25 Apr 2023
On 14. April 2023 I reached the summit of Mera Peak - at the age of 70. It has been one of the hardest and at the same time best mountain climbs of my life. The tour had been organized as a solo trip, so we were a group of three persons to approach the mountain (me, the climbing guide and the porter Bebek Raj). During the whole tour, I didn’t have any problems with high altitude sickness, due to a very smooth approach to higher altitudes and planned extra days for acclimatization.
I am very grateful that Annapurna Foothills, led by Ngima Nuru Sherpa, has organized my trip in a quite excellent way. Ngima Nuru Sherpa proved to be a very reliable and correct organisator of this tour. The agency was also very flexible in making changes to the initial plan of itinerary according to my wishes (e.g. changing from a car drive back to Kathmandu to a helicopter flight from Lukla).
One of the best experiences of this trip was to be accompanied by Mingma Dorjee Sherpa, who acted as my climbing guide. Mingma Dorjee is a very experienced climbing guide who has summited Mount Everest, Makalu, Himlung, Imja Tse and Mera Peak (16x) and others. And he is a very warm hearted and caring person. We had much fun walking and climbing together and talked a lot about our previous mountain climbing adventures. Additionally, Mingma Dorjee was extremely conscious about safety (and also carried a bottle of medical oxygene in order to be prepared for emergency cases). With Mingma Dorjee I had the best possible climbing partner, and we became real friends during this trip.
I wish to thank all participating persons of the agency, and when I come back to Nepal I will certainly go again with the Annapurna Foothills Trekking and Expedition Agency.
Stefan Kraetke, Berlin, Germany