Mt. Pumori 7161m Expedition

Pumori (Nepali: पुमोरि) (or Pumo Ri) is a mountain on the Nepal-Tibet border in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. Pumori lies just eight kilometres west of Mount Everest. Pumori, meaning “the Mountain Daughter” in Sherpa language, was named by George Mallory. “Pumo” means young girl or daughter and “Ri” means mountain in Sherpa language. Climbers sometimes refer to Pumori as “Everest’s Daughter”. Mallory also called it Clare Peak, after his own daughter.

Pumori is a popular climbing peak. The easiest route is graded class 3, although with significant avalanche danger. Pumori was first climbed on May 17, 1962 by Gerhard Lenser on a German-Swiss expedition. Two Czechs (Leopold Sulovský and Zdeněk Michalec) climbed a new route on the south face in the spring of 1996.

An outlier of Pumori is Kala Patthar (5,643m/18,513′), which appears as a big brown bump below the impressive south face of Pumori. Many trekkers going to see Mount Everest up close will attempt to climb to the top of Kala Patthar.

Nearly 500 people had summited Pumori by 2005, at a cost of 42 lives. It was noted for its increasing popularity by 2008, with such features as being able to use the Everest base camp for Nepal (when occupied) when trekking or climbing Pumori and offering solid views of Tibet, Nepal and Everest. However, there have been some dangers from avalanches including some Spanish climbing teams that took heavy losses (such as in 1989 and 2001), and the 2015 avalanche, though it was likely triggered by the 2015 earthquake, is said to have originated from the Pumori-Lingtren ridge.

In 1982 a group did a climbing expedition to Pumori that also did a ski-hike around Everest. The noted climber of that time Jim Bridwell of California, USA leads the climbing expedition to Pumori. In January 2018, Pumori was summited by Alex Txikon and Muhammad Ali Sadpara with some others in their climbing team.

Camp 1: You will reach Camp 1 or Advance Base Camp (ABC) 5700m after 3 hours of walking. Then you should walk a distance of some 500m at an elevation of 40 to 65 degrees slopes. There are many rocks and mixed climb traverse, steep and exposed to the wind, narrow ridges, some ice walls, and also a tunnel climb on Mount Pumori. Fixed ropes can also be required sometimes.

Camp 2: It begins at 6200m which is located on a narrow ridge with no avalanche risk. The next 400m is an ice climb with 35-65 degrees. Above-5000m high is the ice walls, many clefts, and avalanche risk is from big seracs hanging from the shoulder of 6500m.

Camp 3: It is at the height of 6850m, which is too windy. You can see Tibetan plateau from here. Ropes are necessary because of many crevasses and ice wall’s way to summit. Then there are two climbing ranges; one from Tibet side and another from Nepal side. Between these 2 sides the Nepal side is easier to Mount Pumori Summit. After this trek, the Summit is easy to step on its vertex Pumori 7145m.

Normal route: As it is clear that the route to Mount Pumori is not easy as that of several other mountains, there are also difficult technical parts in this route. We suggest you to take Professional climbers help. They guide you to reach the top of Pumori and also ensure your safety. Set up at least 3 more camps after the base camp to reach the summit. The base camp is just above Gorek Shep at the height of 5300m. After the base camp, you can set up your first mission camp at 5,650m, around the base of Mount Pumori. Please set the second camp at the ridge after the previous phase at 6000m height. The most technical and difficult part of this peak is around Camps 1 and 2. You should set Camp 3 at 6480m, around the corner after the ridge. You can climb the summit of mount Pumori from Camp 3. This route is used by most climbers.

South – West ridge: Very few climbers have tried to do this expedition from this difficult route. This route follows directly from the top of Kalapathar and goes straight over the ridge extending as much as 75 degree. With lots of technical difficulties it is not safe to travel through this route so we suggest to you to use the normal route of mount Pumori so that your group will comfortably step on its Top.  You can check The Himalayan Journal (1996) or American Alpine Journal (1997) for more information.