First of all I should say that I have decided to write this post in English because a lot of people I know asked for this, and most of them speak English. Maybe in the future I will write some other posts in English as well so that more people could read and, hopefully, benefit from them.
Having to get rid of some the holidays from work (new company policy) me and my friend tried to find a nice trek in the late autumn. What better than going to Nepal? And, once there, why not attempting a peak above 6000m? The choice fell on the Mera Peak, which is possibly the easiest peak above 6000m in Nepal. It's basically considered as a trekking peak, despite the fact that crampons, harness and rope are necessary. Only the last 20m are "a bit" difficult, but in total is classified as PD-, so basically a motorway. Anyway, this time the aim was not for something difficult but for something high, also as a test for the altitude sickness.
The trek starts in Lukla.
This is a small village built around the airport that Hillary wanted to build right in the middle of the mountains. Is a bit a particular airport since the runway is not flat at all, and all pilots landing there must have a specific training. This airport makes it much easier to get into the Himalaya and to start expeditions to Everest and company. However, being in the mountains, the airport is at the mercy of the weather...which basically means that your flight could be delayed even by one week if strong winds persist for long enough. Couple this with the extreme non organization of the Nepali and you will understand why some people are willing to pay even 500 dollars to get an helicopter down to Kathmandu. After the arrival in Lukla we went for a short tea, we met the porters and then off we go. We is myself, Ross and Ingo. We all are colleagues at work, but all come from different countries.
First day of trek is not so long. We climb from 2800 to 3400 and sleep there in a lodge.
Here we get to try the typical Nepali dish, dal baht. This consist, at least in all the lodges we have been, in a big portion of boiled rice, some stir fry potato and vegetables, and a lentils soup. Quite a nice dish actually. Somebody could say it's not that nice to eat everyday, but I actually did not mind it. In the first evening we start understanding how all the other evenings would have been like...doing nothing because there is no light in the lodges and basically waiting to go to sleep because it's too cold. The only warm place in this trek has been the sleeping bag! Unfortunately we can't talk that much with our guide. He speaks English, but not very good and sometimes we got the impression he replied to questions we never asked. Nonetheless, his English was good enough to understand a little bit of the culture of the local population.
Morning of the second day we realize that Ingo is sick, very sick. Altitude has already got its first victim. However our guide decides to still go on for that day, but to have a shorter hike. We are "only" going to go to 4100. It takes almost the whole morning to get to the second lodge where we would have spent the night. Ingo is unfortunately really suffering and he has to seek for the help of one the porters to carry his rucksack. Once at the second lodge, me and Ross go off to inspect the path of the next day.
This is a relatively steep ascent up to a pass at 4500m, almost completely covered in snow. It has been snowing a few days ago but due to the cold the snow, and ice, is still there. So we take the ice axe and we go. The path does not seem that difficult and even though sometimes it's useful to cut some steps we can manage without crampons. We see a few porters coming down with huge loads, at an incredible speed for that path. Any person I know, even alpine guides, would have had to slow down on that path...especially on the way down. Not the porters...despite the fact that they were only wearing trainers and not carrying any ice axe or walking stick, they were coming down as if they had crampons. Really incredible. We stop at 100m from the pass and start walking back to the lodge...we don't want to spoil the surprise of looking on the other side of the pass the day before we have to actually cross it.
This second evening is even colder than the first one and it takes a while before we actually manage to get warm in the sleeping bags. We all hope Ingo is going to feel better the next day so that he can continue trekking with us. Following morning unfortunately his conditions are still unchanged and the guide decides to send him back to Luckla. One porter goes with him and from now on there will only be me, Ross, the guide and one porter. It was quite disappointing that the guide did not let Ingo try and cross the pass, but at the end of this third day, we understood why he did it. The third day was possibly one of the most tiring one. Once we reached the pass at 4500m we realized that there was another, even higher pass, to cross.
This higher pass was "only" 100m higher, but I can tell you that until you are properly acclimatized even 100m can be not exactly a piece of cake. Once we reach the top of the second pass we stop at a tea house on the way to have some quick lunch. Here I ask our guide if the path is from now on only going down hill...and he says yes! Of course he was lying. After the tea house there is a decently long down hill part, but then we have to go up again to another pass. Here we meet another group of trekkers coming back.
