Kanchenjunga Base Camp

Kangchenjuna (8598 m), RIGHT, third highest mountain in the world. View from Kangchenjunga Base Camp at around 5000 m altitude. Nepal Peak to the left. with Sherpa guide (Sirdar) Phurba Sherpa. Temperature around -2 Celcius during the day in November, much lower (-20 to -25?) during the night. (Click on picture for large format)

The Kanchenjunga trek is in Eastern Nepal.

Photos:

Kanchenjunga Base Camp with a view at Nepal Peak. Knachenjunga in the clouds far right.
Yannu Mountain (7710 m) and Yannu Glacier.
Chang Himal Mountain Range (6750 m).
Sinion La pas (4800 m) with the Jannu Mountain (7710 m).
Phurba Sherpa at the Sinion La pas (4800 m) with a view at the Mount Everest in the far distance.
Ang Yokphu Sherpa with a view at the Khumbu Himal Mountain Range.
The three Tamang porter girls: Sanghita, Parvati en Puterly. Unbeatable.
The three Tamang porter girls, bed time.
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Kanchenjunga Base Camp

Kachenjunga has 2 base camps: Base Camp North at Pang Pema and Basecamp South at Ramjee. Both base camps are at an altitude of about 5000 meter and offer spectacular vies at the Kanchenjunga. For a trek to one of the base camps you could fly to Tapjejung, but the Stol air strip is often closed because of dense fog. In such cases, the trekking personel if forced to wait for days for your arrival with the equipment and this is a poor start of the trek. Some trekkers take the bus from Kathmandu to Basantapur which takes 2-3 days, not very inviting.

We did a reconnaissance of the trek in 1998 with Ang Phurba Sherpa, a very experienced "Sirdar" (guide and camp manager) as he has done the trek already 22 times for Iceland Trekking.

On 26 October we took a plane to Biratnagar with Necon Air which took 35 minutes. At the landing strip, our Sherpas were already waiting with the bus. They slept in the bus after a 24 hour ride from Kathmandu and were reasonable fit considering the long trip.

This period of the year is notorious for poor weather lasting normally 3-4 days which already passed. Before arriving in Basantapur there are excellent camping spots and we enjoyed a very relaxed start of the trek.

The trek takes us in 3 days through the hilly terrane of around 3000 meters with manificent millenium old, original forests. Near Dhoban we walk along the Tamur River at an altitude of only 800 meters! We pass scenic hamlets, forests and rice fields, and after a lot of going up and down, we arrive at the village of Ghunsa located at an altitude of 3400 meter. We are now already 2 days in an area where a large number of Tibetan refugees have settled. All houses have prayer flags and the local population of Ghunsa is very friendly. The father-in-law of Dorji Sherpa, a co-director of Iceland Trekking, lives here and participants of our treks will be invited to get a welcome ceremony at a warm camp fire. After Gunsa, we are climbing slowly to Kambachen and Kachenjunga Base Camp North at Pang Pema to avoid high altitude sickness.

En route the high altitude mountains are getting more and more scenic with unique views near Kambachen to the Jannu Mountain (7710 meter). Note that the nights past Lhonak (day 12) at an altitude of 4750 meter are very cold (-8 to -15 degrees Celcius)! After magnificent panoramic views near the hamlet of Pang Pema (day 13) we will head back to Ghunsa and traverse the Sinion La and Mirgin La passes, both at 4800 meter in a rugged terrane.

The descent to Tseram (3900 meter) is long and at Tseram several trekking groups camp. Until 1998 the number of groups was reasonable but is on the increase as many groups are heading for the Kachenjunga South Base Camp. Due to poor weather we decided to walk back to Taplejung in only 5 days.

The flight back from Taplejung must be confirmed carefully. We easily received OK seats, thanks to Tendy Sherpa who carefully organized the trek.

The trek takes 24 days without Basecamp South and 26-28 with.

Inviting trekking peaks are past Pang Pema, like the 6850 meter high Drohma Peak which could be combined with the trek at request.

The level of the trek is 3-4.

Photos from a trek in the Kangchejunga region of Nepal, October/November 1999.

Photos from a 4 week trek in the Kangchenjunga region of Nepal in October and November 1999. To see each one, click on the title in the first column below, then return to the index using your browser's "Back" button.