14 April 2012 Namche Bazaar to Dole
Click here for a 3D view in Google EarthHaving abandoned Wanda and Eddie in the pretty market town of Namche Bazaar on the 14 April, we (my guide and me) left pretty late at 9:10 after having made sure that they are right.
We got to Kyumjuma ( 3600m) at 10:10, a pretty good time from Namche, we had a cup of tea and left at 10:30. This is where the trails split, the Tengboche trail carries on downhill whereas our trail starts the steady climb towards the Mong La Pass. By now the weather started to cloud over and by the time we got to Mong La pass (3975m) the visibility was not too great. Still saw a golden eagle circling the pass. We didn't stop but started the descent towards Phortse Thanga at 3670m, on the other side of the pass. The descent was quite steep with switchbacks and we were stuck behind a group of yaks until we took a shortcut to get past them.
We got to Phortse Thanga at 12:30 and we had lunch there. We sure needed the fuel as we had to climb back to 4080m at Dole were we planned to spend the night. This is also were the solar charger packed up, the DC/DC converter broke, this is the second one, lost my faith completely in this charger.
After lunch started the climb through a beautiful forest of rhododendron and what looked like silver birch but with the bark reddish. Sadly the rhododendron was not in bloom, we later found that they are late by about a month. A few waterfalls were covered by permanent ice, the first permanent ice we found on the trail.
We arrived at Dole at 15:00 and stayed in the Yeti Lodge were we had a lovely dhal bhat. I managed to call Wanda from the landline to check upon on them and was relieved to hear that Eddie was getting better slowly. Apart from us there was a group of german trekkers from Hauser Expeditions with a guide who just seemed to talk a tad too much. It was fun, up to a certain point, but when he started to tell the story of Ganesh in exquisite detail we decided we had enough and went to bed. This is when we noticed that it snowed outside, about half an inch. The owner, who participated in expeditions from 1953 to 1970 had made a nice fire in the dining room and the atmosphere was nice but as soon as we went to the rooms the -3 , -4 deg C cold really started to bite. Well, we wrapped up well and went to bed.
15 April 2012 Dole to Machermo/Phanga
Click here for a 3D view in Google EarthWe had a pretty good night, with only the occasional tourist slamming the door in the night, as if he owned the place. The walls were paper thin, single sheet of ply, so every noise carried through. Had breakfast at 6:30, after having packed our bags, and left at 7:00.
This was to become our routine for the next few days, as the mornings were absolutely stunning, crystal clear weather, not a could in the sky. It also had the benefit of being less crowded, we were normally the first on the trek - that was easy to see that morning in the 1/2" fresh snow. The trail started with a steep ascent from the Dole valley to the ridge where we got our first glimpse of Cho Oyu and Gatungkhang: both peaks are fantastic! We also saw, looking back, Kusum Kangaru, Thamserku and Kantenga. Breathtaking views!
Passed a placed called Lhafarma - it seemed deserted - this, we later found out, was also the last place for mobile phone connection, as there are no masts in the Gokyo valley and this was the last place the signal from the Tengboche tower reached. At 8:10 we arrived at Luza, 4360m, where we decided to stop for a cup of tea to warm us up. We ended up staying for 30 minutes on the terrace, in the sun, watching the cloud start to gather again on the top of the mountains. This is when we realised that we need to maximise the golden hours between 7 and 9 for the clear views. We got to Machermo at 9:30, the usual stopping place for the day at 4470m altitude, and decided to sit down for 45min and watch Cho Lhatse I and II with the clouds swirling at their top. As it was so early we decided to push on to the next possible stop at Phanga (4480m) where we arrived at 11:00. We couldn't go any further that day as the trails started to climb and that would have been above the recommended 300-400m altitude difference between the height of the rest stops for consecutive nights.
