I owe our success in reaching the Mera Peak summit safely to our amazing guide Lal and his amazing team of porters! We were a team of four women and we had a 100% summit success rate.
Lal went above and beyond from Day 1 when I missed my connecting flight to Kathmandu from Guangzhou due to bad weather in China. I finally arrived in Kathmandu late at night, tired and stressed out about my bags since it did not make my flight. As soon as Lal found out that I made it to Kathmandu, he made it to the airport in a flash, waiting to pick me up and take me to the hotel with a warm smile and a big welcome – and this was really late at night! When my airline failed to get my bag in time for the trek, Lal organised my luggage to arrive in Lukla before I even made it to Lukla! My luggage had all my gear and summit clothing, without this luggage I could not have started the trek and Mera Peak climbing. It was a huge relief seeing my luggage and it was all thanks to Lal and his efficiency for getting my luggage in time. There would have been no other way.
This was my first time doing a multi day trek, let alone climbing a mountain, I was nervous but Lal made sure I enjoyed the trek and most importantly I was safe. Lal and his team made sure it was their priority to make sure we were well prepared, safe, looked after and most importantly we all make it to the top. Little things like telling us to slow down while ascending to make sure we don’t get altitude sickness, while other groups sped in front of us and did not make the summit because they were sick, making sure we were all well fed so that we had all the energy to endure the full 13 days, giving us water when we ran out of our own and believing in us all added up to our successful Mera Peak summit! His porter team Bupendra and Tula Raj all took turns to lead the party and helped us to carry our gear.
Every morning we would wake up and see their smiley faces ready to start the day trekking, while they were getting ready to carry our 50kg bags in tough terrain. Without hesitation, Lal and his porter team always offered a hand when us ladies weren’t comfortable going down a steep hill and believe me the passes were insane! They made the trip much more enjoyable and memorable as we all had our funny and scary moments together.
Mera Peak Summit day was unbelievably the hardest and craziest day of my life! One to remember for the rest of our lives but we couldn’t have made it without his team, his positivity and his patience. It took us 6 hours to reach the summit and Lal was with us every step of the way – feeding us snacks, opening our water bottles so that we can drink, carried our back packs to putting our polarised sunglasses on our faces to protect us from the sun. His team absolutely went above and beyond! Making the summit was an epic experience and to do it with a team that we grew closely with, who supported and believed in us made the experience even more special.
Lal and his team were always looking out for us and I could not be more grateful. We were constantly surrounded by positive attitude the whole way up and the whole way down, even after our summit day.
Although, we successfully summited and made it to Lukla, Lal did not stop working. Leaving Lukla was such a mess and super stressful as I had an international flight to make. Lal was always alert, always on call to see if there was an available seat for me on any of the outgoing flights.
Lal is honest and professional and I would definitely choose Nepal Intrepid Treks again. What an incredible ascent. I will never forget this trip. Until then my friend!
