Trekking Peaks: Peak Climbing

Born of the massive collision between two continental plates some 60 million years ago, the Himalaya are still the youngest mountain range in the world. Not only are they too young to be weathered, parts are actually growing higher! Eight of the fourteen highest mountains (i.e., those over 8,000 m), are in Nepal. These include: Everest (8,848 m), Kanchenjunga (8,586 m), Lhotse (8,501 m), Makalu (8,463 m), Cho Oyu (8,201 m) Dhaulagiri (8,167 m), Manaslu (8,156 m), and Annapurna (8,091 m). For some seven decades there have been increasing attempts to scale more peaks in the Himalaya, and a greater realisation that there is more in Nepal than just the 8,000ers. For people who love a challenging, demanding climb, but either do not want to mount a large-scale expedition, or cannot afford to $8-10,000 individual permit fee for then large mountains, or who just for pure fun, the so-called trekking peaks in Nepal are a blessing. Between 5,500 m and 6,500 m, the permit fees for these peaks are a few hundred dollars, and organising them is also much cheaper than mounting a typical 'assault' style expedition higher up. The classification is somewhat misleading - you really cannot 'trek' up a single one of them; they are all demanding and require skill and ease with ice climbing, and some are downright difficult technically.

There are some classic 'trekking peaks' in the Khumbu, Annapurna, Langtang, and Rolwaling regions, and we are always pleased to run these trips with our experienced staff and climbing sherpas. For more information on these areas look at the sections describing trekking possibilities there.