There and back again

It's kind of neat to go to a place every 6 months, with different people, different attitudes, different weather, just a chance to see the place in a new time and space and through new eyes.

We had a great trip up the Khumbu Valley, over to see Thame on the way, then up to Everest Base Camp and then up nearby Kala Patar to see where we'd been, and where we weren't going (Everest!). My second trip up in the spring, with all the climbers on the trail and in the tea houses - lots of characters around! Our own Alpine Ascents climbing team seemed like a collection of good people, great to get to know on the way up and usually getting to the evening's destination well before us! Good thing it's not a race...

We got a bunch of snow over the course of two weeks (way better than rain!), which kept the dust down and made things look pretty, and indicated that it was a little colder than last spring. This was validated when we got to our highest tea house and the indoor toilet wasn't working because the underground pipe outside had frozen solid! Ah, the nature of adventure. Fortunately the group was great, with a good sense of... adventure, and an ability to deal with what came our way, knowing it only makes for good stories later. (That's Ama Dablam in the background.)

Additionally, our trekking staff was particularly wonderful - we had the opportunity to ask lots of nuanced questions about culture and experience, see Tsering's parents' home, and just generally connect and have a great time with them. The particular people on each trek tend to change from time to time, but I do hope to have most of the same folks with us again in the fall. We unfortunately had to give up Mingma to accompany one of our group to Island Peak while I continued down with the trekkers. We did hear that Derek summited successfully a couple of days ago, so I guess it was worth it. *grin*

And in a blatant commercial plug, we used a UV-light water sterilization device called a SteriPEN on this trek for the first time, and it worked beautifully. There are many environmental impacts of trekking on this region, and a big one is the use of fuel. Historically there was barely enough wood to support populations living here, but the heating and cooking and water-boiling required by thousands of trekkers puts a huge strain on the amount of kerosene and propane and yak dung (yep) available for fuel. So our local organizer suggested switching to battery power, and NO ONE had any debilitating GI issues! This is pretty unheard-of up in the Khumbu, so that is my testimonial. Pretty cool technology. (We decided these animals moving propane up the trail were called "fuel mules". I call them rocket mules. Either way we hope they don't slip.)

And now we're all on our respective ways back home, with a little time in Kathmandu and lots of hours on planes, heading back to that myriad of things that make it home. A little time for me to unpack, remember what the Northwest feels like, then pack up again and head north...

Katmandu, round 3

Well, I have to admit that my first two visits to Kathmandu were a little different than I had expected. You hear so many things about this Nepali city that bring to mind the exotic, the timeless, the spiritual. Yet when I first arrived and wandered around for a couple days, it seemed awfully similar to the polluted, chaotic, concrete-filled cities of other Asian towns that have expanded simply by laying more rebar and asphalt.

This time, however, I was goaded into visiting Bhaktapur, a preserved population center on the outskirts of Kathmandu, an area known for its historical buildings and lack of intrusive roads. We got out of the taxi and walked into what I had been envisioning all along.

Narrow streets, tiny doorways, old wood carvings, neighborhood temples, round wells, woodcarving or pottery or cobbler's shops... It is easy to imagine that these buildings, these paths and gathering places, haven't changed much in several hundred years. Stone carvings on temple stairs, rows of bells hanging from the eves, intricate forms hiding in wood in the shadows - all of these things seamlessly and un-selfconsciously a part of daily life

And I have to imagine that the whole of Kathmandu had this air about it when it was "discovered" by the western world in the 70s. In the early 50s, there were no roads that accessed this place from the outside world. (There were cars that had been taken apart and carried in, but you couldn't drive there!) The city in 1970 must have been so incredibly different from the West in ways it simply isn't now. I took a right by the Nike sign and went upstairs to get a 3G modem for my computer this morning. A little different, 40 years later.

But tomorrow we are on the first plane out to Lukla, back to a land that has changed in some ways, but not in others. The mountain trails are still steep and rocky, and yaks and people still carry everything that has to move up and down the valley. Follow the Everest Base Camp trek at www.alpineascents.com/everest-trek-cybercast-spring10.asp

The Trek

I've spent too much time updating Alpine's cybercast to be excited about doing a condensed version here, so for the moment check out http://www.alpineascents.com/everest-trek-cybercast.asp for details and pictures. More eventually!

Photos

More from Nepal and other places on my site at SmugMug. Enjoy!

(On the right side of the image, a little window pops out - click on "large" to see them as a slide show.)

Everest Base Camp / Island Peak

Three weeks? Really? Yep, we flew in on April 1 and back on April 20 - three weeks of walking up and down paths, looking at mountains and trees and yaks and kids and trying hard to fight off the various intestinal and respiratory bugs along the way. To Everest Base Camp and back, and a side trip to climb Island Peak for a few of us.

