Posts tagged ‘trekking’

Trekking – final installment

Way back when (before we were tired and hungry for sure) we decided to fly to Lukla and then walk to Shivalaya on the way out (and then take a bus back to Kathmandu).  Most people fly both ways.  Some people choose to walk in via Shivalaya – as a good way to get in shape and acclimate themselves.  Very few people choose to walk out via Shivalaya.  In fact, we saw no one else going our way….

The trek itself doesn’t go through valleys, it goes over them. Pretty much every day, you go up and down at least once, if not twice.  There are several (4 or so) high passes — high for the middle hills – one is around 3500m.  It is not an easy trek.  It is definitely a good trek to get prepared for the Everest region.  Maybe not so good when you are finishing….

In all seriousness, it was beautiful — lush green river valleys, high passes, villages, stupas, chortens — all the ingredients of life out in that region of Nepal.  We were seeing it all.  Unlike the Everest region, people live and work and farm and scratch out their lives in this area.  (well, people work in the Everest region – but most of the guesthouses exist because of the trekkers – not because people actually live there!)

As I mentioned, this time of year is Dasain – so we passed a lot of people headed home to be with their families.  One of the important parts of Dasain is the sacrifice.  Just so happened that we were trekking on sacrifice day.  At one point, Katherine turns to me:  ‘oh, god. They are going to sacrifice something.’  we stopped some ways away from the crowd of people, but could hear the swift chop.  As we walked up, we could see them bleeding out the goat and washing off the goat head.

At another house we passed, a kid excitedly ran out to greet us with a freshly skinned goat head in hand, moving the mouth for us.

oh, sacrifice day.

The trek is suppose to end in Shivalaya were you can catch a bus to Kathmandu — takes about 10-12 hours, sometimes more depending on the roads.  We really wanted to catch a bus there.  we were tired (did i mention that already?).  we were hungry (did i mention that either?).  wanted to stop walking.  But we kept hearing word that buses were not going to Shivalaya – instead we would have to walk another half day to Jiri to catch the bus.  Yet, every now and then, someone would raise our hopes and tell us — no, no — you can catch a bus in Shivalaya.

So – long story short – we had people making calls and connections for us every which way (the brother of our guesthouse owner in Kinja owned a guesthouse in Shivalaya and he would look into it for us – but we could have lunch at his sister’s guesthouse in Duerali – and if the bus didn’t work out – we could go to Jiri because here was another connection…..)

No buses in Shivalaya.  Not because of the road.  Nope.  The bus was there.  The driver w as there.  But it was the festival.  So – onto Jiri we went.  6 days after we left Namche we were in Jiri, done walking with a backpack – ready to eat up some miles on a bus.

Though I was ready for it to be done while I was doing it, it was pretty amazing to catch a glimpse of rural life in the Nepal countryside.  To see how people really live out there.  And the green countryside was amazing  – especially after being up in the mountains for so long.  The other really cool thing about the trek is that this is the way the first Everest (and other Himalayan explorers) expeditions went – before you could fly into Lukla – you had to walk in this way.  So, it was pretty cool to get that piece of history as well.

I will post pictures when I get them — though we did not take a whole lot on our way out…  both our batteries were dead and we were just about ready to be done.

But there you have it — there is the story of our 22 days trekking!  whew….  that took awhile!

take care — lots of other fun stories coming your way soon!

love – AK

Trekking – part deux

Ok, so to finish the trek…..

After the clouds rolled in on Kala Patar, we headed down as we knew we had another pass, Cho La, the next day to head to.  We said goodbye to Scott as he was headed back to Namche and we headed to Dzonglha, the town right before the pass which sits at the foot of Cholatse (pretty amazing views).  The whole way there it was raining and totally overcast.  In fact, a pretty miserable day to be trekking!  On our way there, we ran into Ben – as he was pretty much doing the same trek as we were doing.  He gave us some books (i kept running out of reading material!!!) and told us about the passes we were about to go over.  We would have loved to hang out and talk more — but the weather was miserable so we headed off.

