Section 3 – Days 56 to 65
Thame to Kathmandu – 9 big days – slimmer team and double days!
I feel like I might have started another blog this way but here we go: an epic and most memorable pass and some full full days lie behind us! One part of me kind of thought we’ll just quickly “nail” these last 9 days before we get to Kathmandu for our three day rest; we talked of going “alpine style” since now it was only me as the only client due to John having to go down to look after his leg, and we decided to double up days where we could to get back a day or two earlier. So that all sounded like “quickly nailing it” to me. But another part of me had tremendous respect of the coming pass – Tashi Lapsa- which I knew would be technical, had sections that would be dangerous due to regular rock and ice falls and avalanches on the other side – it sounded daunting and with the memory of West Col and Khem it all felt really real and serious!
Well, off we went after we had said goodbye to Philipp, Dirk and John – and doubling up (meaning doing two days worth of hiking in one!) was clearly our goal on our first day already. We were all well rested and well acclimatized so we went all the way from Thame at 3800m up through the ever more spectacular valley with massively steep ice covered mountain faces on our southern side and a meandering little river, the run off from the glacier we ended up camping right underneath at Ngole camp at 5100m. While we started our day in warm sunshine we arrived at Ngole in cold and icy snow flurries. But the normal weather patterns up high are indeed that the mornings are clear and sunny and by sometimes as early as ten or eleven the clouds begin to gather around the peaks and by latest 1 or 2 pm it will begin to snow (and of course rain lower down).
The next morning we were ready to head up towards the pass by 5:30am. The ascent was cruel because relentlessly steep and it looked like we were heading into a dead end – ahead there were either hanging glaciers in shimmering blue or sheer rock faces that had once been covered by glacier ice but have now been laid bare in all their inaccessibility due to glacier melt! As we were making our way up an awfully slippery scree slope that seemed to end at the bottom of same said rock face, suddenly a narrow almost vertical snow gully showed itself as the one and only access to higher ground and thus towards our pass. We were lucky that previous mountaineers had left their deep and safely places foot prints in the snow so that we were safe enough not to use ropes on this section. Once we all made it up to the rock ledge we traversed across the rocky slim ledge until we set foot on the smooth snow covered glacier. It looked like an easy enough very gradual ascent – but the altitude made each step a mission.
At 5755m we had reached the top. Different to any other pass this one was a smooth round top out of pure blue ice (crampons were the only way to keep us from sliding and staying upright), deceivingly easy terrain if it hadn’t been for the massive crevasse we had to manoeuvre around and the steep 15 meter abseil down the blue ice slope to get us onto walkable snow surface towards our descent. The weather was still wonderful and the views out of this world! For the first time ever I found myself looking down onto the upper Trakarding glacier moraine way below that didn’t look like an endlessly flowing gravel pit – but like clean and shining white, turquoise and blue shark teeth – hundreds – thousands of them in all sizes and shapes – no gravel or rocks to be seen. The colours captured me. And I found myself shivering in awe realising with intensity how alien and unfit for human survival this environment really is – beautiful, otherworldly, and yet by no means a place to linger for us fragile human beings! It had taken us 5 hours to make it across the pass and down the first abseil – it took us another 6 hours before we pitched tents 1000m further down, 5 additional abseils later and having walked the last three hours in whirling snow with moments of complete white-out and no visibility. When we finished the last long section of abseiling down the exposed rock face which the glacier used to hug and cover like a thick tablecloth (Satish remembers not a single bit of exposed rock from his previous crossings 10 or more years ago!!!) we stood on top of the lower Trakarding glacier – this lower one again fully covered with rocks and gravel – surrounded on three sides by steep glacier-covered mountains faces. And these “faces” were active! There was constant movement and sound with avalanches and rockfalls – one big one awfully close to where we were all coming down….
We made our beds on the most uninviting rocky surface of the gravelly glacier but slept like mouses! (A saying we picked up from Lhakpa who asks us every morning: “And? Did you sleep like a mouse?”)
The next day was another big one. For two reasons: One: I had picked up a cough the day before – a common phenomenon when up in high altitude and icy air – and hadn’t slept much and continued to cough with increasing vigour! and Two: we had to path-find or way through to where the the glacier ends in the several kilometre long Tsho Rolpa Glacial lake. It seemed close enough as we could see the lake in the distance but it took us three tiresome hours of extreme focus since each step had to be negotiated on the slippery wobbly rock surface until we reached the end of the glacier. Now the lake is edged in on both sides by steep loose rocky slopes – constant rockfalls and even full on landslides can be heard and seen. It is a bit of threatening scene and the only way to make it down passed the lake was by making our way another 300m up above the dangerous rockfalls in order to walk on solid and safe ground! Snow began to fall again and of that 7 hour day the last three where in heavy snowfall which had us arrive in Na looking like snowman – completely covered in white wet fluff…..(I have to share that the last 2 hours on our way towards Na in the heavy snow we were led by a lonely cow who faithfully stayed with us all the way to the village – it surely made us smile – the lonely adventures snow cow
Na felt like luxury, just because it was civilisation for the first time since we left Thame – not that many days ago yet a journey with countless extreme and edgy experiences!
