Section 4 & 5 – Days 85 -88
Between the sections – time to reflect!
Five days ago for the third time on this great trail I said goodbye to a team of fellow
Section hikers! And each time there has been some transition time which has me think
about the special quality of each group and how each person in one way or another has
enriched my experience and taught me something. Team Kanchenjunga Section1 was my South
African warm up team as we jokingly said at the time – after all we spent the first 18
days of waking together – I found my feet with Lex and Grahame, Margaret and Tim, so to
say! There was an almost three week traverse between Section 1 and Section 2 and I was
so very excited for my brother Philipp and also Dirk, whom I didn’t know before, to
arrive in Yangri Karka on Day 36! We were a team of lots of laughter but also the team
that held each other through the tragic accident and extremes of the rescue and all
uncertainties thereafter. My heart was very full when we all said goodbye to each other
in Thame on Day 56! In Section 3 I was alone with the Nireka Team and that, too, was
special in that I grew so much closer to them all and was humbled yet again by their
care and humor, resilience and strength. And now I am reflecting back on the 14 days
spent on the mountain with team Section 4, Claudia – our mountain soul mate whom I am
sure we will spend many more days in the Himalayas with, climbing mountains and crossing
glaciers! And Chrissi and Tobias who had never done anything like this in their lives
before and I just loved seeing them grow and glow through each step of it. Well done! It
was by far not a tea house trekking route and to step into the unknown and take each new
day as it comes with all its unknown challenges is bigger than you think!
Thinking of my own journey so far I have written much already but not all, of course… I
have fallen twice, and hard! Both times I was really lucky and clearly the ”Gods were
looking after me!” The first time was a while back on day 32 on our way through muddy,
slippery, jungle terrain and as we were slipping and sliding down a very steep gully in
the forest, full of loose rocks and earth and moss covered roots I suddenly slipped on a
rock and tumbled to the side landing smack bang on a sharp rock with my left thigh first
and my entire body weight right after! The pain took my breath away but after five deep
in and out breaths I realized that no real damage had been done but that I would
certainly walk away with an impressive bruise the size of my hand! Walking for the rest
of that day was extremely painful because the muscle was angry now for having been given
such an unkind and forceful punch but with Arnica and a some kind and appreciative words
to same said muscle I was all good to go again the following day – and even the bruise
turned out far less dramatic than I had anticipated.
The second big fall was only a few days ago on day 80 after we had crossed Tillman Pass
and finished the descend down the steep snow slopes when the first rocky scree slopes
began. Energetically and sure footed I followed behind Lhakpa through one of those rocky
slopes where each rock is loose and sitting on yet another set of rocks that are equally
loose, so as you step the rocks beneath your feet move downwards like a gooey mass and
you only hope it will settle quickly so you can move your weight into the next step.
Well, I was going just fine until I suddenly got an unexpected dud in the form of a
really big rock whom I had trusted to be safe and who did the opposite and immediately
rolled to the side the moment I put my weight on it! I tumbled down the really dreadful
rocky slope unaware of where up and down is and completely without any control of my own
movements. I came to a halt not too far down from where I had fallen – I think it was a
big rock that was steady and strong enough to hold my falling body! It all happened so
quickly- as it does. I quickly realized that I am all well – I had a bit of a scrape and
braze on my elbow but otherwise my helmet, my daypack and one of my waking sticks took
all the beatings of the fall and I scrambled back up to the others who were almost more
shaken than me having seen me tumble down the glacier. I definitely had a very alert
guardian angel on that day.
To have two falls in almost 90 days of hiking, after at least 750km, having crossed 10
snow covered passes between 4300 and 6200m, four of which were glacier crossings and six
of them involved several rope passages, not to mentions the many days on slippery rocks
and muddy forest trails and narrow path finding through sandy landslides…. two falls
seems a decent amount considering the amount of steps I must have already taken!
Taking about falling, so often I have wondered about our team of porters, sherpas and
kitchen staff who carry their massive and awkwardly shaped loads up and down all the
same paths I am maneuvering up and down and through. Almost daily I asked myself “How do
they do it?” Faster and much more sure footed than me, often singing and chatting or
listening to Nepali folk music as they slog up the endless stairs or down the slippery
slopes! None of them has yet had any injuries, all of them are going strong – if
anything they might have had a sore throat or a light cough but never anything serious!
Meet some of the staff
Lhakpa Tamang, our climbing sherpa for section 1, 2 and 4! A warm hearted man with
the most beautiful smile. 40 years young! His brilliance and enormous strength
really shines through in high altitude. He is the one who prepared all the difficult
routes for us across glaciers and ice, he is also the one who will wait until we
have all crossed these routes safely and who will then pack all these meters and
meters of rope on top of his backpack and walk down with them! Lhakpa is highly
experienced and competent and I would cross any pass and climb any peak with him!
Jit Badur Tamang, aka Lhombu, which is his nickname meaning “long one” because he is
unusually tall for a Nepali, is our assistant sherpa guide. Lhombu has been with us
from Day 1 and he has been Lhakpa’s right hand up on the passes! He is a very
promising strong climbing Sherpa in the making!!! Besides that he is great fun – his
English is still very limited but we have been laughing lots trying to teaching each
other Tamang, Nepali and English respectively- I’d say 75% of the time we are lost
in translation but even that – or especially that lets us laugh a lot!
Mantare Tamang, who is the sirdar in charge of all porters. Full of jokes and
certainly a big jester! What I love about Mantare is that he always speaks in Nepali
with me- and never gives up until I get what he means and reply back in my own mix
of “Nepenglish”!
In my last blog I mentioned Gyaljen, our youngest porter in the Justin Bieber
T-shirt with the playboy earring! He is full of joy and fun and was the first of the
porters who learned our card games and joined in whenever we played. He is not shy
which is the predominant feature of most others.
Then with me at the moment and since Section 4 is Deepak Tamang, who is strong and
fast, loves listening to his Nepali music which comes blasting out of a little
portable jukebox or alternatively his phone. His English is slightly better than
average and he loves taking selfies of himself usually posing Bollywood style at a
viewpoint with the setting sun behind him or something such like…
Structure of our teams
And as I am writing this I realize that maybe a quick introduction to the structure of our team which is pretty representative of how things are done in the trekking and mountaineering industry in Nepal., would be helpful.
Satish is the trek leader and also the owner of the company – which is a rare phenomenon. Usually the company owner is not out in the mountains with his clients anymore but lets other people do the guiding.
Then there are so called climbing sherpas, a term that originates from the fact that People from the ethnic group of the Sherpas are know and famous for their contributions to the world of high altitude mountaineering in Nepal, so much so that the term Sherpa has falsely become synonymous with Porter for many foreigners. Climbing Sherpa is however a term used even locally for those highly skilled high altitude guides like Lhakpa and Lhombu whom I have introduced above- neither of them are Sherpa, both of them are Tamang people and yet their “job title” is”climbing sherpa”.
Then there are assistant guides (whom I haven’t introduced yet).
There is always one Sirdar (see Mantare above) who manages all the porters.
And then there is the cook with his kitchen crew which will vary in size according to the number of clients.
While everyone has very clear roles and responsibilities it is absolutely inspiring to see how everyone helps everyone else irrespective of whether it is help in the kitchen, fetching water, carrying a heavy load if one of the porters is having a hard time or when pitching tents – here I see teamwork at its best and it is clearly the deep care and respect for each other that makes it all work so well.
