I first became aware of the existence of Ama Dablam when a friend had just returned from Everest Basecamp, and showed me their photos from the trip. It immediately became one of my favourite mountains, and one of the primary reasons I wanted to visit the Everest Region of Nepal.

Fast forward to 2022 and I would find myself making my way to Ama Dablam Basecamp as part of my acclimatisation ahead of Kongma La. My first reaction on seeing Ama Dablam as I left Namche had been that it’s smaller than I was expecting. In hindsight, I’m not entirely sure what I had expected! In Pengboche I would meet a mountain guide named Pasang, who would ask me why I wasn’t going to try and climb the mountain. I got his card and didn’t think much about it at the time.

In early 2023 I set myself a few goals – these included breaking 2h10 on a half marathon (something I achieved within the first three weeks of the year, I would go on to get a 1h57 time a few months later), and to climb my first 6000er. I had considered a few options – one was to head to Aconcagua over December, another was to try Ama Dablam. I was nervous about Ama Dablam – its such an iconic mountain in my mind, can I really even try to climb this legendary peak?

I thought about it for some time, talked to friends, considered my options. Then one day I woke up in the morning with the old saying “do what is meaningful, not what is expedient” in my mind. The answer was obvious, if Aconcagua wasn’t a continent high point, most people wouldn’t even know it existed – while Ama Dablam is one of the most beautiful mountains on the planet. That morning I took my A0 canvas print of Ama Dablam off my wall at home, and put it up on my wall at work so that I would be able to look at the mountain throughout the day. I also messaged Pasang and started planning the trip.

There’s something terrifying about setting a date and booking a flight for a mountain like Ama Dablam. It is said to be technically more difficult than Everest – and for one very specific reason: almost the entire route from camp 1 to camp 2 is rock climbing. To me, though, this wasn’t a negative: I have regularly done rock climbing for more than a decade, including Drakensberg routes on bad quality rock with big exposure. Comparatively, a peak with fixed lines the entire way, meaning I’m effectively on top-rope, is definitely doable.

Since I returned from Nepal in 2022, I have upped my training game significantly. I have run over 1100km, as well as 368km of Drakensberg hiking (admittedly low for me, but my most in a year since lockdown), have started working on my core and upper body, and have done plenty of sessions of stair laps. I won’t pretend to be as fit as I would like to be, but my all-round fitness for 2023 is likely the best it has ever been. And to back this claim up – every distance PB recognised on Strava from 400m to a full marathon is a time I have set in 2023.

So after setting a PB at work by getting my month end done in 3 days (previous best: 8 days), I found myself on a flight to Doha.

My layover in Doha was only around two hours, so no rush in getting through the airport, but barely enough time to grab anything to eat or charge my phone.

Coming into land at Kathmandu is always insane. The above photo is terrible, but just to illustrate a point in a way that words can’t.

Pasang (+977 984-1443321 – if you’re looking for a guide in the Everest Region) met me at the airport and we went through to Fuji Hotel where I’d be staying for the night. Now before someone comments about how roughly one in seven Sherpa have the name “Pasang”, here’s some background on local culture and traditions:

The Sherpa people are the descendants of the people who crossed over from Tibet about 500 years ago. While Nepal is predominantly Hindu, the Sherpa people are mostly Buddhist. One cannot become a Sherpa, you have to be in the direct bloodline of the Sherpa people.

Regarding naming – a Sherpa baby is taken to the Lama at the local temple to be named. Most children are named after the day of the week they were born on. Pasang, for example, means Friday. Incidentally, on rare occasions a Lama may name a child differently from this convention. For example, Chuldim Sherpa – another very experienced mountain guide who will come into part 3 of this writeup.

We spent the afternoon getting my gear packed and getting everything ready to depart the next morning. Most flights to Lukla now leave from Ramechhap, but Pasang was sure he could find a direct Kathmandu flight – so we didn’t take the afternoon jeep to Ramechhap. The following morning he let me know that a connection had arranged the middle seats on a helicopter for us. Helicopter flights are very expensive, but people want the window seats for these flights, so if you have some patience and know who to talk to, you can often get the middle seats for the same price as a Lukla flight.

There was talk of us getting dropped at Everest View Hotel, seeing as I was already acclimatised to 3300m due to driving to Afriski the weekend before. I wonder in hindsight if this story might have gone differently if we had ended up taking that option.

Returning to the Everest Region was amazing. My 2022 trip had been very special, but I was convinced at the time that I wouldn’t be back for 20+ years.

Landing in Lukla in a helicopter wasn’t as intimidating as I would assume a plane there is. I actually don’t know – I hiked in last year, so I’ve still never landed in a plane at Lukla. It was my first helicopter flight, something that was far less intimidating than I had expected.

