Climbing Kyajo Ri in the Khumbu Region of Nepal

This blog post comes from Connie Garrett of Bozeman, Montana. You may remember Connie from a previous post about the clothing drive she has put together to benefit the Khumbu Climbing School. Connie is a Backcountry.com customer who we've teamed up with to help support as she heads to Nepal this October.

Nestled along the line of magnificent peaks of the Khumbu Himal region, Kyajo Ri rises 20,290 feet from the Thame valley to the west and the Gokyo valley to the east. Just 26 days and 10,990 feet of climbing will bring our team to the sharp defined summit just about on Halloween!

Reaching base camp is most of the adventure. Beginning in Lukla, Nepal, our team will nearly circumnavigate Kyajo Ri before beginning essentially a 4-day climb. Beginning by trekking into the hills of Namche Bazar where a rest day hike brings us to Khumjung, 12,600 ft, for a view of Mt. Everest and Ama Dablam. From here our team climbs passes and sweeps into valleys as we make our way from Machhermo around to Mende and a faint yak trail that leads the way to base camp. Only one additional camp will be established on the mountain at 17,500 before our ascent to the summit. On summit day we cross the Kyajo glacier to a talus and easy rock section leading to the southwest ridge at 18,700 feet. Here we climb 10 pitches of steep snow and ice to the sharp narrow wedge of snow at the summit. Our decent follows the ascent by way of rappel, down climbing, and lowering.

After a few photos it'll be all downhill from there. Once I return to the U.S. I'll be writing a trip report about the climb and will also report on the clothing drive. Thanks to everyone for your donations and well wishes.

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If you're interested in donating some clothing be sure to get in touch with Connie this week. Her information can be found on the Clothing Drive Post

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