The Chulus, prominent peaks in the Manang Himal range, rise majestically from the semiarid flatland of Manang valley, in the mid north-west region of Nepal. At 6,410m./21,030ft. Chulu West is the highest peak in the Manang Himal range. There are mainly 3 Chulus known as Chulu East, Chulu Far East, Chulu West. Our objective on this trip is to climb the highest of the Chulus – the Chulu West. Our climbing route is via the North West Ridge of the mountain. Even though a Japanese team was first to reach the summit of Chulu West by the South Ridge, Canadian Larry Zaroff, Peter Lev and Sherpa Ang Jangbu of Pangboche were the first to reach the summit by the North West Ridge.
We drive for 6 hours from Kathmandu following the Trisuli and Marsyangdi river that drain from the Ganesh and Annapurna Himal to Besisahar to begin the trek for this climb. From Besishahar we follow the Annnapurna Circuit Trek up to Manang. A few kilometer north of Manang, we place our base camp (4750m/15580) in a small valley off the mail trail to Thorung La. The views of Annapurna III, Gangapurna across the valley in the South are just breathtaking.

From the base camp, we climb steep scree slope to a col (4,900m./ 16,076ft.) and place a high camp here. Then we climb a snow slope for 200 meter to the base of a rock band for a higher camp (Camp One) at 5,100m./16,732ft. We climb the rock band and place another camp (Camp Two) at 5,530m./18,143ft. Above here the climb is technically straightforward till we reach the 6,410m./21,030ft. high summit. Known as Mera Peak of the Annapurnas, climb on Chulu Central is beautiful and satisfying. After the climb, we trek over the Thorung pass(5,240m./17,200ft.) and reach Jomsom to end our trek.

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