Rising high above Nepal’s Khumbu Valley, Island Peak is one of the most accessible and rewarding climbs in the Himalaya. In this adventure narrative, I relate the challenge of ascending this striking peak of ice and rock, sharing the physical demands, high-altitude beauty, and quiet moments of reflection found along the way. Part travel memoir and part mountaineering story, it captures the spirit of climbing in the shadow of Mount Everest.
Prologue:
Coincidentally, on a Peru trek 2 months earlier one of the trekkers, Jake, said for our trek we should look up ‘Ang Kami’. When we had our first meeting with Mike Cheney who we’d been telexing & writing to, he said our sirdar would be Ang Kami. “S“ure”, I thought, “that’s a common name”. but when Kami came in & I mentioned Jake, his face lit up and he said ”Yes, Jake! My very good friend!”. And I thought, “Kami, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
After spending several days in Kathmandu searching the bazaars for supplies & food for our trek, registering our visas, & obtaining trekking & climbing permits, we left Kathmandu with 35 porters and a kitchen crew, paying off porters as their loads were consumed over the 2 week trek to the Khumbu Himal – climbing 50,000’ and descending 40,000’ , going against the grain while crossing numerous river valleys to arrive at Namche Bazaar .
After Namche we paid the remaining dozen porters and hired 6 Sherpanis, several yaks and a herder for the next, higher, stages in the mountains.
October 28th, 1979, Sunday. Heading to Island Peak Base camp
Last night it seemed like we were about to get run over by yaks several times — their bells came right up to the tent and then veered away.
Sun hit us early today so gotta crawl out of the bag soon. Lay awake awhile last night till I finally took a Valium. No altitude effects this morning, though.
All peaks to the South of us lit by early morning light. Again, didn’t have the move to enjoy it! Lhotse brightly behind us now after being hidden in clouds yesterday.
. Sherpanis singing while waiting for us to get our yax in gear!
10 AM 16,500 feet.- Lunch – Nice start to the morning, but caught on the wrong side of the river, too high. Its running faster than the other day and large sections iced. Finally found a place where I could boulder/ice hop across in my tennies then up rotten moraine. Trail from here quite easy. Views continue on all sides, especially E face of Ama Dablam. Walking past Nuptse and Lhotse wall. (or as we say ‘Lhotse, Nuptse & cottontail) Moraine ends and we dropped down to the valley formed by Imja Kola and more moraines. Damn photographic yaks still sucking up my film.
From here, Island Peak’s taking form of a real mountain. As Terry said, anywhere else it would be a major summit. Here it often blends in like Disappointment Peak in the Tetons.
High cirrus blocking out most of the blue sky. Mountains creating cumulus as usual! Warm now, but not for long at this rate. Checking watch intermittently- pulse 80.
17,000’ – Base camp. Finished the moraine field to find old lakebed. Kami says about 10 years ago it dried up. Pass last of a climbing party coming out with yaks and porters.
Then steady across the tundral moraine. Gained a fair bit., with only two breaths per pace. Eventually the yaks complained, so it became our camp. Clouds billowing dramatically thousands of feet below us like a stormy sea. Can see most of the way to the summit of Island Peak, mostly rock.
June freaked again and wanted to go down. She belongs on Mazama trail trips. Kami and Sherpanis built great, flat platforms. And, as usual, wouldn’t let us help at all. Intermittent blue skies sneaking in.
Headache starting but took codeine. Mists rising to form lacy clouds. Winds died down. Had a nice nap earlier waiting for the porters. Ground warm. Then sun obscured. The nascent clouds dusted us with light snow. Then drifted down the valley. Requested and got a big tea: cookies, cashews and dry granola bars. So hungry I could even eat the latter. Getting brighter already. Nice spot to read a little Aristotle in Durants’ ‘’Story of Philosophy”
Sun’s out again, peaks gleaming in all directions. All packed for tomorrow: heavy bigger lens since it’ll be too cold to change lenses. Basic double layer of pants and shirts, Dacron, but not additional outer Gortex parka; for hands, 1st layer Helly Mitts, Dachsteins and overmitts;overboots.
Campsites keep getting more spectacular. Misty evening again. Supper time in our tents: first course, soup and I spill some on my bag yet again. (We figure in desperation we can stew sleeping bags and recover all the soup and dinner spilt on them,) then, noodles with cabbage and freeze dried veggies.
