Section 4 – Days 74 to 84
Day 74 to 84 crossing Tillman Pass !!!
I am sitting in the hot afternoon sun in the Tamang village of Gatlang on a meadow
covered in white clover (and cow dung, of course) and beautiful Tamang traditional music
is playing in the background on Gyaljen’s phone. Gyaljen is our youngest porter of
merely 20 years who has been with us from the first day and is a real character – today
he is wearing a Justin Bieber “Believe” T-shirt with Jeans and FlipFlops and of course
the signature Playboy earring in his left ear, while carrying a load of 30 to 50 kg up
the 1150m and the 14km that we climbed today in about 5 hours! And there is never a moan
or complaint! Gyaljen as well as all others are just the best teachers in seeing joy and
finding laughter no matter how tough the going and demanding the day! We share so much
laughter about the smallest things- often it is me practicing my rudimentary Nepali and
them laughing with me about small language jokes they make to test me- I’d say half of
the times I get the jokes and we all laugh heartily- the other half I still have to work
on – it’s mostly vocabulary I have to learn and then of course the verb tenses – they
still befuddle me!!!
This morning we said goodbye to Claudia, Chrissi, Tobias and the majority of our team
after an absolute amazing Section 4! While the three are heading back home to Germany
soon the team is going to come back to meet us in 6 days on the Manaslu route with
Beate, Abby, Anja, Christian and …. JOHN! (We learned in the last few days that John has
received a positive diagnosis, meaning a “go ahead” from his South African doctors – he
had three weeks rest and will rejoin us from Section 5 to the end!!! Wonderful to know
we will have him back!!)
Tillman Pass was our last big glacier pass and I had gone into this one expecting to get
very wet and deep snow up on top! But we were so so lucky with the weather!! What a
magnificent crossing we had!!! In May – and more so in late May- it rains a lot
especially going towards Tillman Pass and into the Langtang valley. But either due to
climate change or because “the Gods were looking after us” (something Satish and Lhakpa
often say when it feels we are lucky and some greater power might have had their hand in
it!) we barely had any rain at all and even clear skys and breathtaking panoramic views
when we crossed Tillman Pass!!!
From when I last wrote it was a steady uphill slog – one day we climbed 1400m from
Tillman River up through the most magical but massively steep jungle! So steep that we
had to use our hands and ice axe to make level ground for our tents – the slope was just
relentlessly steep and never ending! Only on the next day we reached Panch Pokari and it
was truly beautiful despite the fact that clouds kept moving in and blocked our hoped
for mountain view. But even just the lakes themselves were stunning in how they lay
surrounded by red, yellow, green, and brownish grass in a mountain bowl! In the month of
August this is a pilgrimage site thus beautiful stone paths are laid out around the
lakes like a web. But now was not the time for pilgrimage so few locals were around
until the next day, our well scheduled rest- and acclimatization day, when an all night
and all day snowstorm turned everything white. In the early afternoon more and more
locals began to come down the mountain path we were planning to go up the next day.
Clearly they were ill equipped for such extreme weather and realized they were warmer
and safer to sit out the storm in one of the stone huts by the lakes. So who were all
these locals – old as well as young children that came down in droves? We soon learned
that they were up high to look for Yarsagumba, the caterpillar fungus which parasitizes
larvae of ghost moths, otherwise known as Himalayan Viagra with the Chinese being the
sole clients to what has become a huge economy for rural Nepali mountain villagers. A
huge and a tough and dangerous business! Yarsagumba only grow above 4000 meters and need
to be harvested before the monsoon rains begin – so May and June are the months that
whole villages seem to move up into high altitude – most of the time poorly equipped
despite the often freezing temperatures. Thus the exodus towards Panch Pokari on our
snow storm rest day!
