Home/The Twelve Steps/Step 10

A rope team of two crossing the moraine high above the frozen cobalt ice of Tilicho Lake, tiny against the rock bowl

Tilicho Peak

Come back to where you started and go over the top

Country
NepalAnnapurna range, above Tilicho Lake, Nepal
Duration
28–32 daysSeason Five
Grade
Serious 4DGet High scale
Max altitude
7,134 m23,406 ft
Daily activity
Approx 7–10 hours, 16 on summit day
Season
Oct–Nov, Apr–May
Skill required
Mixed ground, route-finding
Months on the plan
Two monthsof 24 planned

Step 10Tilicho Peak7,134 m / 23,406 ft

Altitude profile: 12 steps, 1,400 m to 8,849 m at Mount EverestA line chart of every step in order. Step 1, 12 Days of Silence, is the lowest at 1,400 m / 4,593 ft, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Every step is higher than the one before it, up to step 12, Mount Everest, 8,849 m / 29,032 ft. Everything above 8,000 m is the death zone, marked in red: step 11, Cho Oyu; step 12, Mount Everest. Each point is a link to that step. You are on step 10, Tilicho Peak, 7,134 m / 23,406 ft.

Same mountains. Same weather. Entirely different person, and this is the first time you will have proof that could stand up in court.

What you are walking into

Tilicho Peak rises directly above Tilicho Lake, which sits at 4,919 m and is frozen for much of the year — a sheet of cobalt in a bowl of rock with nothing living anywhere near it.

The climbing is steeper and more complicated than either 7,000er below it, with mixed ground and genuine route-finding. This is the step where speed becomes a safety system instead of an ego one: the less time you spend in the dangerous places, the fewer opportunities they get.

What it takes out of you

Twelve days of silence, at the very start, was training for this and you did not know it at the time. Long, cold, technical hours alone inside a hood where the only thing that can go wrong is your own attention wandering.

You used to need something external to make an hour pass. Count how many hours you have just spent up here with nothing at all, on purpose, and enjoying it.

The logistics

Duration
28–32 days
Skill required
Mixed ground, route-finding
Season
Oct–Nov, Apr–May

The climb profile

Left, elevation only: no horizontal axis, so its width means nothing. Right, air: bar length is the one thing here that does.

Climb profile: Base Camp at 4,920 m to Summit at 7,134 m, 2,214 metres of verticalA vertical elevation chart with no horizontal axis. The scale runs from 4,500 m at the foot to 7,500 m at the top. Base Camp is marked at 4,920 m and Summit at 7,134 m, a difference of 2,214 metres. Between them, by elevation: Camp 1 at 5,800 m. Each is drawn as a rule straight across the chart, because where it sits along the route is not sourced. The elevation part of the chart has no horizontal axis because the horizontal distance from Base Camp to Summit is not published by any source we could find. Its width carries no meaning. Cumulative ascent over the route is not sourced and is not shown. To the right, a bar hangs off each of those elevations and its length is that altitude's share of the air at sea level, which a dashed bar across the full track marks as 100%: Base Camp 56%; Camp 1 50%; Summit 42%. The bars shorten as the elevation rises.
Base camp
Base Camp, 4,920 msource
Summit
Summit, 7,134 msource
Vertical, base camp to summit
2,214 mthe difference of the two elevations above, nothing more
Horizontal distance
Not yet sourcedNo operator route description, alpine club record or mountaineering reference we could find states it for this route. It is not estimated here.
Cumulative ascent
Not yet sourcedThe up-and-down of the whole route, which is more than the vertical above. Nobody publishes it for any of the twelve.

Camps, by elevation: Camp 1 5,800 m source. Where each one sits along the route is not sourced, so each is drawn as a rule across the chart rather than placed on it.

The summit is the one undisputed figure here. Base camp is not: the cited page says 4,920 m in its itinerary and 4,800 m in its prose, and another operator says 4,910 m. A 4,150 m “Tilicho Base Camp” also circulates — that is the lodge of that name on the Annapurna Circuit, a different place, and it is deliberately not used here. Camp 2 is quoted at both 6,200 m and 6,300 m, so it is not listed.

The highest camp is Camp 1, 5,800 m, where the air is 50% of what it is at sea level. The tent was carried up there. The air was not.

The part we will not lie about

Tilicho is technically harder than its altitude suggests and sees very little traffic — fewer fixed lines, less information, and no queue of other teams to break trail or to find you.

Looking down past crampons on broken moraine to a frozen blue lake far below in a bowl of rock.
Ten mountains in. Look at how far up you already are.

Who you do it with

Five more metres. The tenth mountain in a row, and the year has been long. A guide is hired for a climb. The point of a dai is the ten months between them.

What the word means, and where it came from

$2,400,000 at the plan's pace — $100,000 a month, charged monthly, for as long as it takes. All twelve steps. One client at a time.

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A white helicopter flying above a frozen high-altitude lake cracked into plates, a sheer ice-plastered wall beyond.
A frozen lake at altitude, and the wall above its far shore.
Tilicho Lake frozen in its bowl of dark shattered rock beneath cloud-covered walls
A figure-of-eight knot furred with frost, tied into a frozen rope and clipped to a steel locking carabiner

All twelve steps

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