Mt. Lhakpa-Ri Expedition (7,045m) - 25 days

Mt. LHAKPA-RI (7,045m/23,000ft) is one of the major mountaineering destinations in Tibet.  It is very close toMount Everest. George Mallory who was on his way to the Everest Reconnaissance in 1921 first climbed it and he had seen its North Col. Expedition mountaineering teams still follow the same route in order to make the summit. The summit view from Lhakpa-Ri rivals that from many of the world's greatest mountains. It gives very unusual views of some of the world's best-known mountains and excellent views of some very little known mountains. 

Mt. Lakpa Ri is just over the milestone altitude of 7,000m, making it higher than anything outside Asia and is probably the most climbable 7,000m peak in the world. It's an ideal objective, remarkably positioned just across the glacier from Everest. It shares the historic route up the East Rongbuk Glacier and is climbable by a relatively safe and straightforward route. 

There are two major ways to start the expedition, one, you fly to the beautiful & traditional city Lhasa and another way is via a drive from Kathmandu and Zangmu/Naylam, Tingri & Base Camp (5200m). The visits to Lhasa, the overland journey across the Tibetan Plateau, the trek in the footsteps of Mallory and a climb with awesome views of Everest, are the ingredients of a very special expedition. It will also give you a life-long impression of Tibet and its people and an insight and deep respect for the achievements of the early Everest pioneers. After reaching the base camp, you have to spend few days for acclimatization.  In order to start your real climb toward the summit, you should start your expedition ahead towards the two middle camps, with the preparation of loading yaks and expedition crews. Continuing ahead on this track you reach the Advance Base Camp, which is situated at a height of 6400m. From ABC, start early in the morning; and continue crossing the Rongbuk glacier. There are few crevasses and slopes from the Rongbuk and Kharta glacier and they are relatively low angled which are linked by the Lhakpa pass 6848m; and it is just to the North of Lhakpa-Ri until you reach the very foot of the slope, leading you to the North ridge of the Summit. The routes are 20-30 degree vertical elevations. This route is not so hard but the vertical way is very long. Follow the way of the North ridge and on the other side you will see Kharta glacier and the views of North Col of Everest. The same way of the ridge leads up to the Summit of Lhakpa-Ri 

High Camps and Climbing Routes

We will establish our base camp at ~5200m at a big ground above Rongbuk before making our way to high camps and Advance Base Camp. Once our acclimatization in and around base camp will be completed, then we'll start our summit bit establishing two middle camps in between BC & ABC, i.e. Camp 1 at altitude of 5,460m, Changtse Base Camp at (6,008m) and our trek continues for Advance Base Camp, where we do our preparations and acclimatization “go higher and sleep at lower”. Once we are ready then we go for the summit attempt and same day descent all the way to ABC, which takes about 10 – 12 hours. Climbing up to the summit of Lakpa-RI is not technically difficult, but general knowledge to play with the climbing gears is helpful and high level of fitness is required.    

Journey

After final preparations in Kathmandu, we will drive by private bus from Kathmandu to Kodari (a small border town). Complete necessary immigration formalities and cross the Chinese border and drive to Zangmu by land cruiser/bus. We will drive all the way to Base Camp spending 5 days time, which includes acclimatization days at Naylam & Tingri. 

If the trip is planned to fly direct to Lhasa then, we spend about 3 nights, 2 full days in Lhasa doing some sight seen tours and acclimatization. From Lhasa, we will take a drive by land cruiser or by bus for Base Camp, spending about 4/5 days and this will give us additional opportunity to explore the land of Tibet and visiting ancient cities of Tibet i.e. Gyantse (3990m), Shegar (4050m) and Shigatse (3,860m).  

TRIP HIGHTLIGHTS

• Expedition will be finished after summiting the Mt Lakpa-RI
• Expert & experienced cook and crews
• Excellent logistics facilities
• Medical back up with Oxygen and Gamow bag round the trip
• Explore the ancient and culturally & traditionally rich cities of Tibet
• An unforgettable and amazing trek into the North Mt. Everest Base Camp
• Climb one of the famous and climbable 7,000m peak in Tibet, with professional and Everest summited Sherpas

Fitness
Any expedition that goes to 7,000m requires a very high level of aerobic fitness. Being fit will certainly improve your chances of reaching your chosen summit. Your resting heart rate should be below 60 but preferably below 50. You should be able to run 20km on flat ground in under 2.5 hours and walk with a very light pack for 100km in less than 20 hours on a mixture of flat and hilly terrain. Endurance and the ability to carry a heavy pack of up to 25kg is more important than sprint ability. Upper body strength will not be a big factor in this climb, more legs and lungs.
In order to get ready for this challenge, you need to be trained at least for about 6 to 8 months to prepare yourself as strong candidate. You can go to fitness center every morning for about 2 hours, do hiking every weekend with increasing weights on your pack (i.e.10kg, 15kg, 20 kg, and up to 25kg), manage some time for cycling for couple of hours for 3 or 4 times a week. However during climbing and acclimatization, there might be little symptoms of altitude illness like mild headache, fatigue etc. but take it as normal and just drink a lot of water (4 – 5 liters) every day. On this trek, youneed to be able to hike 6 – 10 hours over hilly terrain up to 6,000m of altitude with daypack.On the summit push, extra effort is required walking on ice and climbing up to 12 – 14 hours. We will have porters to carry our heavy camping equipment, food and also the climbing gears. 
 
Experience
 
This trip is aimed at the moderately experienced climber and/or very fit athlete wanting to test them at high altitude before attempting the 8000m peak. Suitable experience would be a past climbing trip to one of the 6,000m peak in the Himalayas (i.e. Island Peak 6,160m, Lobuche Peak 6,119m, Mera Peak 6,476m or any other one), or have completed technical mountaineering course and a good level of proficiency with leading rock climbs combined withiceand skiing experiences. If you are fit and motivated but lacked technical climbing skills or suitable experience, we have options to keep you safe and get you high. This might be a personal Sherpa or a pre-trip training course.
 
You must have well knowledge about how to play with mountaineering gears, good with rock climbing and ice climbing, will surely increase the chances of reaching  thesummit and also previous trekking and mountaineering experiences is mandatory butdoesn’t really require any extreme technical experience.