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We flew here yesterday morning in a small 18 seater plane. It was an exciting flight with views of the Himalaya and Everest. The landing on the tiny air strip was incredible. You just wouldn’t believe the view. I am now sitting on the veranda of the airport manager’s house. He invited us to stay last night. It’s very lonely here for him and his friend the air traffic controller and they seem to enjoy our company. The house is at the end of the airstrip on the top of a hill overlooking the Dudh Khosi gorge, the river which runs down from Everest. We are in the foothills and the valleys are very lush and fertile. I am looking due north towards the Everest range, huge snow covered peaks, a breath taking sight.
The village is very scattered, mainly in the valley below. They are mostly small mud brick huts with thatched roofs. There are lots of orange trees, not quite rip yet and a lot of mustard and millet. They get oil from the mustard and things fried in it taste lovely and spicy. Last night we had goat fried in mustard oil, very tasty, a bit hard on the molars though – I’ve got another wisdom tooth pushing through. With millet they make cakes and a very strong wine called roxy which we were offered in great quantities. There are lots of vegetables but not much fruit. We went for a walk yesterday evening and were invited into a home where we ate curd and crisp pressed rice, very good. We also tasted spinach and fried pork, then returned to eat with Thaku and Dhakal. They have a lovely cook servant man who woke us up this morning with a cup of tea.
We expressed our interest in dance last night so we were taken to a house where some girls sang and played the drum and a guy danced really beautifully. I tried to dance with him, I wish I could have danced as well as him.
Tomorrow is a festival but I think we must start our trek. We were going to go today but were invited to a celebration lunch for the birth of a baby. Everyone was blessed and the Tika pink dyed rice, was put on their foreheads and flowers on their head for the naming of the child. It is also the festival of the cows today and a sweet little calf outside has a necklace of yellow marigolds around its neck. Tomorrow is the festival of brothers and sisters and the sisters put garlands on their brothers and the brothers give presents to their sisters and pray for them. Today at the meal everyone gave presents to the child of money. They have two other children and I also gave a bar of chocolate and a silver trinket slipper as they had been so kind to invite us. In fact the Nepalese are so friendly and hospitable we really feel we are seeing a country properly now. On the tourist route overland you don’t see any homes, just hotels and shops.
Thaku and Dhakal are so kind, we are staying in their spare room. They are lovely cheerful guys and always play English music, Abba & Tom Jones. Dhakal is going to give us a student ticket back to Kathmandu when we return after our trek, which is a 50% reduction.
It has been interesting talking to them about Nepalese customs. Marriages are arranged by the parents here and there is an amazing dowry system. If you arrange a marriage of your daughter with a doctor you must give him £5,000. It is customary for Nepalese to marry Indians and vice versa. Dhakal says his parents will arrange a marriage with an Indian girl but Thakal prefers a Nepalese girl.
Thakal speaks English very well. In Nepal if you do a degree you have to write your examinations in English. So you leave school where you do a bit of English and go to college or university and have to learn a new language in depth in order to study in the new language of English, amazing! There are 50 Nepalese regional languages but everyone has to speak Nepales as well as their mother tongue in order to have Nepalese citizenship.
Pete was very excited on the flight because the pilot invited him into the cockpit and showed him what different levers did so we were rocking from side to side and up and down.
We are just going for a little walk and we’ll find a quiet corner to meditate, we don’t seem to get time to do a lot of that nowadays. We still feel a bit tired and weak after our illnesses, not really looking forward to carrying 35 lb rucksacks but we’ll soon get fit. The tiny Nepalese women carry much heavier loads in wicker baskets tied with a strap on their forehead. They also do all the work in the fields and the house – many men do nothing. A lot of the younger men go off to join the Gurkha army then retire here.
