Bokta Peak Climbing (6,143m) – 22 Days

Our itinerary includes trekking over Selele Pass (4,680m) and hiking to Oktang base camp (4,730m), therefore we gave enough activities for good acclimatization before attempting the peak and trekking itself is very adventurous, therefore the trekking and climbing Bokta Peak trip will be very suitable for those who are looking for trekking in remote area, trekking in crowd less area and an extra challenge on 6,000m peak.

Journey Outline

We will fly from KTM to Bhadrapur and continue to Taplejung by drive. From Taplejung, we began our trek following a route along a ridge top towards the Tamour River where we will enjoy panoramic views of the Makalu (8,485m) and Chamlung (7,321m) peaks. We will continue through forests and rhododendron thickets and soon the Kanchenjunga range will appear. Trekking through the Limbu villages to the terraced mountainside village of Amji-lhasa, we will get to the legendary Sherpa village of Ghunsa (3,427m). We will visit the monastery there and soon have our first glimpse of a sea of unclimbed peaks including the Jannu (25,289ft) known as a “mystery peak” or “Terror “. After spending an extra acclimatization day in Ghunsa, we will cross the either the Selele (4,680m) or Lapsang La (5,110m) depending on which is the safest at the time, into the Simbua Khola valley and camp at Ramche (4,580m). We will rest and explore the Yalung Glacier and the southern face of Kanchenjunga, then we headed to Bokta Peak base camp for climbing of the peak, we have allocated about 4/5 days to climb the peak, we will set up a high camp at around 5,700m and attempt the peak. Our Bokta peak climbing is based on Sherpa guided climb on fix line basis. After climbing the peak, our return trek will be more adventurous as we trek through the several villages. This trip will fulfill your dream of seeing one of the most remote lands in the world.

Fitness Requirements

Most of our trekking peaks are over 6,000m; therefore we count it as a tough trip. Your tough level of fitness is really important for this trek. So we strongly suggest preparing yourself for good physical fitness level. You do not need to be an athlete but a good level of overall fitness is important. Being fit will certainly improve your chances of reaching your chosen summit. As an indication, you should be able to walk 8 km / 5 miles with a maximum height gain of 800m / 2,000ft with a 10kg rucksack in 5 hours or less.

In order to get ready for this challenge, you need to be trained at least for about 4 to 6 months to prepare yourself as a strong candidate. You can go to the fitness center every morning for about 2 hours, do hiking every weekend with increasing weights on your pack (i.e. 7kg, 10kg, 13 kg, 16kg and up to 20kg). Manage some time for cycling for a couple of hours for 3 or 4 times a week. However, during climbing, 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, you need to be able to hike 6 – 10 hours over hilly terrain up to 6,000m of altitude with a daypack.

Value of Previous Experience

All of our trekking peaks climbing trips are accessible to experienced trekkers and those who have done some climbing trips in European mountains in order to take another challenge on the Himalayas Mountains. This trip will be helpful if you want to gain some knowledge about mountaineering and have a future plan to climb the BIG Mountains.

If you have any previous mountaineering experiences and well knowledge about playing with mountaineering gears, good with rock climbing and ice climbing will increase the chances of reaching the summit but previous trekking and mountaineering experiences are not mandatory and also doesn’t require any technical experience. Note that if you are participating in one of the technical climbing peak then you must have well knowledge about playing with mountaineering climbing gears (i.e. crampon with boot, Ice axe, harness, ropes, jumars, prussiks, abseiling, moving past knots, anchor, etc.).Crampons are used for maximum grip and harness and ropes are used for maximum safety during climbing. But for those who have no mountaineering experience and skill but have got tough level of fitness, you will have a basic training session by our guides about how to use the climbing gears during rest/acclimatization day. So we always make sure regarding the safety of the team and the successful climb of the peak.