They seem to look at us in a bit strange way...and I think I know why. Me and Ross were carrying really big rucksacks, since we decided to carry as much as possible on our own without leaving too many things to the porter. Conversely, most if not all the other people that we met on the trek were carrying basically a day pack of not more than 30 liters. And then you could see the porters loaded like hell. Onc could say "well, in the end is their job". That is true, but giving people the possibility of having a job is one, and exploiting them as hell is another. It would be the same thing as if your boss at work decided to work only 6 hours per day doing almost nothing giving all the work to his employees and to you. Also in that case, that's your job...but would you be happy of doing that? Also, the job of a porter, despite paying quite well, is a rather dangerous one. They do this job not because they love the mountains or whatever, but only because they want to earn enough money to pay the school fee to their children. In such a way they won't have to do the same porter job once grown up. Is there a more noble intention than this one? For this reason I only left to the porter my double layer boots for the glacier, which simply did not fit in the backpack. Anyway, back to the trek. After this pass there was a section slightly exposed and contouring the flank of a mountain up to another pass. After this, finally...and after a long way down, we reached the lodge.
In the evening we were hosted in the kitchen since it was the only place with a running fire and therefore the only possible place in which to keep slightly warm. It was really nice to spend some time really inside a house of local people. Again the problem was that they were not speaking English, so we could not talk a lot...but nonetheless, a nice thing. Guess what we had for dinner...?
In the morning our guide wants to cheer us up a bit after the long day we had to through and he says today would be flat...but Nepali flat. Basically Nepali flat means that it's not going up steep by more than 1000m...but it absolutely not flat! We start by going down in the valley up to a river and a nice and relatively big village. We stop here for lunch and for the first and possibly only time we don't feel cold while having our meal. It was really sunny, no wind and no clouds. In this village we could see Mera Peak for the first time.
It looked damn far away, and quite difficult to access from this direction. This gave a small taste of the scale of Himalayan expedition. You gotta walk for days just to get in sight with the mountain you want to climb. Also, we had the great advantage of being able to use the airport, but what about 50 years ago? The first explorers that went into the Himalaya to try and summit 8000m peaks, those were the real adventure people. Basically having to walk for a month only to get to the base camp.
In the afternoon we leave this village heading along the valley and following the river. The path was never steep but always going up hill, even if very slightly. At the end of the day we got the lodge at almost 4000m. So basically the Nepali flat was starting at 3800, going down to 3400 and then up agin to 4000. Ok, not really a massive altitude gain and loss...but I would not call it flat :). In the lodge, at the end of the day, I start feeling the remoteness of the environment. Not that the other villages were full of people and with an intense night life, not at all...it's just that the surrounding now look much more like an expedition one.
The next morning we start walking up to the base camp of Mera Peak. The guide takes it really easy to give us enough time to acclimatize. It's quite funny to reach the height of Mont Blanc and still being only wearing light trekking boots, and only a long sleeve shirt...far from glaciers and snowy summits. In total it takes 4 hours to walk up to the base camp. The height gain is only 800m, but as I said, the guide made us walk quite slowly. Once at the base camp we have time to relax and to enjoy the sun. Looking around I see lots of big and small boulders...and I just can't resist the temptation to start climbing. I have to say that bouldering at 4900m is much more tiring that in an indoor gym. Sometimes I get the impression that some locals are looking at me like I'm doing something really weird...but I guess they have seen other people doing this before.
Next day is a so called rest day. This means that we will have more time to acclimatize. To help the process we walk up to 5200m, which allows us to enjoy nice views of the whole valley, and then we come back to camp...just in time for lunch. In the afternoon we practice climbing up fixed rope, because apparently there will be at least one on the summit. Later, I put on my Spantiks and start walking around the base camp, in order to get some practice. These boots are absolutely massive...to the point that my crampons had to be extended to the maximum in order to fit them on. They are double layer boots and are supposed to be very good up to 7000m. However, walking in them, requires some practice. At the beginning it feels like wearing blocks of woods. Finally, we start preparing the rucksack for the following two days. The plan is to walk up to the high camp at 5800m, sleep there and the next morning attempt the summit. I'm not so confident in the weather...The sky gets suddenly filled with the typical clouds that, in the Alps, would announce bad weather. However, there is not much we can do...just hope.