October 29th Monday – we climb Island Peak
2 inches of granular snow last night. Enough to cover everything and make it slippery but should go away soon after the sun hits. Sunrise slowly creeping up on Ama Dablam down the valley
Sun helpfully hit us fairly early and we were off soon. Double ration of cookies for breakfast – so stuff extras in pockets for climb. Pretty warm right now. Stripped to fishnet pants, wool pants and open wool shirt. Made 1000 feet in first hour on frozen lichen basted granite mixed with snow covered rocks. Steady pace. Saw avalanche sweep entire rock face of Tabuchi across the valley. Also saw Teschi Lapcha pass far off in the distance – at 19,000’ we’ll cross it a week from now.
Quick couple of pitches on 3rd class rock- Gain another 1000 feet puffing quite a lot. Varying between two and three breaths per step, except for Kami; others far behind. Rest step so basic to maintain a steady pace, but many folk don’t use it. . Almost none of the previous coughing – breathing problems, I had at altitude in Peru 3 months ago.
Another 500-600 feet on granodiorite slabs & boulders. Then final snow fields at about 19,500 feet. Long break here while we roped up with clouds coming in. Back on with wool shirt over fishnet shirt, Helly mitts perfect for climbing. Then started up again. – crappy snow – melt and remelt with no real consolidation. June yelling at Dale for making his steps too big. (He was ). Very slow going. Instead of Foot planting. Dale tried to make steps with his ice axe; exhausting but he wouldn’t switch leads.
Brain fog – tempted to turn back seeing no reason to continue; too many hassles with J&D in bad snow, worsening weather. But with only 400 feet left, felt I could make it at the slowest rest step – 3-4 breathes for each step as the windblown snow was now knee deep and we weren’t sure how solid the cornice was. Somehow, we plogged on – seemingly taking forever foot by foot until there was no more up. 21,000+’ – higher than Denali, but a bit easier to climb. Incredible views across to the Lhotse wall climbing up another 5000+’ (and blocking a view of Everest)
Too cold to stay long, with weather closing in. The snow’d been deep & crappy & we were tired so we roped up to descend with only 30-40’ spacing, alternating belays. Light wind launching earlier loose snow which then catches the glint of the sun as it scattered beautifully across the valley. We dropped down to a notch giving some protection.
From here. We could see Makalu 1 and 2 And Langu Himal then Ama Dablam and on around, missing only Nuptse. Starting to get slight headache.
Sat at the saddle till about 2. Clouds moved in quicker today. Started down, steady graupel pelting us. Granite sections weren’t bad – mostly second class, but lower sections pretty slippery. Headache worse (but great color phosphenes when I closed my eyes.) Finally in range of camp. Sherpanis greeted us with cups of hot chocolate and soon after plates of freeze dried steak, sausages and turmeric boiled potatoes. Snow letting up. Codeine reduced the headache.
Lying in bag. Only an hour ago was trudging down. Head banging, Snow swirling all around. And starving. Now almost contented. All downhill from here for next few days.
One of the nicest things about trekking is how easily hardships are assimilated and forgotten so quickly. We even had supper – We thought we’d had it earlier – Mountain House Shrimp Creole, beans on rice, canned pineapple.
Reading Francis Bacon to Spinoza chapters tonight. In sleeping bag. Pleasant way to end the day. Moon rapidly growing full. Valleys lit by it now. Stars returning as snow stops and clouds cling only to the hills and mountains reappear.
Patchy blue sky now, while still snowing lightly. Tomorrow we’ll head towards Thyangboche for the Mani Rimdu festival, probably taking three days to get there.
October 30th Tuesday. Back down to Dingboche at 14,150’ – happy to be at height of Rainier summit
New accumulation of snow greets our descent June and Dale head east on frosty rocks, cursing and slipping all the way. Terry and I just looked west, saw no frost, and trotted on down.
Coda: Another Kami story
On a trek escorting 20 people, he took them up Mera Peak without a permit. A government helicopter saw and reported them. Officials in Namche started to give him hell, threatening to send him to jail. They were about to do so until they realized Kami’s uncle worked for the Prime Minister. Problem solved.
Back in Kathmandu, Kami’s uncle showed up
- Kami “Namaste “
- Uncle: “SHE-IT”
- Kami: “Namaste”
- Uncle: “Shit – If you want a permit, come ask me and don’t make such a fuss”
So now it seems Kami has pretty much blanket permission to climb peaks up to 22,000 feet and, unlike others, only needs to pay the fee afterwards if successful.
- Island Peak Nepal
- Himalayan climbing
- Khumbu Valley trekking
- Nepal mountaineering
- Island Peak expedition
- Himalaya adventure travel
- Everest region trekking
- Sherpa culture Nepal
- climbing memoir Himalayas