We actually had ridiculously perfect weather for most of the trek, just an afternoon of showers for us climbers and, unfortunately, some bad weather for the trekkers trying to fly back to Kathmandu before us. But the good weather meant lots of iconic views of all the famous mountains, Everest, Lhotse, Nupse, Ama Dablam, Pumori, as well as the less-famous mountains: Kangteka, Tamserku, Island, etc. The high Himalaya really are what they appear to be in pictures - striking, isolated, and BIG. Add some colorful prayer flags and timeless chorten monuments and stoic-looking yaks, and every picture is a keeper.

Interestingly, the challenge in climbing Everest is increasingly becoming not the altitude or logistics (that's what extra oxygen and amazing Sherpas are for), but simply keeping healthy in a valley with hundreds of climbers from all over the world (and thousands of trekkers), plentiful antibiotics, and lots of years for things to stew in a confined area. Everyone on our trip was sick in some form for some amount of time, and a few were hit badly enough to have to discontinue their ascent, meeting us only on the way down. Acute gastroenteritis (shit-barfs in the coloquial), respiratory infections, and the elusive Khumbu cough, a dry cough that doesn't resolve until you go down a LOT - these are often incapacitating and occasionally immune to antibiotic treatment. So train, yes, but carry a lot of drugs.

The main trekking route is indeed a Disneyland of sorts, and being in a large group made things much easier in many ways. The Sherpas (historical traders from Tibet who settled in the high valleys of Nepal about 500 years ago and are extremely strong at altitude) who porter, guide, and organize for us are amazingly hard working and attentive, and will run ahead to get tea or lunch started, load duffels on yaks, put bags in rooms, and a thousand other things that make our lives smoother. Most of them have a long relationship with Alpine Ascents, and the generosity of spirit they show is amazing.

We trekked up with the team of Everest climbers and guides who would be staying and climbing on the mountain for the next six weeks. It was a big group, but nice to get to talk to a variety of people, and interesting to get to know the climbers a bit before wishing them luck and heading back down. We had the opportunity to have lunch in base camp before heading back down, and the digs are nice!! They're there for some time, so the facilities (dining tent, outhouses, tents) are nice, and the food was great. We walked up close to the famous Khumbu icefall, a maze of shifting, broken glacier, and all agreed that we were glad we wouldn't have to walk through it!

A few odd things: after leaving the little airport at Lukla, we didn't see another wheel or cart until we returned. The terrain is too steep and broken - everything is carried by humans or yaks (or mule or zopkyo, a yak/cow crossbreed). And for many days we never heard an engine - no generators, no flights overhead. It is odd to realize that you haven't heard anything far away except for rockfall - everything you hear is close to you, within eyeshot. Yet there was internet in literally all but two of the villages we stayed in - ha!

The rest of the trekkers headed down and four of us (one had gotten quite sick) took a 5-day side trip to climb Island Peak, only 15 feet shorter than Denali! But so much more accessible. It's rock and trail about 2/3 of the way up, then a bit of glacier and at last some steep ice, which Chewang went ahead and fixed ropes on so we could climb up safely. Nice to be on a mountain instead of down in the valleys for a while!

Back down here in Kathmandu, a good rain had cleared out the smog, so it wasn't so much of a shock to our system. Amazing how fast you can readjust to cars and signs and civilization. A good shower, some fresh fruit, and cotton, and it's almost like we never left. But it's interesting to have seen another corner of the world, another cultural reference that people talk about, another understanding of a common experience. I managed not to offend any locals too much, or accidentally do anything terribly sacrilegious, so hopefully I'll get to come back and lead this trip in the future...

Nepal

Well, things are rarely what you expect - that's really true of almost everything (OK, except maybe some 9-5 jobs ;-). Nepal had been built up so much by other people and other people that the reality of what I found here on my own did not help my mood much for the first few days, but eventually the walking meditation that is long days and lots of distance helped bring me back to center.

In all honesty, I've found Nepal to be very much like India with two very important distinctions. One, there's a tiny fraction of the population, and two, there haven't been roads built to every village town. Yet. This means that you can have the idyllic trekking experience, away from roads but with lovely lodges and tea houses, in the high mountains, and there's a lot less waste and crowding. But there's still trash in the ravines and ditches. There's still one guy trying to fit his wife and two kids in the bus seat next to me. There's still tons of pollution, particularly in the city, and people still try to rip you off. They just do it with a smile instead of indifference.

All that said, it was beautiful most of the time, and I know how to get most of the above-mentioned drawbacks. I think many people who love the supposed Shangri-la of Nepal skip all the dirty parts, and just fly straight to Lukla and the Disneyland version of Nepal that is the major trekking circuits. There, kids don't bug you for handouts, the trails are wide, and businesses abound to serve your every desire as a trekker: chocolate cake, hot showers, telephone... you're still trekking, living rougher than we do at home, but things are pretty much oriented toward getting the trekker what he/she needs, and in a beautiful place.