Following morning Ross is also suffering from altitude sickness and the guide suggests he goes down to the lower lodge at 4100 and waits there for us. A bit joking, but in reality quite convinced about that because of the weather, I tell him that we would see each other again in the evening.
Walking up to the glacier is quite tiring. Big boots, big rucksack, and no friend to talk to...but in a couple hours we are there. A group comes down from the summit and tells us that the wind was so strong the previous night that their tents were ripped apart. In fact, even at this lower altitude, the wind can clearly be felt as strong. The guide promptly says that we have to go back.
WHATTTA!!!
I came all this way from Switzerland, walked for 5 days to get up here, risked to take food poisoning at every meal just to get to the beginning of a glacier?? No way! I want at the very least to reach 6000m, if we really can't make it up that day. We finally agree that camping up there is not possible and that we have to leave all the unnecessary stuff there, together with the porter. We will then try and climb as far as possible, until the wind becomes too strong. The climb on the glacier goes really smoothly until we reach the first plateau. But I have never felt so unsafe on a glacier before. There were 3 of us on the rope and we were at a maximum of 3 meters from each other. The first person on the rope (I was in the middle) had all the rope which was than tied with a knot and in his rucksack.
WHATTTA!!!
I ask the guide why we are doing that. I try and tell him that normally on a glacier there are crevasses and that if he falls, we are all going with him...unless someone cuts the rope. Luckily I had my pen knife attached to my harness :). He says that on this part of the glacier there are no crevasses...and he seems sure about that. But I'm sure we have crossed a few, and even if they were very well covered in snow, how can he be so sure one of the bridge is not going to collapse? No No No, this is not the way to do it. On a glacier, if the risk of falling in a crevasse is higher than the risk of slipping and not stopping because too steep, you keep the rope long. And long means at least 8 meters between each person, in case of 3 people on the rope. At least, this is what I have learnt. Once we reach the plateau I feel the greatness of the Himalaya. Even though I'm well above 5000m there are still mountains that look giants from where I stand. Also, there are mountains all over the place, up to where eye can see.
It feels exciting and intimidating at the same time. Exciting because I feel that the possibility of climbing in that region are basically unlimited, and intimidating because I feel like a flea in comparison to these giants (and I was not even close to the really big ones). The excitement is so much that I start singing the Indiana Jones theme to myself as we keep on ascending the glacier. Wind becomes stronger and stronger by the minute but I feel like nothing can stop me. A short time later though I have to realize that the wind is in fact too strong to keep on going. the guide stops and waves at me. I understand that he wants to go back because the risk of flying away is getting higher. I then take off my backpack, secure it to the ice axe to prevent it from flying away, and start taking pictures. It's too cold and too windy to even look at what I'm taking pictures of. I just move my camera randomly around pushing the button at very high frequency (some pictures must be good at the end, I think to myself). Wind was so strong I had to stay down on my knees while taking pictures. After a couple of minutes the guide waves again at me trying to say we have to start walking down. I felt like I could have gone on for a little while more...but OK, he is the guide and he should know what he is doing. It feels like a great disappointment having to turn back after so much work to actually get there. I mean, I even had to spend a full day on the train just to go to Chamonix (from Zürich) and back in one day just to buy the double layer boots!! I guess the principle according to which reaching the summit is an option and going back home is a must still applies. However, I did not feel that we pushed it really to the limit...we could have gone a bit forward. Anyway...that's life and, more specific, that's what mountaineering is all about :).
The way down starts pretty quickly and in a much shorter time than what it took to go up we are at the bottom of the glacier. We take all the equipment back and start walking towards the base camp where we have a quick lunch. The plan is to go down to the lower lodges in the afternoon, since at the base camp is getting colder. In the lower lodges I meet Ross again and, again joking, I tell him that he should trust me more! I told him we would have met in the same evening...and in fact we did.