The next morning we woke up and everything was still covered in powdery snow. From here on we descended quickly – every day at least 1000 meters and everything around seemed to jump at us with life and the lush richness of nature – smells of flowers, singing birds, green grass and soft ground of nutrient rich soil under our feet (as opposed to soilless ice and rock) and lower down the mossy rainforest – there was a sense of “we made it” – “we are back in the land of the living”! Relief and joy! Lunch by the turquoise river with rhododendrons flowers in all colours and birds chirping away….I will not forget that moment.
However, we were now entering the region that was hard hit by the earthquake in 2015 – from Rolwaling through Dolkha to Sindulpalchowk. Each village we passed from now on seems to have been completely destroyed and if any houses were standing they were newly built, government sponsored two room stone houses with either wooden (or in lower altitudes reinforced concrete) frames – and we saw many of them being build at the moment – it seems government money has finally been released – 3500,- US $ per household. We are however told that all the houses we were looking at cost at least 7000,- US $ to build. If each family needs to raise the difference on their own I m not surprised so many families are still living in their “temporary” shelters build from wood, metal sheets and/or bamboo mats.
When we got lower into the jungle – as the locals call the temperate rainforest of moss and rhododendrons – we also had cell phone reception again and finally got word from John about what diagnosis he got regarding his leg – and it was a complete shock to hear that it turns out he had indeed broken his fibula – the smaller and less weight bearing of the two bones in our lower legs – and the doctors prescribed rest and were pretty unambiguous about John not rejoining us! None of us expected such a verdict – and John as much as Satish and I were devastated to hear this unexpected news. John was already busy organising his return flight to South Africa and we were now hoping to catch a glimpse of him in Kathmandu before he left by holding true to our “double day” walking efforts…. (We managed! We arrived in the big city three hours before he needed to leave for the airport and I am very happy we were able to have coffee, beers and apple crumble with him to drown our mutual sorrows before having to say good bye.)
Even lower – below the “jungle” – the villages and terrace fields begin, which means all original jungle has been clearcut to make space for fields, houses and people. This is now as low as 2300m – 1300m. The temperature increased drastically and the humidity was oppressingly high (This is the first time since early March that we are back in the heat!). After thousands of steps down some concrete steps (I am not exaggerating!!!) we reached the suspension brigde across the Tama Koshi River at 1300m and suddenly found ourselves in a different world. First of all there was a road on the other side and I saw my first motorised vehicle since day 3 in Taplejung on the 2nd of March! The madness was that it wasn’t just one jeep and otherwise an idyllic mountain village – no – we landed smash bang in the middle of a chinese hydropower construction site which meant industrial noises – lorries, excavators, cranes, cement machines, gravel pits, reinforced concrete walls and bridges, chinese worker barracks and dust, dust, dust, and noise, noise, noise and us – the shell shocked but also clearly fascinated mountaineers right in the middle of it all since the dusty road had now replaced the original old hiking trail! Gratefully, at the end of another 8 hour day we climbed on a foot trail for 150 meters into the old village on the ridge and camped on an old school ground overlooking the madness below. (Schools make the perfect camping spot as they always have a flat area – at least enough for three to five tents even if it is situated at an ever so steep a slope, there usually is running water and some shelter for the kitchen to set up their stoves and all else. And – sadly, though, there are now many abandoned schoolgrounds because the school buildings were destroyed in the earthquake and have not yet been rebuild)
The last day before we got to our final destination – the end of section three where we were going to catch the bus to big old Kathmandu – were: hot, long, lots of rain and walking with umbrella, path finding with locals to show us through the jungle, an unexpected 1300m climb onto our last pass through foggy, misty rhododendron jungles, but also many many roads (jeep tracks) none of which were on my map which is about 7 years old!!! So clearly road building has progressed at a fast rate in the last few years. It will fill another whole blog to debate the pros and cons of that development – I will spare you!
And the above mentioned final destination is a place that is officially called Nayapul – New Bridge – but even the locals had to think about this because what people call this place is “Bungee Jumpy” – because Nepal’s only and highest Bungee Jump goes off the suspension bridges across the Bhotekosi Nadi River. Yet another world! Lots of tourists and every 10 minutes another jumper’s scream echoing through the narrow 160m gorge!
From here it was a smooth and easy bus journey back to Kathmandu! Let’s see what these days in the City bring. We are off again on Tuesday 8 May – this time with Claudia, Chrissy and Tobias!
