Himalayas 2000 Itinerary

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This special expedition to Mera is designed for those who only have three working weeks' holiday time available. The first fourteen days take us south from the airstrip at Lukla, trekking through beautiful forested hillsides and over several passes before climbing up to the Mera La. After the climb, we descend directly to Lukla via the Zatrwa La pass.

The Mera Expedition is a high-altitude trek and climb and participants need to be fit and conversant with the use of an ice-axe and crampons. Instruction in the use of these will be given at our base camp near the Mera La if required. In good conditions it is possible for a fit party to reach the summit and return to base camp in one day. It is normal, however, to establish a high-camp at 19,000ft/5,800m on the Mera Glacier, in order to shorten the summit day. This is a rewarding experience as it provides glorious views of Nepal and a vista that takes in Kangchenjunga and Makalu to the east and Everest appearing over the massive southern aspect of Nuptse and Lhotse to the north. To the west stand the spires of Ama Dablam and Kang Taiga and in the distance is the mighty bastion of Cho Oyu. This is a fine panorama of many of the world's highest peaks.

The climb itself takes the north face glacier in a steady rise to the summit ridge which leads, in an exposed and exciting situation, to the top. After the mountain has been climbed, we return by a direct route across a dramatic ridge to Lukla and the flight to Kathmandu.

However, we have not just chosen this route for the views and to provide you with an enhanced cultural experience. The route we follow allows for a far better rate of acclimatisation than the rapid ascent from Lukla and over the high pass of the Zatrwa La inherent in the average expedition schedule. The benefits offered by our route have been proven many times since 1993 when we ran our first trip to Mera; our teams repeatedly achieve a high rate of success on the mountain, as they are better prepared in terms of acclimatisation and fitness. We also think that our team members value the relative solitude of our trek as this lends itself far better to an enriching wilderness experience. It is by far the best route to the mountain.

Since we began operations to the world's greatest mountains, we have continually monitored the performance of our expeditions and the conditions that each team has encountered once in country and on the mountain. This extends to every aspect of our operations, from the format of the pre-expedition weekend to the conditions of employment for our locally enrolled staff, including Sherpas and porters.

Following a review in 1998, we extended the itinerary by two further days. This was for two reasons. Firstly, it allows us to match the dates for the expedition to the flight schedules offered by Qatar Airlines without increasing the number of working weeks infringed upon by taking part in the trip. Using Qatar represents a significant change and an improvement to the Nepal flight's service that we have offered in the past. The previous airline we used provided the only direct flight to Kathmandu but it was becoming increasingly unreliable; every expedition in one previous season left London late by several hours resulting in lost days on the main part of the expedition. The decision was made, therefore, to change airlines for the majority of our trips to Nepal. Not only has Qatar proved to be more reliable and efficient but the standard of in-flight service also represents a significant enhancement on what was being offered before. The second advantage of lengthening the itinerary is that we can provide an even better day-to-day itinerary for the expedition. This gives the team greater flexibility in case of adverse weather and allows for a better chance of reaching the summit should such conditions persist.