Trekking ideas

Depending on the time of year you want to go ,take a look at Stok Kangri in Ladakh and Mera in Nepal . They are both not highly technical and Mera has a grand view of Everest from the summit. Bill O'Connor's "The Trekking Peaks of Nepal has good information on Nepal. Long walks and the gym are more important than a climbing gym . Good luck !

You can certainly climb a few fairly high mountains without much technical climbing experience. It all depends what you really want: climb high like Everest, or learn real climbing. Real mountain climbing consists of two main elements: technique (rock, ice, snow) and survival in sub-zero temperatures. You do not tell where you are from, but the Alps would be a good place to practice real mountaineering skills before going to the Himalayas. That said, Everest can be climbed, if you are lucky, after a few practice runs on mountains like Mera, Aconcagua, Denali, Muztagh Ata and Cho Oyu. Actually Everest has been climbed by people with only a trek to Annapurna Sanctuary for practice! Those people did have considerable arctic camping experience from Lapland, though.

Mera would be a good introduction to easy but decently high Himalayan climbing. You would also get a taste of expedition life, as the trip takes over two weeks.

Kilimanjaro, Cotopaxi, those mexican ones, Elbrus, mt blanc is fairly close,

If you are free to travel to any country I suggest the mountains in Iran such as Dena, Shirkouh or Damavand which has many natural beauties and curative spas and is still emitting sulfur.

hi
going by you saying you have Aconcagua in mind im going to give a few South American peaks as suggestions.
i have not climbed acongaua but did meet and travel with backpackers who did..many like yourselves with no climbing or high altitude experience. Bear in mind this info is a few years old. everyone i met were using guiding companies in Mendoza and the cost for a 20 day trip was $1000......this allowed time for acclimtising to the altitude..all gear was provoided. if you planning a South American trip as part of all this i climbed 2 volcanoes in peru near arequipa, chachani (6100 mtrs) misti (5800 mtrs), neither are tecnical climbs and only require a decent level of fitness .

hope this helps
ger

not a direct answer, but for armchair mountain climbers such as me, look on the website of Adventure Consultants who lead an annual expedition to Everest. You can download the trip notes and that tells you why neither you nor I will be going up Everest. Makes fascinating reading though!

Neverwinter.. Checkout alanarnette.com. He has some great trip reports and resources on climbin including the big 'E' . Bloody nice guy as well.

There re numerous over 5000m mountains/peaks in Himalaya & Karakorum in Pakistan,from where you can see the Mount K2 8611m,the 2nd highest in the world.

I would try the peaks in Sikkim.