We reached Dzonglha (population – two trekking houses) just as the weather cleared a bit for views of Cholatse and Ama Dablam.  But soon it clouded over again and started to snow!!!  We went to bed that night thinking it wouldn’t be a problem and we would head over the pass in the morning…..

Which was not the case.

It went on to snow for the next 14+ hours….. we spent the ENTIRE day sitting in the sunroom of the guesthouse – waiting for the snow to stop.  waiting for our next meal.  waiting for them to start the dung heater (it was damn cold up there).  We played farkle.  we read.  we  played gin rummy.  we drank milk tea.  we stared into space.  we were intrigued by the other group snowbound – 3 germans who did NOT talk to us at all (one of which spent the entire day laying down on the bench in the sunroom covered by a comforter).  We listened to avalanches coming off the mountains around us.  Needless to say, it was a LONG day!!!!

We weren’t sure what we were going to do — should we head over the next day?  At one point, there was word that someone had come over the pass in the storm – though we didn’t talk to them since they were at the other guesthouse.  But the guide came over and there was lots of talk in Nepali about what had happened and gesturing at us since we were hoping to go over the pass the next day.  We weren’t sure if they wanted us to hire the guy or what….  but we figured we could make it ourselves (not really knowing the path or or how much snow or any of those important details!).

The next morning we woke to amazingly clear skies, 8-12 (or more) inches of new snow (down low) and brilliant mountains in every direction!  It was beautiful!  So, off we went.  For a while it went well…..  we could find of see the indentation of the trail.  Until we couldn’t….  At one point, the two of us were standing in the middle of this valley – knowing we had to go up, but which way….  all of a sudden – we heard a sharp whistle from down in the valley – there was the guide who had come over the pass the previous day – he was headed home and willing to show us the way!

We encouraged him to go at his own pace (mine was way slower!) and we would just follow in his tracks – but he stayed with us (or rather, waited for us) all day.  And it was a long day…. we were postholing.  Sometimes sinking into drifts of snow that was mid-thigh depth.  The sun was so damn bright and hot (after complaining all those days that we had no sun….).  There were avalanches all around us (or at least on the mountains around us).  We were the first people going over the pass — and though neither Katherine or I was breaking trail, it was still incredibly hard work.

The pass itself was beautiful – we reached it once we crossed a small glacier (at which point we were really glad we were following the guide – and by guide, I mean he was a dude who worked at a guesthouse that was on the otherside of the pass!).  We could see mountains all around us, though it did start to cloud up in the distance (so no everest!).  Then we started down — which we thought – oh, good, going down can’t be as hard…. wrong again.

Plunge stepping into what is technically a scree field and postholing, slipping and sliding is not actually fun, in case you were wondering!  It was brutal.  Then we had to go back up a hill that had not just one false summit, but 3!  oh, it was rough.  and long.  and I got slower and slower (buddy asked if I wanted him to take my pack – I must have looked that drained….  )  Finally, 8+ hours later – we made it to Tagnag (the collection of guesthouses just over the pass).  We had intended to go further to Gokyo (another 2+ hours) but we opted for food, milk tea and sleep instead!

The next day we were back on track and headed to Gokyo – crossing the Ngozumpa Glacier – which extends down from Cho Oyu.  It was a huge glacier crossing with some sketch moments of rockfall – since it was yet another beautiful day.  But, within two hours we were in the beautiful village of Gokyo – which is set on one of the sacred lakes and surrounded by mountains.  Absolutely stunning.  Since we got there early in the day, we picked a guesthouse down by the lake and we were able to do laundry and dry ourselves and our clothes out in the sun.  But Renjo La, our third pass awaited us.

We thought we would head out the next day – but no one had been over yet.  And following our experience on Cho La, we were not looking forward to being the first over.   Plus, we woke up the next morning to clouds over the pass – so we figured we wait out another day to make our decision.  At this point, we were tired, hungry (it was hard to eat enough to not feel hungry all the time!), and Katherine had come down with a cold.  A rest day would not do us harm.  But, we were still undecided about what to do.

