Mera Peak Expedition, 6,461 m

No. Most people who book this climb have none. Day 10 at Khare is a full day of training on the glacier: crampons, ice axe, harness, jumar, abseiling and moving roped together as a group. Mera requires stamina at altitude and a willingness to learn, not previous climbing experience.

You need to be able to walk four to seven hours a day on rough ground for two weeks, day after day, and then keep moving for nine to eleven hours on summit day, starting at two in the morning. The training plan on this page is designed for a reasonably active person starting twelve weeks before departure.

Mera is more demanding physically, and Island Peak is more technical. Mera is nearly 300 m higher, the approach is twice as long, and you sleep two nights in tents above 5,300 m. Island Peak has a steeper, more technical headwall but a much shorter approach. Most people find Mera the harder climb overall.

Across the industry, roughly four in five climbers who set out from high camp reach the summit. Weather and altitude account for almost all of the others. Our itinerary includes an extra acclimatisation night and a spare summit day, which helps, but no one can guarantee a summit and we do not.

There is no upper age limit. We have guided climbers in their sixties to the summit and turned back climbers in their twenties. The minimum age is sixteen, with a parent on the trip. Experience of long days in the hills matters more than age.

Mera Central, 6,461 m. The peak is usually listed at 6,476 m, which is the height of Mera North, a more technical summit about three hours further on that most commercial groups do not attempt. Your certificate will say Mera Central, because that is the summit you reached.

You leave high camp at around two in the morning, when the snow is firm and the wind is usually lighter. You walk slowly, roped together, for four to five hours up a wide glacier, then climb a steep fifty-metre section on a fixed rope to the summit. You descend to Khare the same day, so the total is nine to eleven hours.

For almost all of the route, the slope is gentle. The glacier above high camp rises at an angle you could walk up without a rope if it were rock. The exception is the final headwall below the summit. It is short and steep enough to need a jumar, and it has fixed ropes in both climbing seasons.

Yes, on the glacier between Mera La and the summit. There are more of them in a warm spring than in a cold autumn. You walk roped together from the time you leave Khare, and your guide chooses the route. The early start is partly so that snow bridges are frozen when you cross them.

We provide the ropes, ice screws, snow bars and tented camps. Boots, crampons, harness, jumar, descender, helmet and ice axe are personal equipment. You can bring your own or hire a set in Kathmandu for about $150 for the trip. We fit all equipment on day 2, rather than at 5,045 m in the cold.

There are three acclimatisation days, at Chutanga, Thaknak and Khare. On each, you climb several hundred metres and return to sleep at the lower altitude. Above Khare, the sleeping altitude rises by 305 m and then 430 m, both within the guidance published by the Himalayan Rescue Association. Fifteen-day versions of this climb leave out one of these days.

This is the only day on the route that goes beyond the recommended gain, and it cannot be avoided: between Chutanga and Thuli Kharka there is a 4,610 m pass and nowhere to sleep. For this reason, day 4 is a rest day beforehand, and day 6 takes you 700 m down to Kothe afterwards.

An emergency oxygen bottle and mask travel with the team from Khare upwards, and your guide carries a pulse oximeter for the whole trip. The oxygen is for emergency descent only, not for climbing. Climbers on our departures do not use supplementary oxygen on Mera, and it is not needed.

You stay at Khare with a member of our crew while the rest of the group climbs. This costs nothing extra and happens on about one departure in four. If you need to descend instead, we walk you down to Kothe. You are always accompanied.

No. The Hinku Valley has no clinic, no road and no aid post like the one at Pheriche on the Everest trail. The nearest medical care is in Kathmandu, reached by helicopter. For this reason, we ask to see insurance that covers climbing to 6,500 m and helicopter evacuation before you fly to Lukla.

You need three: the NMA climbing permit for Mera, the Makalu Barun National Park entry permit, and the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit, which is bought in Lukla. All three are included in the package price. A refundable garbage deposit is paid for each team and returned when the team brings its rubbish back.

No. A climbing permit replaces it, and the Khumbu stopped using TIMS in 2018 in favour of the municipality permit. Some other operators still list it for Mera, but you do not need to buy one.

You need a policy that specifically covers mountaineering or high-altitude trekking to at least 6,500 m, including helicopter evacuation and repatriation. Standard travel insurance rarely covers this, and an upgrade limited to 6,000 m is not enough for this peak. Please send us the certificate before you fly.

You stay in simple lodges as far as Khare, with plywood walls, a stove in the dining room and no heating in the bedrooms. Above Khare, you spend two nights in tents at 5,350 m and 5,780 m. We supply a sleeping bag rated to minus twenty and a mat, and at high camp you sleep in your down jacket.

It is unreliable, and there is none above Khare. Lodges from Kothe upwards charge around $3 to $5 per device and sell data cards that work when the signal is good. There is no wifi or charging at base camp or high camp. Bring a power bank, keep it inside your sleeping bag at night, and let people at home know that you may be out of contact.

There is a screened toilet tent with a drum, which we carry back out. It is cold and the least comfortable part of the trip, but it keeps waste off the mountain, which has suffered from it for thirty years. Please use it rather than the snow.

The NMA royalty for a peak of this height is $350 per climber in spring and $175 in autumn, winter and summer. This $175 difference accounts for the whole price difference on this page. We pass it on at cost rather than charging an averaged price all year.

International flights, your Nepal visa, insurance, personal climbing equipment if you do not hire ours, drinks, hot showers, charging, wifi and tips. Budget $300 to $500 in cash, in addition to tips. There are no ATMs in the Hinku Valley and no card machines above Lukla.

Book two to three months ahead for October and November, because Lukla flights and the better lodges at Khare fill early. Six weeks is usually enough for spring. We have arranged a climbing permit in five days when a place became free, so it is always worth asking.