Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Outfitter recommendations requested (Himalayas)

Thanks, I'll probe a little, see what he can work out. Starting to get excited!!! Now I just have to hope dates will be available for me to use my frequent flyer miles to save the cost of the international airfare.....

Very exciting. Been wanting to do this for so long. Five years ago, sedentary and overweight, even the relatively straight forward EBC out and back would have been out of reach.

Wow, very exciting trip Karin, where do you actually fly into? is it Katmandu via Mumbai? Guess the pooch will have to stay home for this one.

Yes, Sasha goes to a neighbor's house. Sort of like summer camp in Spring.

My routing is, tentatively, SFO-Osaka-Bangkok-KTM-Bankgkok-Seoul-SFO. Was able to use frequent flyer miles. But all that may change as I have not yet booked the trip. However, very very very close to doing so.

In addition to antibiotics (and diamox if that's your thing) bring some cold pills of your liking with you too. It's inevitable that you'll get some sort of cold either on the way up or down. I was able to easily pick up some cold meds in Kathmandu very cheap, but they seriously knocked me on my butt (made me super drowsy). Luckily we were done with the trip at that point, but it would have been nice to have my meds of choice up higher on the mountain (aleve cold and sinus is my first pick if it helps - 1 pill every 12 hours, and no drowsiness)

Good suggestion. Many thanks! Looks like I'll be traveling with a little pharmacy.

If you haven't already booked your trip, I just want to emphasize the need to build in flexbility in case of weather delays. We went in October/November 2011. Because of weather, we were stuck for 3 days in Lukla before we could return to Kathmandu, and nearly missed our flight from Kathmandu back to Bangkok. Also, we met people who had been delayed for 4 nights in Kathmandu on their way to Lukla and had their trek cut short because there was no flexibility in their trekking plans. I would strongly recommend adding at least 3 days to your planned trek to account for delays between Kathmandu and Lukla. We had a totally, wonderful time--it's a great trek! Have lots of fun!

More great advice! And I'm booked. Going on a small group, peaks and valleys loop, hitting a bunch of iconic high points including Island Peak, Gokyo Ri, Kalar Pattar, EBC.... Booked directly with a Nepali company in Kathmandu. Surprisingly affordable. If anyone has time in April/May, and wants to sign on for an adventure, drop me a line. And yeah, you need about a month! The trek itself is 25 days. And yet substantially less pricey than Kili.

Short term objectives: learn some Nepali. Get more comfortable with ropes. Build those quads!

Get the book 'Trekking Nepal' by Stephen Bezruchka and Alonzo Lyons. It's one of the best guide books out there (and was recommended to me by someone who's trekked in Nepal every year for the last 15+ years) It also has some basic Nepali phrases in the back.

The trail descriptions are pretty darn accurate and the cultural information is priceless!!

=) enjoy!!!

Thanks! I will look this up.

I ordered topo through Amazon of Gokyo, Renjo Pass, and Chola Pass because, now that I can actually read and understand topo, I love topo. Didn't quite focus on the fact that the order would be fulfilled directly by a Nepalese bookstore in Kathmandu (http://www.vajrabookshop.com/index.php). How cool is that? The world gets smaller and more interconnected with every passing day.

I am very jealous.....
Look and see if Jamie McGuiness (sp?) Ever updated his Everest Region book. (He moved on to doing bigger things, like guiding Everest, so may not have.)

+1

Harvey

I am also very jealous. Oh wait, it's me that's going! Woo-hoo!

Hey, Nepal veterans, any thoughts on day trips around Kathmandu? I booked my flight so that, in addition to the extra day in KTM that is already built in at both the beginning and the end of the packaged tour, I have an additional extra day at both ends as well, meaning a two day buffer on each side. That's really the max I can do comfortably, but I do have a decent contingency plan if the Lukla weather situation results in even longer delays (flying on frequent flyer miles does give more options). My package does include a 1 day cultural tour of the city at the beginning of the trip, which I assume hits basic highlights. I don't think there is enough time to get to Chitwan (unless I fly, which I don't want to do). I appreciate all your advice!

For those who are interested, here are links to the three Kathmandu-based trekking agencies with which I was particularly impressed, though I realize there are many others that no doubt provide a superb experience. I booked with Monarch before I received some of the advice in earlier posts, so the omission of any suggested outfitter is not a dis.