There's not much to say on the way back to Luckla since it was basically the same as the way to the base camp.
Having to get rid of some the holidays from work (new company policy) me and my friend tried to find a nice trek in the late autumn. What better than going to Nepal? And, once there, why not attempting a peak above 6000m? The choice fell on the Mera Peak, which is possibly the easiest peak above 6000m in Nepal. It's basically considered as a trekking peak, despite the fact that crampons, harness and rope are necessary. Only the last 20m are "a bit" difficult, but in total is classified as PD-, so basically a motorway. Anyway, this time the aim was not for something difficult but for something high, also as a test for the altitude sickness.
The trek starts in Lukla.
This is a small village built around the airport that Hillary wanted to build right in the middle of the mountains. Is a bit a particular airport since the runway is not flat at all, and all pilots landing there must have a specific training. This airport makes it much easier to get into the Himalaya and to start expeditions to Everest and company. However, being in the mountains, the airport is at the mercy of the weather...which basically means that your flight could be delayed even by one week if strong winds persist for long enough. Couple this with the extreme non organization of the Nepali and you will understand why some people are willing to pay even 500 dollars to get an helicopter down to Kathmandu. After the arrival in Lukla we went for a short tea, we met the porters and then off we go. We is myself, Ross and Ingo. We all are colleagues at work, but all come from different countries.
First day of trek is not so long. We climb from 2800 to 3400 and sleep there in a lodge.
Here we get to try the typical Nepali dish, dal baht. This consist, at least in all the lodges we have been, in a big portion of boiled rice, some stir fry potato and vegetables, and a lentils soup. Quite a nice dish actually. Somebody could say it's not that nice to eat everyday, but I actually did not mind it. In the first evening we start understanding how all the other evenings would have been like...doing nothing because there is no light in the lodges and basically waiting to go to sleep because it's too cold. The only warm place in this trek has been the sleeping bag! Unfortunately we can't talk that much with our guide. He speaks English, but not very good and sometimes we got the impression he replied to questions we never asked. Nonetheless, his English was good enough to understand a little bit of the culture of the local population.
Morning of the second day we realize that Ingo is sick, very sick. Altitude has already got its first victim. However our guide decides to still go on for that day, but to have a shorter hike. We are "only" going to go to 4100. It takes almost the whole morning to get to the second lodge where we would have spent the night. Ingo is unfortunately really suffering and he has to seek for the help of one the porters to carry his rucksack. Once at the second lodge, me and Ross go off to inspect the path of the next day.
This is a relatively steep ascent up to a pass at 4500m, almost completely covered in snow. It has been snowing a few days ago but due to the cold the snow, and ice, is still there. So we take the ice axe and we go. The path does not seem that difficult and even though sometimes it's useful to cut some steps we can manage without crampons. We see a few porters coming down with huge loads, at an incredible speed for that path. Any person I know, even alpine guides, would have had to slow down on that path...especially on the way down. Not the porters...despite the fact that they were only wearing trainers and not carrying any ice axe or walking stick, they were coming down as if they had crampons. Really incredible. We stop at 100m from the pass and start walking back to the lodge...we don't want to spoil the surprise of looking on the other side of the pass the day before we have to actually cross it.
This second evening is even colder than the first one and it takes a while before we actually manage to get warm in the sleeping bags. We all hope Ingo is going to feel better the next day so that he can continue trekking with us. Following morning unfortunately his conditions are still unchanged and the guide decides to send him back to Luckla. One porter goes with him and from now on there will only be me, Ross, the guide and one porter. It was quite disappointing that the guide did not let Ingo try and cross the pass, but at the end of this third day, we understood why he did it. The third day was possibly one of the most tiring one. Once we reached the pass at 4500m we realized that there was another, even higher pass, to cross.
This higher pass was "only" 100m higher, but I can tell you that until you are properly acclimatized even 100m can be not exactly a piece of cake. Once we reach the top of the second pass we stop at a tea house on the way to have some quick lunch. Here I ask our guide if the path is from now on only going down hill...and he says yes! Of course he was lying. After the tea house there is a decently long down hill part, but then we have to go up again to another pass. Here we meet another group of trekkers coming back.
