19/08/2026
A series of images from a month in the Himalayas back in May, flying into and trekking from Lukla up the Hinku Valley with the aim of summiting Mera Peak (6476m).
The first week after flying into Lukla, it rained more or less constantly as we moved from village to village and teahouse to teahouse acclimatising steadily. It was only higher up the valley as we approached the glacial moraine and the alpine environment that we were granted views of the summits above and warmer, clearer, sunnier days.
From the highest refuge, we had multiple acclimatisation days moving up higher and higher towards Basecamp and the Mera La Pass before ascending to high camp at 6000m. Here we'd spend a very short night before the long summit push.
For the majority of the team, the alarm went off at 0100 for the big day and Mera Peak was a success. My journey, however, ended very abruptly at high camp where I contracted severe altitude sickness overnight and had to be evacuated by helicopter back to Kathmandu the same morning the team set out for the summit. After 12 days on the trail, I found myself back in the city and looking out of a hospital window (second last photo) within a matter of hours, where I stayed for the following few days under observation. Keeping in touch with the team still up on the mountain after having been suddenly plucked from the situation was a strange feeling, but I was glad to hear they'd made it to the top.
Once discharged, I enjoyed a slower pace and spent the next week wandering around the city, seeing the sights, eating plentifully and training with new friends at Crossfit Npl (of course) until reuniting with the team at the end of their return trek out of the mountains.
A very memorable experience for my first venture to Nepal and to high altitude, and one that I learnt a lot from. Needless to say that I'm extremely thankful to the guides on the trip who recognised the symptoms and made the urgent call to extract me when they did, or this could have been a very different story.
I'll be back 🏔️🇳🇵
