The Three Passes Trek is reputedly the second toughest trek in Nepal after the Dhaulagiri Circuit.
It has come to my attention that some folks still can’t visualise what this trek is going to be like. Let me explain. Imagine a camel’s back with two humps which represent peaks on a mountain range. The pass is the gap in between.
Now imagine the camel’s belly as the valley. Crossing a pass means climbing up the flank to the gap between the humps and descending on the other flank to a different valley. While the pass is lower than the peaks on the range, it’s still a considerable challenge to cross it, especially at altitudes above 5000m where the availability of oxygen is just half that at sea level.
In the Everest Three Passes Trek, Knapsack Treks takes on 3 five thousand-metre passes in the Everest Region of Nepal consecutively. Imagine 3 camels.
- Kongma La 5550m (between the Imja Valley and the Khumbu Valley),
- Cho La 5420m (between the Khumbu Valley and the Gokyo Valley),
- Renjo La 5360m (between the Gokyo Valley and the Bhote Kosi Valley) back to back.
If time permits, this trek will also include Ama Dablam (6812m) base camp 4600m, Chukung Ri 5546m and Gokyo Ri 5357m.
Starting 9 November 2022. For up to date reports, please tune in to Chan Joon Yee’s Facebook. Below is a virtual tour planned for 2020. I completed the trek in 16 days in 2022. The actual trek is documented here.
That’s the theory on “paper”. The actual execution is documented here.