They seem to look at us in a bit strange way...and I think I know why. Me and Ross were carrying really big rucksacks, since we decided to carry as much as possible on our own without leaving too many things to the porter. Conversely, most if not all the other people that we met on the trek were carrying basically a day pack of not more than 30 liters. And then you could see the porters loaded like hell. Onc could say "well, in the end is their job". That is true, but giving people the possibility of having a job is one, and exploiting them as hell is another. It would be the same thing as if your boss at work decided to work only 6 hours per day doing almost nothing giving all the work to his employees and to you. Also in that case, that's your job...but would you be happy of doing that? Also, the job of a porter, despite paying quite well, is a rather dangerous one. They do this job not because they love the mountains or whatever, but only because they want to earn enough money to pay the school fee to their children. In such a way they won't have to do the same porter job once grown up. Is there a more noble intention than this one? For this reason I only left to the porter my double layer boots for the glacier, which simply did not fit in the backpack. Anyway, back to the trek. After this pass there was a section slightly exposed and contouring the flank of a mountain up to another pass. After this, finally...and after a long way down, we reached the lodge.
In the evening we were hosted in the kitchen since it was the only place with a running fire and therefore the only possible place in which to keep slightly warm. It was really nice to spend some time really inside a house of local people. Again the problem was that they were not speaking English, so we could not talk a lot...but nonetheless, a nice thing. Guess what we had for dinner...?
In the morning our guide wants to cheer us up a bit after the long day we had to through and he says today would be flat...but Nepali flat. Basically Nepali flat means that it's not going up steep by more than 1000m...but it absolutely not flat! We start by going down in the valley up to a river and a nice and relatively big village. We stop here for lunch and for the first and possibly only time we don't feel cold while having our meal. It was really sunny, no wind and no clouds. In this village we could see Mera Peak for the first time.
It looked damn far away, and quite difficult to access from this direction. This gave a small taste of the scale of Himalayan expedition. You gotta walk for days just to get in sight with the mountain you want to climb. Also, we had the great advantage of being able to use the airport, but what about 50 years ago? The first explorers that went into the Himalaya to try and summit 8000m peaks, those were the real adventure people. Basically having to walk for a month only to get to the base camp.
In the afternoon we leave this village heading along the valley and following the river. The path was never steep but always going up hill, even if very slightly. At the end of the day we got the lodge at almost 4000m. So basically the Nepali flat was starting at 3800, going down to 3400 and then up agin to 4000. Ok, not really a massive altitude gain and loss...but I would not call it flat :). In the lodge, at the end of the day, I start feeling the remoteness of the environment. Not that the other villages were full of people and with an intense night life, not at all...it's just that the surrounding now look much more like an expedition one.
The next morning we start walking up to the base camp of Mera Peak. The guide takes it really easy to give us enough time to acclimatize. It's quite funny to reach the height of Mont Blanc and still being only wearing light trekking boots, and only a long sleeve shirt...far from glaciers and snowy summits. In total it takes 4 hours to walk up to the base camp. The height gain is only 800m, but as I said, the guide made us walk quite slowly. Once at the base camp we have time to relax and to enjoy the sun. Looking around I see lots of big and small boulders...and I just can't resist the temptation to start climbing. I have to say that bouldering at 4900m is much more tiring that in an indoor gym. Sometimes I get the impression that some locals are looking at me like I'm doing something really weird...but I guess they have seen other people doing this before.
Next day is a so called rest day. This means that we will have more time to acclimatize. To help the process we walk up to 5200m, which allows us to enjoy nice views of the whole valley, and then we come back to camp...just in time for lunch. In the afternoon we practice climbing up fixed rope, because apparently there will be at least one on the summit. Later, I put on my Spantiks and start walking around the base camp, in order to get some practice. These boots are absolutely massive...to the point that my crampons had to be extended to the maximum in order to fit them on. They are double layer boots and are supposed to be very good up to 7000m. However, walking in them, requires some practice. At the beginning it feels like wearing blocks of woods. Finally, we start preparing the rucksack for the following two days. The plan is to walk up to the high camp at 5800m, sleep there and the next morning attempt the summit. I'm not so confident in the weather...The sky gets suddenly filled with the typical clouds that, in the Alps, would announce bad weather. However, there is not much we can do...just hope.