It started to snow again at 2:00 and it was really windy too. There is a single lodge at Phanga, with the owner and his 14 year old boy trying to run the show. This, of course, is way past the tree line so there is no wood for fire and the stove burned yak dung - but even that was precious commodity. The fire was therefore to be lit at 5 pm only in preparation for dinner. It was freezing cold and there were only a couple more trekkers - two Aussies who walked from Jiri rather than fly in to Lukla. That added 7 days to their approach and made them quite the experienced travellers in the area. We soon exhausted topics of conversation; some talk of a bit of politics about the olden days back in Romania, but inevitably returned to the freezing cold. I couldn't call from there as they had no phone there and there was no mobile reception. To pass the time we decided to take a nap. This was easier said than done; I had to put on thermal underwear, a t-shirt, a fleece, a down jacket and a down sleeping bag. Wrapped up like this I managed a good kip from 1:30 to 16:30. I woke up in anticipation of the fire but that was a bit of a disappointment as it barely managed to raise the temperature above freezing. We decided to give the vegetable potatoes a go after good reviews from the Aussies but they weren't boiled enough. Oh well, went to bed again in anticipation of the next day trek to Gokyo. Woke up at 12:30 to see the sky cleared up again but that there was again a layer of snow on the ground.
I was the first out in the morning. The loo of course is a basic affair; flushing is from a drum of water using a jug. In this particular place the jug was made of some heavy gauge aluminium and a good thing it was too as to my surprise the water froze over to a thickness of about 1 cm! I had to smash it three times with the jug to break through. This was by far the coldest night - we estimated the temperature to about -7 deg C. This isn't a problem normally, only that in these places there is no heating so what's outside is also inside.
16 April 2012 Phanga to Gokyo
Click here for a 3D view in Google EarthBreakfast at 6:30 all packed and ready to go, had a couple of Tibetan breads with fried eggs, but too much sugar in the dough for the Tibetan bread didn't let me enjoy that too much.
Left at 7:00, again a brilliant morning, very cold but clear blue skies with no cloud anywhere to see. Just out of Phanga we crossed through a "gate" made of prayer flags streched between two pillars, which was to prevent evil spirits that might follow trekkers to gain entrance to the Gokyo upper reaches. Passed a strong spring gushing out of a rock and adorned with prayer flags and scarfs - a sure sign of the respect people have for natural resources, water in particular.
Reached the first lake at 8:00, it being a small lake of only 1.4 ha surface and only 1m max depth, situated at 4710m altitude, but there were hundreds of "spirit houses" on its shores. Tibetans believe that after death the spirits roam free and need a place to rest and live so they build columns out of rocks for the spirits to live in. An eerie place, very quiet at that time of the morning and very beautiful too!
The second lake we reached at 9:00, this was much bigger at 17ha surface and situated at 4721m altitude. This was 95% frozen over, the little part not frozen was used by a couple of wild ducks. Again very quiet; the only noise heard was an occasional low thud that stumped us for a while until we realised it was the ice breaking under the pressure of the sun and light wind. Very strange indeed.
Arrived at the third lake, Gokyo lake, also called Dudh Pokhari (milk lake) at 10:00. This was also 95% frozen over but was a lot bigger: 43 ha surface and situated at 4740m altitude. Gokyo village is on the shores of this lake, slightly above the lake at 4800m. We stayed at Gokyo resort Lodge. First things first, I called Wanda again, this time from a satellite phone and learned that Eddie is doing much better; then had lunch and went out to look at the Gokyo glacier from the ridge behind the lodges. The glacier is almost entirely covered by the moraine left behind by the original glacier - you can hardly see the ice beneath. 15 years ago it was still all ice but with the climate change the ice has all but disappeared. The morraine though is still immense, hard to describe really. What was also surprising is the rapid erosion of the ridge between Gokyo and the glacier - in the two hours that we were there we saw three rock slides - soon enough the whole ridge will be gone.
