Shishapangma Expedition - 45 days

On your arrival at Tribhuvan International Airport, you will be received by representative of Independent Himalayan Adventure and transferred to your Hotel. Short briefing and final procedure about the entire trip.

Rest of the day suggested you to finalize your equipments.

A free day in Kathmandu. Relaxation then as usual there will be extensive preparations, packing bags, equipment at hotel, ready for the start the following day. We suggest you to leave your unnecessary belongings which you may not need during the expedition. Pack and lock all bags and leave at the Hotel Store.

Early in the morning we take a bus drive along the Friendship - Highway to Zhangmu at the Nepal-Tibet border. The journey normally may take about 5 to 6 hours depending on the road condition, and sometime likely the landslides that could long our journey time.
We cross Friendship Bridge and ahead to Zhangmu (2300 meters) for our night stop.

Our jeeps and trucks move their way up the precipitous mountain road - "the road to hell".
The journey to Nyalam is not too long, and gives us some opportunity to acclimatise.

Rest Day at Nyalam for acclimatisation.

A spectacular day as we reach up to 5000 meters elevation. If the weather is clear the views from this road are absolutely superb.
After Arrive in Tingri we get our first views of the lonely mountains across the grassy plains.

Rest day at Tingri for Acclimatisation.

Magnificent views of Shishapangma and many other mountains make todays road journey an unforgettable one.
We will arrive at base camp (5,000m). This is situated close to the Yambughangala River, which drains the north side of Shishapangma.

Our first two days at base camp are spent preparing our equipment and organising loads for the yaks. These are also important days for our acclimatisation, as we will all feel the effects of living at 5000 metres and we need to be in good shape for the long route to advance base camp.

After loading up the yaks with all of our equipment we set off with them on around 20 kilometres/ 12 miles trek to advance base camp (ABC). Initially we follow a jeep track to a plateau above the river and then the west bank of the valley to ABC near the snout of the Yambughangala Glacier (5,600m).
This is in a very impressive situation, with the giant white pinnacles of the glacier leading up the valley to Shishapangma.
Here we unload the yaks and set up the camp, which is the take-off point for the climb. From here the Sherpas have to do most of the load carrying.

Above ABC we will place two or three camps depending on conditions. The climb starts with a long traverse leading to a large camping area at 6400m. From here we traverse further, gaining a lot of height, to reach the shoulder of the mountain and camp 2 (7,000m).

All of the climbing is on scree or snow and presents little difficulty. The North-West Ridge is easily reachable from camp 2, although it may involve snow and ice climbing up to 50° steep. Fixed ropes are placed on all steep/crevassed sections. If a high camp is required, it is placed according to the prevailing conditions.

The summit ridge is very long and it is usual to take a rising diagonal line across the snow slope below it to reach the ridge as close to the summit as possible. The West Summit (8012m) of Shishapangma is quicker to reach than the main summit and is the usual point reached by 'summiteers'. Plenty of time has been allowed in case of bad weather and slow acclimatisation. We intend to have enough time at the end of the expedition to make a complete withdrawal from the mountain, removing all equipment and rubbish and taking it back to ABC.

All the expedition members and Sherpas will have to back at the Lower Chinese Base Camp where our truck and bus transport will be waiting for us. Everything will be packed into the plastic drums and Kitbags.

Loading all our equipment onto Chinese truck we drive to the Zhangmu via Tingri.

Deive to the border which we cross and descend to Kodari where we obtain our Nepalese visas. and we then drive back to Kathmandu.
This is a spectacular and enjoyable journey down the Sun Kosi river valley. Some members may wish to enjoy the scenery from the roof of the bus. We should arrive into Kathmandu in the early afternoon, assuming there are no landslides to delay the journey.

Leisure day in Kathmandu.Time for a relaxation and souveniour. celebrate a long and exciting expedition adventure.

If you did not finished your shopping previously, you can do some moring shopping.
You will then transferred to the International airport with Independent Himalayan Adventure's representative for for onward journey.