Following morning Ross is also suffering from altitude sickness and the guide suggests he goes down to the lower lodge at 4100 and waits there for us. A bit joking, but in reality quite convinced about that because of the weather, I tell him that we would see each other again in the evening.
Walking up to the glacier is quite tiring. Big boots, big rucksack, and no friend to talk to...but in a couple hours we are there. A group comes down from the summit and tells us that the wind was so strong the previous night that their tents were ripped apart. In fact, even at this lower altitude, the wind can clearly be felt as strong. The guide promptly says that we have to go back.
WHATTTA!!!
I came all this way from Switzerland, walked for 5 days to get up here, risked to take food poisoning at every meal just to get to the beginning of a glacier?? No way! I want at the very least to reach 6000m, if we really can't make it up that day. We finally agree that camping up there is not possible and that we have to leave all the unnecessary stuff there, together with the porter. We will then try and climb as far as possible, until the wind becomes too strong. The climb on the glacier goes really smoothly until we reach the first plateau. But I have never felt so unsafe on a glacier before. There were 3 of us on the rope and we were at a maximum of 3 meters from each other. The first person on the rope (I was in the middle) had all the rope which was than tied with a knot and in his rucksack.
WHATTTA!!!
I ask the guide why we are doing that. I try and tell him that normally on a glacier there are crevasses and that if he falls, we are all going with him...unless someone cuts the rope. Luckily I had my pen knife attached to my harness :). He says that on this part of the glacier there are no crevasses...and he seems sure about that. But I'm sure we have crossed a few, and even if they were very well covered in snow, how can he be so sure one of the bridge is not going to collapse? No No No, this is not the way to do it. On a glacier, if the risk of falling in a crevasse is higher than the risk of slipping and not stopping because too steep, you keep the rope long. And long means at least 8 meters between each person, in case of 3 people on the rope. At least, this is what I have learnt. Once we reach the plateau I feel the greatness of the Himalaya. Even though I'm well above 5000m there are still mountains that look giants from where I stand. Also, there are mountains all over the place, up to where eye can see.
It feels exciting and intimidating at the same time. Exciting because I feel that the possibility of climbing in that region are basically unlimited, and intimidating because I feel like a flea in comparison to these giants (and I was not even close to the really big ones). The excitement is so much that I start singing the Indiana Jones theme to myself as we keep on ascending the glacier. Wind becomes stronger and stronger by the minute but I feel like nothing can stop me. A short time later though I have to realize that the wind is in fact too strong to keep on going. the guide stops and waves at me. I understand that he wants to go back because the risk of flying away is getting higher. I then take off my backpack, secure it to the ice axe to prevent it from flying away, and start taking pictures. It's too cold and too windy to even look at what I'm taking pictures of. I just move my camera randomly around pushing the button at very high frequency (some pictures must be good at the end, I think to myself). Wind was so strong I had to stay down on my knees while taking pictures. After a couple of minutes the guide waves again at me trying to say we have to start walking down. I felt like I could have gone on for a little while more...but OK, he is the guide and he should know what he is doing. It feels like a great disappointment having to turn back after so much work to actually get there. I mean, I even had to spend a full day on the train just to go to Chamonix (from Zürich) and back in one day just to buy the double layer boots!! I guess the principle according to which reaching the summit is an option and going back home is a must still applies. However, I did not feel that we pushed it really to the limit...we could have gone a bit forward. Anyway...that's life and, more specific, that's what mountaineering is all about :).
The way down starts pretty quickly and in a much shorter time than what it took to go up we are at the bottom of the glacier. We take all the equipment back and start walking towards the base camp where we have a quick lunch. The plan is to go down to the lower lodges in the afternoon, since at the base camp is getting colder. In the lower lodges I meet Ross again and, again joking, I tell him that he should trust me more! I told him we would have met in the same evening...and in fact we did.
There's not much to say on the way back to Luckla since it was basically the same as the way to the base camp.
No comments:
Post a Comment