DOSSIER:  Peaks
Pisang Peak
Mera Peak
Imja Tse (Island Peak)

At closer examination, the Himalayan mountaineers’ story is not only about Everest and Nepal’s seven other summits above 8,000m.  It is about the challenges of peaks that only by the extreme standards of the Himalaya are ‘lesser’.  These are the peaks on which ‘the greats’ cut their teeth and their first ice-steps and from which they learned the awesome truths of the High Himalaya.

Here are three such peaks.  If they are three of the better known, it is because each combines a relative accessibility with a call for courage and care in something like equal ration and - in a kind of contract - in return, presents high adventure and pure wonder. 

Were it to be assumed that perhaps you are not climbing in preparation for yet greater heights, you would surely then be doing so for the best of all reasons - that is for your own personal challenge and for its own sake.

Altitude & Attitude - There is of course one dramatic difference between these and the highest of all peaks.  Affordability.  Most likely you

are well aware that all 8,000m expeditions in Nepal are huge, big production ‘big ticket items’, whereas these peaks here – still pretty major mountaineering expeditions – offer exceptional value, probably at no more than the price of a pampered holiday! 

MERA, IMJA TSE and PISANG PEAKS open a new world to people without much – if any – prior technical experience.  But only on the strict condition of being led by an experienced and superbly trained high-altitude climbing Sherpa.  Thus this is uppermost; not even perfect boots nor sexy sunglasses nor high-tech thermals are close to being quite so indispensable.

And you will learn…..and you will be proficient with the tools; the ropes, ice axes and crampons.  And you will have a support team of trekking sirdar, cooks and porters, who merely flourish at lower altitudes only to excel higher up.

Shelves full of books tell of climbing as a metaphor for life and it certainly can contain the conundrum of being both an individual and a united goal.  Indeed at its best that’s what it is, and, to succeed, that’s what it needs to be.  Your personal input can make the crucial difference.