I have just returned 2 days ago from a mountaineering expedition in Nepal – haven’t even finished unpacking yet. My fingers are still a wee bit frost-bitten, and fatigue hits me at various odd, unpredictable times – cue post-breakfast 9am naps, that kind of thing!
And since I haven’t yet come down from my brilliant mountain high, this review is the perfect way to relive a super fun, super professional experience with the one and only White Magic Adventure.
I have travelled and trekked and climbed with the wonderful folk at WM for nigh on 12 years now, since my first ever technical climb with them in August 2013. And I have never been let down by the company, which maintains a consistently high standard of care and professionalism.
We were 3 climbers from the outset, with a 4th climber joining us just before we set off for Base Camp. Continuing the trend of all my WM trips, 2/4 of us were repeat climbers…as I’ve said here on many occasions, WM has a solid core group of loyal, repeat clients. I have never been on a White Magic trip where everyone was a first-timer…
I climbed Lobuche East almost 2 years ago to the day with Gaurav Vohra, and with dear Gombu Sherpa who was part of our very strong WM Sherpa team. Dear Ming Temba, last seen in November, was with us. Our leader Karma Sherpa was part of my Gangotri 1 climb in 2021.
Even one of the porters was a familiar face, from Manaslu 2 years ago.
So there is always a lovely feeling of “coming home” on a WM adventure.
We started from Kathmandu, staying in tea-houses until we started climbing the mountain proper, then camped for 5 nights, returning to tea houses once we’d descended from Base Camp. This was a nice mix ‘n match combination, and the tea houses along the less-frequented Annapurna Circuit Trail were a joy after the busy, crowded Everest Base Camp route we took 2 years ago.
Clean, good food, attached bathrooms, free wifi, and some of theme even had excellent coffee.
What’s not to love?
Our creature comforts were well looked after – great, spacious tents, thick mattress, a toilet tent up until Base Camp, a dining tent, a birthday cake for Gagan who celebrated his 60th in Base Camp, loads of food, hot drinks, daily pulse-oximeter checks ups – and always people to help we amateurs arrange our gear, fix our crampons, and generally help us inch our way up the mountain.
The weather was clear for summit night, but oh so cold.
So, so cold, with a biting wind that whipped up the snow.
Karma said it was -25C without the wind chill factor, and my numb fingers tend to agree.
I was – as usual – painfully slow, and made my way up the mountain with the lovely Ngwang Sherpa, only to meet a small bottleneck as our climbers and sherpas plus 2 young English climbers and their sherpa, waited in the freezing pre-dawn. Some of my brave co-climbers waited for well over an hour in the biting cold (I told you, I am SUPER slow!).
Karma, Gombu & Ming Temba made the difficult but necessary decision to turn back at around 200m from the summit – the snow and ice conditions were just too difficult to continue any further. Karma said it would have taken hours to fix & finalise the ropes for this last stage.
Chulu Far East had accepted us so far.
But not to her summit.
And you do not argue with the mountain.
So we headed back down, everyone wiggling fingers and toes to keep them warm.
The views were stupendous.
I walked with Gombu, Ming Temba and the lovely Ngwang, and the descent was every bit as wonderful as the summit attempt.
Accompanied by such lovely men.
I loved every second of this amazing trip, and even though we didn’t summit, it in no way diminished a wonderful adventure. The whole experience was huge fun, super well-organised, and up to the usual exacting WM standards.
Once we left the trekking trail and started climbing, the mountain was virtually ours, which is always a privilege,
I paid my own way and, although WM knows by now that I blog, they did not ask me to write this review – nor have they ever done so.
They are scrupulously ethical and even-handed.
Such breath-taking beauty…
