Island Peak Climbing with Everest Base Camp

We have just had a fantastic time on our Ama Dablam Basecamp trek guided by Dipendra (aka Dipu) taking care of everything and supporting us every step of the way. Suman carried all our gear with a smile and we couldn’t be happier with how the trip went. Everyone should go and trek in the Himalayas with these guys! Thanks to Dipak who organised it all from start to finish. We’ll be back!

What an incredible trip we just had! We went on an 18 day trip with the objective to climb Imja Tse and to enjoy the beauty of the Solo Khumbu region en route. The team at Trekking Planner were fabulous in allowing us to create an individual trip just for our family of three. Right from the initial planning, the welcoming pickup at the airport, organizing and getting us on a flight to Lukla, when all planes were grounded, the trek and climb itself all the way to the final goodbyes in Kathmandu, both Dipak and our guide, Gyaljen, were simply fantastic in giving us the best ever trip and adventure. If you are looking for a truly competent team that is not only professional, but also personal, I cannot reccommend Trekking Planner more highly. You will be in good hands and they are able to accommodate changes at a moments notice, if inclement weather makes it neccessary. This allowed us to make our trip succeed and to get us to the summit. We enjoyed our trip so much that we will return and will do our trip planning with Trekking Planner.

I just returned from my first trip to Nepal, organized with the support of Trekking Planner! I decided to trek to EBC and climb IP! Despite difficult weather conditions, I managed to complete the entire plan. I am 100% satisfied with the organization of the entire trip, the clear communication, and the full availability of the owner – he patiently answered all my questions and concerns. I will definitely use this company again because I value the comfort of my trip! I highly recommend them!

Throughout the entire journey, Sonam took excellent care of our needs. Even though our physical stamina was not at its best and we progressed very slowly, Sonam was attentive to every one of our requirements. At the same time, Trekking Planner provided exceptional service. Despite our flight from Hong Kong to Nepal being significantly delayed, Trekking Planner still arranged to pick us up in the middle of the night. This level of service is undoubtedly deserving of a perfect score of 100. I highly recommend Sonam as a guide for anyone looking to challenge themselves with Island Peak or Mera Peak.

This is a top agency with a clear focus on the customer. My trip was perfectly organized and Gyeljen, the guide who accompanied me, made the whole experience (Everest Base Camp & Climbing Island Peak) unforgettable. I can only recommend working with Trekking Planner!

Back in 2019 I had Ngima as my guide for the Everest basecamp trek and Gyeljen as guide for climbing Island Peak. I met Gyeljen the day before going to Island Peak Basecamp. Both where incredible strong and fit with a well understanding of safety. Gyeljen was able to read my fitness and mental level. He made an assemt that I was able to climb island peak, even though we where delayed due to a snowstorm during the night and morning. A correct assessment as we summited in 5 hours later with high spirits and smiling all the way. Ngima created an authentic experience as he took me to good teahouses where I spend hours talking with locals. All in all, I will gladly recommend both as guides. It is not just the guides that did well. Trekking planner was quick to respond and easy communicate with. They also had very competitive price levels and where ready to lend me a sleeping back and a down jacket.