The day after the weather had cleared somewhat and we continued up higher as planned –
equipped with gaiters and ready for more snow to come down! The next two days we
meandered up and down across many either slippery, muddy, rocky or deeply snowy ridges
through stunning terrain and all along we came across make shift Yarsagumba hovels or
tents, sometimes consisting of one tarp only draped over the edge of a big boulder. More
than once we would stop and chat to find out more about how the season was going (not
all had come down on the day of the snow storm, in fact those we came across seemed
hardly phased by the weather standing in the wet new snow with only flip flops on their
bare feet! We learned that they get about 1US $ for one Yarsagumba and in a good season
they might find between 2000 and 5000 of these really quite gross looking wormy
mushrooms. This Sherpa lady kindly unwrapped her harvest to date so that Claudia,
Chrissi and Tobias could also lay their eye at least once on this conspicuous fungus:
Once we hiked up towards Highcamp South (4865m) we saw no other human beings. Camp was
right on top of the glacier – except that you would never have know because it was
covered with a deep layer of rocks- our cosy bed for the night! It had been a day with
limited views and recurring snow flurries, we were all hoping for slightly fairer
weather the next big day of our crossing. And it couldn’t have been better. At 5:30 am
we headed up and soon put on our crampons and harnesses to jumar up the rope sections
which Lhakpa and Lhombu had set up the day before. (A jumar is a device that grips the
rope when you pull and put your weight in it and easily slides up the rope when you push
it up. The perfect ascending device!)
While I had by now had many opportunities on the rope both ascending and descending it
was all new to Claudia, Chrissi and Tobias and it was fun to watch them enjoying the
adrenaline and excitement of it! After almost three hours and at least four different
rope sections we were on top of Tillman Pass (5308m) just as the early morning sun began
to burn away the mist and clouds that were still partly covering the peaks all around
us. A magnificent view opened up towards Yala, Gangchempo and Langshisa peak.
It took us another four hours through deep snow and later on some challenging rocky scree
slopes to get to our camp. I will not forget how much fun Chrissi had sliding down some
of the most unreliable tracks in the snow on her bum! Unreliable because every now and
then a step would suddenly sink into the snow easily down to our thighs and just as you
pulled that leg out by putting all your weight on the other foot, that other one too
would suddenly give way and disappear in the white cold depth! It took focus and a lot
of laughter to make it down!
Our evening in High Camp North (4760m) set on the edge of the Langshisa glacier was
magnificent and could only be beat by the sunrise and blue sky the next morning! It
was another 5am start in order to avoid the rockfalls as we made our way down the
extremely steep ravine and then snaked along the river towards the breathtakingly
beautiful Langshisa valley!
The walk further down after our night in Kyanjin Gompa through the Langtang valley
was hard. Hard because the Earthquake has left incredible scars behind, the largest
of which in the former village of Langtang which had been completely wiped out by a
massive landslide. I was here 4 years ago and still had beautiful memories of this
old rustic traditional Tamang and Sherpa town. We walked across the enormous field
of only rocks and even ice as it was a glacier that had broken off above and then in
its downward cascade brought the entire rock face down with it. The gravel and rock
covered ice still was perfectly intact and far from melted even four years later! A
mass grave of rock and ice! On the opposite side of the valley every single tree in
the forest that had covered the steep slopes had been broken and fallen uphill (!!!)
caused by the enormously forceful pressure wave caused by the powerful deadly
landslide. Not a single tree is still standing even further down where only the
angle of how they fell changed from uphill to horizontal – I suppose in line with
the direction of the pressure wave in those few dreadful minutes on 25 April 2015.
The rebuilding activities are impressive – many new houses have been build by those
family members who survived. Langtang village itself is slowly coming into its
second iteration right above where the landslide has covered the old village. The
resilience of the people continues to impress me and teach me about the power of
knowing who you are and where you belong – the strength and presence that comes with
it along with the unchallenged social cohesion creates purpose, direction and
humility. I walked I silence for many hours.
Lower down back in the jungle we came across a troop of more than 20 Langur monkeys –
big ones with their white faces and long furry tails. Higher up we had seen a herd
of Himalayan Thars. The cute Himalayan Pikas had often carefully peaked at us on the
rocky and snowy slopes up even higher. And butterflies in all shapes, colours and
sizes grace us with their fleeting and fluttery presence in the sunny valleys lower
down. And bees, honey bees who build there impressive hanging hives on the cliffs
above the rivers- inaccessible to any predators- except of course the brave and
highly skilled Nepali cliffhanging honey harvesters – but that is another story (I
recommend googling it because there are some great documentaries on this rare and
neckbreaking honey harvesting artisans!)
By now breakfast has been served here in Gatlang by my wonderful Nireka family and we
are about to head out into day 85! I am not sure when the next opportunity to post a
blog will arise so more as soon as possible!
Pheri bethaula!
