Nun Peak- The Route to Everest & other 7,000 – 8,000-meter peaks

NUN PEAK

There are plen­ty of sto­ries out there you may have read about climbers with lit­tle to no expe­ri­ence reach­ing the sum­mit of Mount Ever­est. The sto­ries of climbers, if you can call them that, arriv­ing in base camp and not know­ing how to put on cram­pons. Of porters car­ry­ing the oxy­gen bot­tle con­nect­ed to the client that has not even a small ruck­sack on their back. And the sto­ries go on…

What does make sense for prepar­ing for Ever­est or oth­er 8,000-meter peaks then? If a per­son that has done some back­pack­ing and hik­ing wants to climb Ever­est what do we tell them as a guide ser­vice what they need to do? Below is a good pro­gres­sion and if you’re already on your way, we dis­cuss the option of climb­ing Nun, a 7,000-meter+ peak in India below for this summer.

Dates: Aug 4, 2024 — Aug 29, 2024

An exam­ple of suf­fi­cient train­ing & expe­ri­ence would include a com­bi­na­tion of the fol­low­ing in a log­i­cal progression:

1. Tech­ni­cal train­ing in the Wash­ing­ton Cas­cades or inter­na­tion­al course. Exam­ples: Alpine Ice Course, Ouray Ice Cours­es, Ecuador Moun­taineer­ing Course, or Bolivia Moun­taineer­ing Course
2. Ascents of 6,000 meter peaks in South Amer­i­ca or Asia. Exam­ples: Ecuador Vol­ca­noes, Aconcagua, Chopikal­ki, Bolivi­a’s Cordillera Real, Island Peak, or Ama Dablam
3. Denali or Vin­son and/​or a 7000 – 8000 meter peak such as Pik Lenin, Nun Peak, or Cho Oyu.
4. Mount Ever­est

Are you qual­i­fied to climb Nun? 

This expe­di­tion requires expe­ri­ence with glac­i­er trav­el and some pre­vi­ous high alti­tude ascents. Nun Peak is a per­fect next step for climbers that have been to Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Elbrus or Aconcagua!

Where Is Nun Peak?

Locat­ed in Ladakh and part of the Zan­skar Range of the West­ern Himalaya, Nun Peak dom­i­nates the sky­line of the upper Suru Val­ley. The region is dom­i­nat­ed by big riv­er val­leys and huge moun­tains with ancient trade routes link­ing this remote area to Chi­na and Pak­istan. You’ll step back in time on this jour­ney in High Asia.

What will the climb be like? 

The ascent of Nun requires three camps above base camp as well as some fixed lines on the upper moun­tain. Climb­ing expe­di­tion-style we dou­ble car­ry to camps with the mantra, ​“climb high-sleep low,” to aid our acclima­ti­za­tion. This strat­e­gy keeps the chal­lenge with­in reach for both sea­soned vet­er­ans and those break­ing the 7,000 meter bar­ri­er for the first time.

What about the gear? 

Equip­ment need­ed for Nun is sim­i­lar to Aconcagua. Pack up your warm boots, sleep­ing bag, par­ka, mitts and glac­i­er trav­el gear and you are set for a big peak in the Himalaya!

Where else will we go? 

Adding depth to this expe­di­tion we’ll vis­it Leh and Sri­na­gar! Both places are des­ti­na­tions on the clas­sic car­a­van trade routes of ancient times and the more recent ​“Hip­py Trail” of the ​‘60’s and ​‘70’s. Sri­na­gar and it’s flower laden house­boats of Lake Dal are famous among adven­ture trav­el­ers world­wide and a relax­ing way to end the expe­di­tion before the flight back to New Del­hi and home.