First for Trekking Planner: I found this agency probably more than 6 months ago. From day one communication was fantastic. I never considered going through anyone else. These guys gave an old broken down man the opportunity of a lifetime to fulfill a dream. They gave me everything I needed to make an attempt on a 6189M Peak. I had every tool necessary to make this dream come true. From hotels, tea houses, food, flights you name it they had it there for me. Sometimes success is based on final results and that goes for the company as well as the client. You folks that know me know I am a ABC 123 type of guy. I don't believe in partisanship trophies, either you win or you lose no middle ground. But in this case and I believe in mountaineering there is a thing in my mind called "Live to climb another day". So the fact that I didn't make it to the summit is no reflection on Trekking Planner. I would recommend these guys to any and everyone that would ask me where to go. Now my Porter: I don't really like the word "porter" so let's make that clear. My friend Karma Sherpa also joined on this trip. What Karma did was he saw a friend, a weaker friend try something that was going to be very tough. So Karma took up his weaker friend's bag and said "let's go, I got you". I called him the "ghost" because he would be there then he was gone. Then I would get to my next destination and my bag would be there. Karma was not only a strong and powerful friend but also an honorable friend. The joke was give me 2 steps and I would be going the wrong way. He was always there to help look out for me. But most importantly Karma Sherpa shared his family with me. He invited me into his home and treated me like family. I will never forget all he has done for me. Now to the most important person of the trip, my friend Gyeljen Sherpa who happened to be my guide. First off I don't have to tell anyone just how good he was and is. You would know that by his peers up and down our trek/climb. There would sometimes be no periods between where someone would want to come up and talk to him or to just shake his hand. This happened many times I lost count. Everybody wanted some of his time and this went on for weeks. At the early stages of the trek I became very ill. Gyeljen saw this and was very worried about me. He made sure I was moved to a better room that would help me through this sickness. I was throwing up other things and he knew the og room I was in would not work. For the next 14 hrs he helped nurse me back to health. The results were pretty amazing because I was back and ready to go. Everything was going very smoothly from that point on. Then came summit day on Island Peak. We got a very early start and things were going well. What wasn't really known was I had hurt a rib a few weeks prior to this trip but I was still determined to go. We made our way up the rocks with me starting to struggle a bit. Seeing this Gyeljen attached me to a role just for my safety. We had climbed for what seemed several hrs with my pace slowing and needing more stops. Checking my O2 levels became something we did very regularly at this point. Moving forward I started needing rest about every 5 steps or so. As I remember I could see the lights from other climbers that had reached crampon point. We might have been in the 5700M range, maybe higher maybe a touch lower I am not positive. I remember around this time the climbers above got a bit confused so they called down for Gyeljen help which he gave gladly. So they were able to move on from this point. As for me, I started losing feelings in my hands even though I had very good gloves and liners. Gyeljen tried to help me by rubbing my hands to get some feeling back but was unable to. At this point my O2 levels were dropping pretty fast and the headache I had went from the right middle side of my head to the very back bottom of my head. My decision making was becoming cloudy. As we sat and talked about certain outcomes I was having a harder time making any decisions. I remember looking up into his eyes and saying "I don't know what to do". I said this maybe a few times, I'm not positive. Then I started thinking about what if we continue for the next 30-60 mins and I don't get better that's just that much more we would have to go down. Then I thought about my family and remembered I promised them I would not die on this Peak, it was not summit at all cost. Plus if I had become unresponsive he would have had to carry me all the way down which would have put his life in danger. But like he told me his job was to take care of me at all costs.The decision should have been easy but it wasn't. I struggled to make the call, to either say I quit or say "live to climb another day". So I called it and said let's go down. This was not easy for me as most of you that know me can understand. But I truly believe that had I decided to continue it was most likely a very short time that my friend was going to turn me around. He was very worried about me and my safety, I could see it in his eyes. So we started down with him having me roped up so if I fell he could stop the fall which did happen a few times. It seemed like it took a very long time to get down. My head was still pounding and I was still a bit cloudy. In my mind I believe he could have saved my life. I don't know that for certain and we will never know. What we do know was that I was headed in the wrong direction. For the rest of that day he checked on me over and over making sure I was resting ok. Not long after that point I decided it was time to head down the trail. Trekking Planner had set up a really cool deal for me at EBC but my body said no. So for the next few days Gyeljen kept a close eye on me to make sure I was OK and that everything felt good. As I lay here in bed looking back over the last 3 weeks I realized the only thing that let me down on this trip was my body. If I ever come back to Nepal there is only one guide I want and that is my friend Gyeljen Sherpa, he truly is the best. His caring and compasion on top of mountaineering skills are 2nd to none. I am proud to call him my friend. In closing this trip was beyond everything I could have ever hoped for. Trekking Planner helped an old man have the time of his life. Thank you so very much for everything you have all done for me. Dreams can come true.

+6

This was first visit to Nepal and I was very pleased to have Trekking Planner organise my trip to Sagarmatha Park. As an experienced outdoors person, I had some ideas about what I wanted to do during my stay, and Dipak was very helpful and responsive to my enquiries before arriving. I was especially pleased with how flexible we could make the trip along the way, we changed which peaks we decided to climb for the trip no problem, and adjusted our stays along the trails as we made good trekking progress. I was also very impressed by the professional service, knowledge and humor of my local guides Pemba Sherpa and Gyaljen Sherpa. I learnt a lot during the trip about the peaks in the region and the local sherpa history and way of life from these two guys. Achieving my goals during my visit would have been far more difficult without these two

Three passes Kongma La Cho La and Renjo La, three peaks: Chhukung Ri, Kala Patthar and Gokyo Ri. Everest base camp.