Finally, 3 people came over the pass, dropping into Gokyo.  They reported a story similar to ours – postholing, slipping, tough navigating.  At that – we made up our minds.  Head down the Gokyo valley to Namche.  There are plenty of times when we have to go a certain way to get out of the woods (or have to follow kids for 8 hours in the rain through the notch).  But here, we didn’t have to do anything — we could just head down the valley and head out.  So we did.  Peace out Renjo La.

The next day we hightailed it to Namche.  We were pretty excited to get there — veggie burgers, coffee, apple turnovers, chocolate cake, apple strudel, cheese.  We were hungry and we spent about 12 hours there eating (did I mention that it was hard to get enough calories and to feel full while we were trekking?  by that point in the trekking, i felt like i could eat every two hours and then, maybe, feel full).

But, unfortunately, we still weren’t done.  We still had 4 or 5 more days to go…..

To be continued…..

3 Passes — wait, make that 2

Ok — our trek.

it finally started getting pretty clear in the mornings!

Island Peak Base Camp with a huge amazing glacial pool (that is growing due to global climate change)

Ama Dablam

 Finally, it was time for us to go over our first pass – Kongma La which was at 5535 meters.  It was a beautiful morning, though unfortunately it did not stay that way all day…  that is also the day my camera battery died….

on top of Chhukung Ri – our high point of the trip

Early morning on the way up

beautiful morning

on top of the pass

So – we make it over Kongma La — it was clear on the way up, but clouded over by the time we reached the pass — you can see in the picture above that there was this awesome lake up there — but no real summits in view.

Coming over the pass, we dropped down to the Khombu side — meaning we had to cross over the Khombu glacier into Lobuche – which is where we met up with the Everest Base Camp trek folks.  We were so use to quiet – most people do not go over Kongma La — so the wave of people going to EBC was kind of crazy (and it wasn’t even busy season yet!).  Crossing the glacier was kind of cool — it was just so huge – and the moraines on either side were huge rock piles we had to cross.  It wasn’t dangerous where we were – but it was cool to hear the rockfall into the glacial pools that were forming where the ice was melting.

Once we dropped into Lobuche we could go to the actual base camp and Kala Pattar – which is a summit that people climb in order to see Everest.  We did go to both places.  Actual base camp isn’t all that exciting — though it is cool to see a place I have read so much about.  There were two parties there preparing to climb — though it is a heavy snow year (we ran into another group that had tried to go up Lobuche Peak and were stymied from all the snow).  It was pretty cool to see the Khombu Icefall – which I have also read so much about.  But you cannot see the summit of Everest from base camp – so it is just a mass of tents, really.

Kala Pattar was beautiful on the way up.  We started up at 4:30 in the morning – hoping for clear skies.  It was clear on the way up — but just about the time we reached the summit – it clouded over….  of course.  I did get a glimpse of Everest and there will be pictures coming.  We ran into Scott up there and he had some good pictures and Katherine has some as well.

I can’t say we were sad to leave that scene — it was definitely kind of crazy — everyone trying to get to base camp — which is strange because there are just so many amazing other places to go up there.

Ok — i will continue the rest of the trek story later.  Enough for now!  I will leave you in suspense on the rest of the story!

Take care – love – AK

all is well

this is a quick post.

we are still trekking – we have done 2 of the 3 passes — just one more to do.  we were going to go this morning but the cold, wind, snow and possible earth quake damage kept us in our bags (since it was 34 degrees in our room).  but our location in gokyo could not be more beautiful.

we have survived a surprise landing in phalpu (b/c the lukla airport closed on our way there), survived the earthquake, survived a 14 hour snowstorm, made it up two 5400 + meter passes (first people up one after the snowstorm — which kicked our asses), and now just one more pass before we start the trek to jiri to catch a bus to kathmandu.

we are both tired –‘ ready to be done trekking and ready to eat something else other than dal bhat and chapatis.

ok.  talk to you later.  miss and love you all.