Mountain Monarch Adventures (Manager and maybe owner (?): Pradip)
http://www.mountainmonarch.com/
Excellent communication with similar routing to Nature Travel and Tours--includes the Renjo Pass, which is often not included in the big loops that include EBC and Island Peak. Competitive prices. Group departures are limited to 10 clients (many operators do 12 or more, just add more guides). Outstanding tripadvisor reviews (more than 200 of them). Though reading tripadvisor reviews really gives one a sense of all that can go wrong ... and what a good tour operator can to do help. A few other pluses: small ratio (2:1) of client-to-sherpa guides for the Island Peak portion (other outfitters often do 4:1), and focus on wilderness first aid training for guides and availability of Gamow Bag included in tour price.

Nature Travel and Tours, Trekking and Expeditions (Owner: Bishnu)
(Recommended by Richard P.)
http://allnepal.com/
Really great communication and routing, and competitive prices. But they don't do group departures on the trek I want to do, and I'd like to trek in a small group.

Mountain Sherpa Trekking & Expeditions (Owner: Pasang Sherpa)
http://www.guidenepal.com
Also good communication. Routing was good but more traditional ---- did not include Renjo Pass. Their prices are higher, though when I mentioned I was also looking at MM, they offered to meet MM's pricing. They provide a 4:1 ratio on Island Peak, though they offered to provide me a personal sherpa guide at no extra charge when they realized this was important to me. They also have good tripadvisor reviews.

I ruled out any international agencies pretty early in the process, and not just based on $$, though that was a factor. I was impressed with the expertise and professionalism of the local companies, and with their online reviews, and I like that the money stays local.

Karin, everyone seems to go to the monkey temple, have their picture taken with the holy guys who live in caves nearby. I found the river cremation temple much more interesting culturally. When I was there, five funerals were occurring simultaneously ranging from stacking firewood to wailing families, to sweeping grandmas ashes into the river. All this surrounded by old temples and gawking tourists along the bridges and riverbanks.

The extra attention on Island with guides is nice. Some of the guys in our group had no experience, but with a little practice the day before while on a gentler dirt terrain they learned ropes, harnesses, jumars for going up, figure 8 descenders for coming down on the glacier. I imagine many groups do not even get the day-before treatment but on -the-spot the day-of. You might ask the outfitter to familiarize you the day before, or somewhere along the way, or here before you go.

Great tips, Harvey. We do have one full day at island peak just for practice and training!

Right now, my goal is just either high camp or, if I am feeling strong, to climb the head wall to the summit ridge. I'll have to see how I feel about the knife edge summit ridge traverse when I am there. Pretty sure I can arrange for a personal Sherpa guide when I am in Nepal for the Island Peak climb days for a reasonable price if it seems worthwhile to do so!

The most unnerving part of Island is going to be being on the headwall with twenty other climbers reefing on the fixed line. If you can keep it together thru that thrill a minute, the climb to the summit will be cake.

The summit is the goal. The summit is the goal. The summit is the goal. ....

Richard is right about once past the headwall you have done the hard part. Keep going. The knife edge is no worse a feeling of exposure than the headwall and the scenes above of the looming South Wall of Lhotse are spectacular. You may or may not even have a fixed line along there. We only had it on part of it coming the last bit to the top, but this may vary from year to year.

We were lucky, the groups behaved themselves and even though there were people waiting around to descend, it was one-at-a time until the guy below you descended below the next snow stake. That is the hardest part of the downclimb for a first-timer, disconnecting and reconnecting the figure 8 when you pass a pole. practice, practice.

We had the National Geographic Everest Base Camp map that was fantastic as well. Obviously not as much detail as a topo, but has the full route, elevations marked and some contour lines if I remember correctly. I'd definitely recommend it for route overview (we consulted it at literally every stop we made)

Oh you guys! You'll have me charging up Everest yet. When is the WPSMB Everest hike, exactly? I hear Doug Sr. has agreed to be sweep. Richard has volunteered to go first to set up the lines. Shin wants us to delay a few years, so that we can go to celebrate a big summit number for him, but I say times a-wasting, what with global warming and all. Rosie wants to know if she can wear her new Nepal EVO Gtxes. Laura plans to plant an orange flag on the summit....

Okay, seriously, I appreciate the beta and encouragement. Helps to visualize, which is part of the preparation for me. But I do have a heights issue, so have to take it day by day.

Thanks for the map suggestion!

my pictures from my trip in Oct 11 are on my facebook profile if you are interested for/in more visualization

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.587636065596.2070890.14501591&type=3

Yes, more visualization please! But the link does not seem to work.