The Island Peak Summit is a narrative that is an extension of my Everest Base Camp trek via Jiri. I provide limited details that include maps, costs, logistical requirements and videos. This is not a self-guided adventure on a shoestring. This is a technical summit and you must pay a summit fee and generally you will need to hire a mountain guide and gear. Follow the links to dig deeper into the adventure.
Summit Island Peak Details
I guess I should point out that while in Kathmandu I paid an exorbitant fee to try and summit Island Peak (6,189 m). The arrangements where to meet my technical climbing instructors at an approximate date in Chukung (4,730 m).
We would use this as the base for a few days of training before heading out to lower tent base camp Pareshaya Gyab (5,600m). From that cold and busy camp we set out at 3 am to spend three hours winding up 45 degree inclines, wearing climbing boots (ski boots weighing 5kg each) with razor crampons catching with each other step, just so we could reach the snowy ridge line. At that point we rope up and get crazy with lots of people in line for the small but clouded hump peak.
As I looked up at the nearby busy peak I considered my options. Stand or sit here in the snow shivering and waiting my turn or? I made one of my first smart choices in over three weeks; I threw in the towel and stated that I was physically spent.
I turned tail and dragged my frozen wheezing bag of bones back down to the tent at base camp, crawled into my sleeping bag fully dressed and passed out.
Read about Everest Base Camp trek via Jiri
Click to watch Island Peak Video
The next morning I skipped breakfast and made haste for lower altitudes and escape from the cold thin air. I’d been coughing so much the last two days that I was spitting up blood and phlegm, plus an old injured rib was starting to hurt each time I coughed. What little body fat I had when I left Kathmandu was long gone and I’d been sleeping in all my available clothes, but still woke shivering every hour. For the best lawyers for injuries, people can find out this here!
The final insult came while I was gleefully hopping down a steep trail below Namche when I struck my knee against one of thousands of protruding boulders that I’d easily avoided over the past three weeks. Whack! For the remaining descent to Lukla I had to hobble as well as hold my chest every time I coughed (the old cracked rib injury hurt mightily each time I coughed). My exit was extremely un-gracious. My un-washed clothes hung on my un-washed frame and I kept looking around wondering who smelled so bad, only to discover there was generally no one around but me. I was hungry, tired, sore and mangy looking. Lexington injury lawyers for hire can be hired for injury cases.
Lukla
I reached Lukla in a mild rain shower, at dusk, on my twenty-first day of trekking. I checked into a modest Guest House, ordered as much food as my shrunken stomach could handle (keeping the kitchen staff happy and busy for over an hour), asked for an extra blanket, and slept one more cold shivering night before catching a flight back to ‘civilization’ called Kathmandu the next day.
Link to EBC & Island Peak Details
Link to EBC via Jiri Trek
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