The lodge was packed, they had at least 65 guests in the dining room and the locals are not served until the last tourist finished having his meal. Add to this a single over-worked waiter and an inefficient ordering system, and the result is that the guides and porters only had their dinner at 9pm. A bit like the racial segregation of the deep south in America, not at all fair. I'm told this is better than it used to be, Nepali guides and porters were not even allowed in the same lodge as tourists until a few years back. The wheels of progress turn quite slowly in Nepal it seems. With the next day being an early start - 5am being the norm for the start of the climb to Gokyo Ri - this late dinner was not what we planned.
17 April 2012 - "The great day"
Click here for a 3D view in Google EarthWe woke up at 4:50 having had our things prepared for the climb. Haven't had a good night sleep, hardly getting enough air to breath. The thin air does start to take its toll. We decided to take a single bag (Ratna's) with just a pack of biscuits, some cereal bars and water. We had torches but had to use them only for 5 minutes until we crossed the stream on some rocks; after that the natural light was enough. We started the climb at 5:10 and realised that it will be harder that initially thought. Every step takes extra effort and extra air that just doesn't seem to exist in sufficient quantity. The only consolation was that I was not the only one struggling - we overtook two large groups, one German, the other English, who also seemed to find it hard. The higher we got the harder it was to extract the necessary oxygen from the air. The cereal bars and biscuits didn't help of course, as it was not energy we lacked, but air. A bottle of oxygen, hmmm how nice would that be!
I took a lot of pictures, but I realised it is hard to concentrate in the composition when a) you have barely enough oxygen not to black out and b) you wear ski gloves that you really don't want to take off. In the end the 580m climb took 2:35h and we got to the top the third group of the day at 7:45. I got some prayer flags in Kathmandu before we left and laid them on the shrine on top in memory of relatives who passed away.
We left Gokyo at 10:45 and arrived at Machermo at 12:25 but decided to go further to Luza, where we arrived at 1pm. Had lunch and charged my phone to keep the GPS log going as the phone's battery was running low. We left Luza at 14:15 and arrived at Dole at 15:15. We stayed at the same lodge only this time they had only a couple from Italy who could speak no English, an Indian who was very particular about his schedule and wanted to leave at 6:00 after breakfast to only go as far as Machermo - 2 hours away from us. The Italians had a guide who not only didn't speak Italian, but was also quite clearly out of his depth and was doing this job just to fund his studies. The scene was set for a very interesting evening. In the end, glued together by the warm fire and the love of mountains, we spent a lovely evening with 4 way translation between Nepali, English, Italian and Indian, talking about the Himalayas, Nepal, Hillary, the 1996 tragedy with the book "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer, Reinhold Messner, and loads of things I can hardly remember. These open fires are all well and good, but the carbon monoxide from the open fire and the poor draught from the old stoves made us all a bit light headed and it brings you in a state not dislike a slight inebriation.
18 April 2012 Dole to Namche Bazaar
Click here for a 3D view in Google EarthTaking advantage of the early start of the kitchen to cater for the Indian gentleman who had to have his breakfast before 6, we arrived a bit early to breakfast too and gulped down the tasteless porridge pretty quickly. We left at 6:35 and started towards the valley down at 3600m at Phortse Tanga. Starting this early has its advantages: we saw in total three very rare Musk deer - a species threatened with extinction in Nepal - and managed to get a few pictures too! We also got very close to the national bird of Nepal: the Himalayan Monal ,commonly known as 'lophophorus'. The male is very colourful - a beautiful bird!
3 comments:
Excellent blog, Eugen. I might try and do one next month when we go to Poland but I am sure going up the Tatras by cable car wont sound so interesting!! I am jealous of your views but not of the temperatures you talk about and sitting in front of fires made of Yaks shit and flushing away your jobbies with ice!! You speak of having problems with composing pictures with gloves and lack of air! Is this so I wont criticise them? [:-}))
:-) thanks Trev.
Looking forward to your Tatra blog !
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