The rhododenderons are in bloom, as well as white magnolia trees, and it's cool to see a forest sprinkled with white and pink and red across the hillside. I took a bus to Jiri and walked past Lukla (the fly-in point for our upcoming trek) to the edge of the park at Monjo in four days, then walked back in five. I didn't get to start seeing the really high mountains, but some glimpses here and there of snow-capped peaks are making me look forward to the scenery we'll get to soon.

To the North and back again

Ah, India. Land where nothing is what you think, but that means there's always something you haven't thought of. Lin and I went up to Leh, in the Ladakh region of Jammu&Kashmir, to get high in the Himalaya. It's a little late in the season for 20,000 feet, so we signed up with a guide, cook and horseman. If you've never trekked with hoofed animals to carry all your gear and someone cooking for you, you're missing out. I'm a pretty self-reliant person, but it's awfully nice. *grin*

It's long past the trekking season there at 11.600', so the town was much more local-feeling, and quite Tibetan in its flavor - butter tea and the like. Our guest house was delightful - no heat in the room or running water as it is now cold enough for the pipes to freeze, but wireless high-speed internet available (as long as the power isn't out)! Good local food and a few interesting solo travelers from around the world.

We set off toward Stok Kangri - a beautiful acclimatization hike with all of our warmest gear along. Camped at 16,200' the second night and prepared to climb the next morning. Reconnaissance showed a few inches of snow, but nothing different than we're used to in the Northwest; the guide said this would be difficult, unlike summer conditions. We shall see.

Walking by 3am in 10 degree darkness, clear but with light snowflakes materializing out of the air. Around the bottom of the moraine, guide a little turned around in the snow and clearly not liking the snowy conditions. Cold toes and fingers, definitely, but good. Sunrise found us on the rocky lateral moraine beside a pretty benign glacier, guide clearly unhappy and not wanting to continue. Why? Looked good to us - the snow had stopped and there were rocks to walk along to the upper part of the route.

Turns out the "guide", despite answering yes our direct questions, did not have plastic or even heavy boots! He was climbing in low-top hikers, with gaiters that didn't come down over the tops of his shoes! In snowy conditions his feet were wet and very cold, and he certainly didn't appear to have climbed Stok Kangri at this time of year before. Aargh! Lin and I decided to press on around the corner - I broke trail for an hour up to 18,300' to look around.

The upper part of the route appeared to be a snow-and-scree scramble, over a shoulder and up to the summit. By this time, however, it was 10am and we weren't sure of our speed or safety in getting up and back before dark and 2000' of scree wasn't all that appealing. To go or not to go? Thoughts of coming on our own the next morning, but it was pretty cold and I wasn't excited about another long day following this. Our guide said flat out, "I'm not going up there." Wow. Is there something we don't know? So far everything seemed pretty standard snow travel, but as a guide I ask people to follow my advice, so it's hard to disregard him. But really, no snow boots??

Ultimately we decided to go down, rather disappointed and certainly miffed at the inadequacy of our "guide's" gear despite direct questioning. I had brought my skis in case the glacier was skiable, but by that point had decided he wasn't worth much in the way of accurate information. Headed out the next day, never seeing our cook who was supposed to return for the last day after going to a friend's wedding mid-trip, and made it back to Leh that night. The power was, of course, out, making it slightly more difficult to finalize travel plans back to Delhi.

Ah, India. The airline we wanted had an office but couldn't sell us tickets, another could use frequent flyer miles but only if you hadn't missed the deadline 15 minutes ago by waiting for them to get to you, the third wasn't flying today. The first airline would take our cash in Delhi, but only for the next hour. Time crunch - Lin's husband and driver collaborated to get to the Delhi airport to buy tickets there(no ma'am, we require payment 1 1/2 hours before the flight now, not 1 hour). Of course, the flight might leave early if everyone has arrived. Lin distracted the office person for an hour as people were going through security in Leh so he wouldn't leave and not come back before we were booked. Finally our names came through and we were allowed through security, informed that no carryon luggage was allowed out of Leh (due to its proximity to Kashmir's troubles), charged extra for checking too much baggage, and rushed into the next room to wait with everyone else. Ha! Frisked four more times (seriously), and finally allowed on the plane and out of Leh. Whew! I'm not sure which was more of an adventure - climbing or flying!

On return to Delhi, noticed that evening that my camera hadn't turned up. In rushedly checking my carryon, I hadn't thought to reposition my camera, and am fairly certain that someone in Delhi's luggage handling has a new black market item to sell. Talk about insult to injury...

So I have no pictures, but am hoping to collage one of the scenes that stuck in my head. For now, be glad that you can buy airline tickets online, have reliable electricity, and don't have politically unstable neighbors stealing your camera.