Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

April 6, 2023

2732m

Kathmandu, Nepal

Shivapuri is a prominent peak on the immediate north side of Kathmandu and takes several hours to hike. I noticed this peak by browsing peakbagger.com and figured I should have enough time to tag it. I would land in Kathmandu in the evening of April 5th and wouldn’t be departing for Lukla until at least April 7th. I inquired Dawa from Seven Summit Treks to arrange a taxi and any associated logistics for Shivapuri on April 6 and he responded “no problem”. Of course when I arrived in Kathmandu the company had completely forgotten this side deal, but given their networking there’s no problem. In the morning of April 6 I did the gears check with Jenjen (head) Sherpa so I only had a few hours in the afternoon to complete Shivapuri.

Thanes, the manager of Seven Summit Treks found a taxi for me and I left Fairmount Marriott Hotel at around 2 pm. The traffic in Kathmandu was the most chaotic I’ve ever seen, and the heat was exhausting, but thankfully most of the hike would be done in the forest with shades. The taxi ride took about half an hour. This peak is located inside some national park so I needed to purchase a permit at the park’s entrance with a photo ID. I’ve heard that a guide is “required” to climb anything in Nepal nowadays but I explained to the park rangers that I had the experience and they let me go, saving some money for hiring an unnecessary guide. I had also previously bought a NCell card so I had reception to communicate with the company for the pick-up a few hours later. I did not know how many hours this hike would take, so it’s better to have some flexibility for the pick-up.

Immediately after starting the hike I got confused. The correct trail ascends besides the backside of the park’s office building and the trail on my Gaia map should be correct. I somehow missed it probably because I didn’t want to linger too long with the rangers. I walked forward and minutes later I found I was no longer following the trail on my map anymore. However, the road that I was walking on would eventually lead me back to the trail several kilometers later, just with some added distance. I do not like backtracking, so opted to just follow this road instead. Indeed, I joined the trail about half an hour later. The trail that ascends the SW flanks of this mountain is steep with infinitely many staircases. I’m not very used to ascend a mountain entirely on staircases so I felt this ascent to be rather tiring. There wasn’t much to see until the very top but I also missed the viewpoint on the way up. The summit itself doesn’t offer much view at all, but I did meet some friendly Nepali hikers. They did not seem to have dressed properly for hiking but I soon learnt that this is actually the “norm” in this part of the world.

I thankfully found the viewpoint not far down below the summit on the return and spent some time taking photos. The view was rather averaged but it’s better than nothing. The rest of the descent was uneventful but tiring. One of my calves felt sore for a few days afterwards due to the lengthy walk on staircases, but it didn’t hinder my Everest’s ascent, thankfully. In retrospect I should have listened to Dawa to rest on this day, but I do not regret to have bagged this bonus P900m objective in Nepal. That evening Dawa organized a group dinner. There were a total of over 70 Everest climbers in Seven Summit Treks but this dinner was only for the ones departing for Lukla in the next couple days. Two of them, Rafa (blind) and the Mexican son eventually summitted a few hours behind me on May 23rd.