Mera Peak is a mountain in the Mahalangur section, Barun sub-section of the

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 pea ...

and administratively in

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

Sagarmatha Zone Sagarmāthā Zone (, ''"Sagarmāthā Anchal"'') was one of the fourteen zones of Nepal until the restructuring of zones into provinces. The headquarters of Sagarmatha is Rajbiraj. ''Sagarmāthā'' is a Nepali word which as per some sources, is ...

, Sankhuwasabha. At it is classified as a

trekking peak The term "Trekking Peak" is a commonly misunderstood colloquial term which may refer to a variety of types of peaks in the Himalayas, Himalayan Region. The term is most often associated with Group "B" NMA Climbing Peaks classified by the Nepal Moun ...

. It contains three main summits: ''Mera North'', ; ''Mera Central'', ; and ''Mera South'', , as well as a smaller "trekking summit", visible as a distinct summit from the south but not marked on most maps of the region. The height of Mera is often given as , and claimed to be the highest trekking peak. This figure actually points to nearby Peak 41, which was mistakenly named Mera in a list of Himalayan peaks, and the figures were copied to the official trekking peak list as they were, including the wrong location coordinates.

History

The region was first explored extensively by British expeditions in the early 50s before and after the ascent of Everest. Members of those teams included

Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineering, mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa people, Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the Timeline of M ...

Tenzing Norgay Tenzing Norgay (; ''tendzin norgyé''; May 1914 – 9 May 1986), born Namgyal Wangdi, and also referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepalese-Indian Sherpa mountaineer. On 29 May 1953, he and Edmund Hillary were the first confirmed to ...

Eric Shipton Eric Earle Shipton, CBE (1 August 1907 – 28 March 1977), was an English Himalayan mountaineer. Early years Shipton was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1907 where his father, a tea planter, died before he was three years old. When he was e ...

and

George Lowe George Edward Lowe (November 10, 1957 – March 2, 2025) was an American voice actor and comedian whose voice roles included Space Ghost on the animated series ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'' and its spin-off, '' Cartoon Planet''. He continued ...

. The first ascent of Mera Central was on May 20, 1953, by Col. Jimmy Roberts and Sen Tenzing (who was known by the nickname ''The Foreign Sportsman''). Roberts was heavily involved in establishing the trekking industry in Nepal in the early 1960s. He was posthumously awarded the "Sagarmatha (Everest) National Award" by the government in May 2005. Mera North is believed to have first been climbed by the French climbers Marcel Jolly, G. Baus and L. Honills in 1975, though some sources state that it was climbed on 29 October 1973 and the climbers included L. Limarques, Ang Lhakpa and two other Sherpas. In 1986 Mal Duff and Ian Tattersall made the first ascent of the south west pillar. The route is approximately in length and graded at ED inf. The approach to the base of the pillar is extremely exposed to

serac A serac () (from Swiss French ''sérac'') is a block or column of glacial ice, often formed by intersecting crevasses on a glacier. Commonly house-sized or larger, they are dangerous to mountaineers, since they may topple with little warning. ...

fall. In September 2017, Hari Budha Magar summited Mera Peak, becoming the first double above-knee amputee to climb a mountain over 6,000m in altitude. On 6 May 2024, a team from Cyprus set the Guinness World Record for the highest altitude fitness session on the summit of Mera Peak. The team was led by Alexis Economides, owner of Peak Condition and Peak World Adventures in Limassol. Along with Trevor Jones, Evgenia Konstantinou and four Sherpa guides they took part in a 30-minute workout session that included squats, planks, pushups and other exercises.

Climbing routes

The standard route from the north involves high-altitude glacier walking. The west and south faces of the peak offer more difficult technical routes. Mera Peak provides 360-degree panoramic views of five mountains over 8000m: Mount Everest (8848m), Kangchenjunga (8586m), Lhotse (8516m), Makalu (8485m) and Cho Oyu (8201m) as well as many other peaks of Khumbu Region. For experienced climbers it is a technically straightforward ascent, the main hurdle being proper

acclimatization Acclimatization or acclimatisation ( also called acclimation or acclimatation) is the process in which an individual organism adjusts to a change in its environment (such as a change in altitude, temperature, humidity, photoperiod, or pH), ...

to the high altitude. These reasons make Mera Peak a very popular destination, with many adventure tour companies offering guided trips to the mountain for clients with little or no mountaineering experience. All climbers are recommended to partake in preparative fitness and altitude training before attempting an ascent. Panorama from Mera Peak summit with captions

Panorama from Mera Peak summit with captions

References

External links

View from the summit of Mera Peak
{{Authority control Mountains of Koshi Province Six-thousanders of the Himalayas Solukhumbu District