Basanta – Pasang’s regular porter in the Everest Region – was waiting for us at the airport. He soon had the bag on his back and was off. We stopped at the tea house just outside the helicopter part of the airport and I had my first Solukhumbu ginger tea in a year. After the disappointing ginger tea I had in Kathmandu, I was happy to get a proper cup here. I don’t know what it is about the Everest Region, but the ginger tea is amazing here.

We soon set off. Pasang had informed me about certain cultural aspects that I had known a year earlier, but had not fully understood. E.g. I know one must always walk clockwise past religious symbols – but what I didn’t know is that this includes flags and basically everything you see on the trail!

L-R Pasang (guide), Basanta (porter) and me.

We stopped for lunch at a tea house with a great view. I posted the photo on whatsapp and joked that its probably the worst lunch stop view I’d have in a few weeks – with these 4000m peaks on either side of the trail. As it turns out, I was correct about this. The views in the Everest Region are so good that views that would be the best view in many countries are just average there.

We soon were at the tea house in Monjo. It was cloudy when we arrived, but there was a 6000er visible behind the tea house when the clouds had cleared in the morning.

I had dal bhat for supper, I had had one in Kathmandu the day before – but I’ve never enjoyed the dal bhat in Kathmandu. This was much better, with insanely good curried vegies – presumably from the garden outside.

When you pass through the gate to Sagarmatha National Park (the Nepali name for Everest), the views immediately start to get more dramatic. On a side note regarding names – Everest has three widely used names:
1) Everest is named after George Everest, who was the British Surveyor General at the time the peak was found to be the highest mountain on earth.
2) Chomolungma – which means “Goddess Mother of the World” in both Sherpa and Tibetan.
3) Sagarmatha – which is Nepali for “Peak of Heaven”

Crossing the bridge where you first see Tabuche was great – it is definitely one of the most spectacular mountains on the planet, albeit less so from the south. A bit higher up both Everest and Lhotse become visible through the trees, although tricky to get a photo of due to the trees.

We stopped in Namche for some momos. Our plan had been to stay here for the evening, but we arrived at 10am, and I was already acclimatised to this elevation – so we decided to push on.

I always chuckle while walking through Namche when I pass the elevation of Mafadi (3451m), the highest point in South Africa.

We walked through Everest View Hotel on the way to Khumjung. It was great to already be able to see Ama Dablam. Unlike a year earlier, I didn’t think it was small this time. Mountains do tend to look larger when one plans to climb them!

We stayed at Pasang’s tea house. His wife is an amazing cook, and it is a very nice tea house. It’s called Hotel Sherpa Altitude and its the only beige tea house in Khumjung – easy to spot from a distance, highly recommended if you’re looking for a place to stay there.

The following morning we hiked up Khunde Peak (4220m) as a bit of an acclimatisation, but stayed in Khumjung again. I was feeling very strong and didn’t find this a challenge at all, but it was nice to have the full afternoon off to sort out my gear and listen to some of my audiobook – which was nearing its exciting conclusion.

Because we were now above what I had acclimatised to, the following day was a short easy push to Phortse. The route we were using is off the standard tourist route, so while we did see a fair number of people, it was much quieter than the EBC trade-route through Tengboche.

We passed some bolted climbs just outside Khumjung. These are used for training by locals. Some of the routes looked really hard.

The trek to Phortse proved easy. While the town usually has electricity, a substation had recently blown, and these take a while to replace in such remote regions, so the power was off at the tea house.

Pasang took me to the local climbing wall to show me the project set up by the Alex Lowe Foundation. There is a library with educational books for children, mountaineering books as well as equipment to train for climbing. It is a great project.

From Phortse we soon found ourselves amongst some large other groups also trying to avoid the usual EBC traffic. The views of Tengboche with Thamserku behind it were really good – although I wasn’t able to get the photo I wanted with the lighting on the day. The following was the best of my many attempts:

We made our way to Pengboche for lunch, where Pasang stores his mountaineering equipment.

I tried on a down suit – my first time wearing one.

After a very long stop in Pangboche, we continued up the valley to Pheriche. I hadn’t been to the town previously, having crossed Kongma La from Chuckhung to Lobuche in 2022. The views of Tabuche and Cholatse from my bedroom were great!

What wasn’t great, however, was that I was starting to feel the symptoms of flu. I had encountered so many sick people over the last few days that I had been worried this could happen. I rarely get sick, so I was hoping it wouldn’t be a major issue. It wasn’t altitude sickness, while there can be an overlap in symptoms – it definitely wasn’t that.

The following day was a rest/acclimatisation day up Nangkartshang. In 2022 I had gone from Pangboche to Dingboche, plus climbed Nangkartshan all in a day. So when I was struggling to get up Nangkartshang, I was starting to get worried about the flu.

We got to the top in decent time, but a lot slower than I was happy with.

On getting back to Pheriche, I made sure I drank a lot of mint and ginger tea as well as water – of all the times in my life that I really can’t get sick…