortable night's sleep in two weeks.

The Pangboche monastery above the village is the oldest in the Khumbu and worth the short climb if you have energy left.

Distance: 15 km. Walking: 5 to 6 hours. Altitude loss: 1,215 m.

Back down through Deboche and up to Tengboche, then the steep drop to Phunki Tenga and the contour trail into Namche. Hot showers, bakeries and a celebration dinner tonight.

Distance: 13 km. Walking: 4 to 5 hours. Altitude loss: 545 m.

The last walking day: the steep hill out of Namche, the river crossings, Monjo and Phakding, and the final stretch to Lukla. The evening is for the crew dinner, which after a summit is usually a good one.

Distance: 19 km. Walking: 6 to 7 hours. Altitude loss: 580 m.

Morning flight to Kathmandu or Ramechhap, weather permitting. The afternoon is free, and in the evening we present summit certificates over a farewell dinner.

Flight: 35 minutes, or 25 minutes plus a 4 to 5 hour drive.

Transfer to Tribhuvan International Airport about three hours before your flight, or onward arrangements if you are staying on in Nepal.