After packing up we went with the cook who showed us the path to take on the way we went to visit his family and had spiced liver and roti, rings of fried batter/bread, and some oranges. Then we descended to the Dhud Khosi down a very steep path for 2,000ft then went up an even steeper path to the same height. We found it rather hard going with the rucksacks and it was extremely hot. Dusk arrived and we asked a man if we could pitch our tent in his back garden to which he agreed. We lit a fire and cooked some spaghetti and vegetables. His children crowded round us and I entertained them by cutting out paper specs, masks and moustaches. We had a lovely evening. Didn’t get much sleep though as it was Bai Tika festival and the villagers were singing, dancing and drumming all night.
A very heavy thunder storm delayed us for most of the day. We stayed in the tent and read books and ate. It cleared up a bit and the people came out of the house and gave us yellow and orange flower garlands. We took lots of photos of them with all their garlands on, they looked so colourful. After some hot soup to warm us up we moved on to another village where we pitched our tent outside the shool house. There are obviously few tourists who travel this route because crowds of people gathered around us touching and feeling everything, especially the nylon of the tent and plastic knitted pan scourer held a particular delight to them, the texture was felt and passed excitedly around the group. You would have thought we had just arrived from outer space, but to them we are real time travellers. An old man gve us some roti bread which we ate with our meal and we offered beadies, herb cigarettes to everyone (not canabis, just the cheap local way of starting an interaction)
We woke up early with crowds of people gathered around the tent. We had to dry everything out from the previous day so did not get off to an early start. All the children came for school and Pete sat and played his wooden flute which he bought in Kathmandu. The teacher had a bad eye so we put some ointment on it. We suggested that he should go to a hospital as it looked like conjunctivitis.
We arranged to have a porter to carry Pete’s rucksack for 10NRs a day and we made much more progress. Our route takes us more or less along the right bank of hte Dudh Khosi but the route bends away from it from time to time then returns to the gorge again. Also the route is up and donw continually. We campled on top of a hill next to a Buddhist shrine which made a good cooking plance. The kids of the village crowded around as usual but they helped us make a wood fire. The trouble is they lived about a mile away and it got very dark and they wouldn’t go, they kept begging for candles but finally their parents came looking for them so we had an even bigger audience. We were very tired by this time so we told them to go home in no uncertain terms, it gets a bit wearing after a while of having an audience sitting in a semi circle around the tent when we just wanted to be alone by the fire and be quiet.
Woken by the usual alarm clock – the kids! Arranged for another porter to come all the way to Namche Bazzar for 10NRs plus food. The only person we could get was a 16 year old boy with big ideas about becoming a Sherpa. He told us he wanted to come to Everest base camp with us but with the clothes he had on and only a cotton bed cloth he had to sleep in that was not on. His name is Kaji which suits him because everywhere we went he was always cadging food. In fact when we went into houses to buy food he would just pick stuff up and eat it without asking. Anyway, Pete taught him a few manners. So we put Kaji to the test but he was a bit slow. We stopped by a little waterfall and had baths, very cold but it was good to feel clean. We also bumped into an English guy who works in Nepal and we had a cup of coffee with him. So we didn’t make very much progress which was a nice easy day for Kaji.
We camped under some trees and managed to buy some spinach and eggs. I had a stock cube so Kaji lit the wood fire and I made a soup. We didn’t want to break into any of our dehydrated food which we will need for higher up. So the meal was not really substantial but we filled up next morning on porridge. Kaji slept under the stars.
Kaji brought us a cup of tea in bed, lovely! He was useful to have around us as he got all the water and kept the fire going. We spent quite a lot of time trying to buy vegetables and things to eat. We got 15 satsumas for 1 rupee and some rice which is very rare in this part of the valley. In the afternoon we stopped at a rest house and bought more food for the rest of the journey. I got some roasted soya beans and maize, very good. We had a glass of roxy, so that was the end of walking for that day, it’s strong stuff! In fact that evening I drank too much and nearly fell into the Dudh Kosi in the middle of the night when I went for a pee.
We bought some maize flour which is good to eat on its own, it’s got a lovely flavour, it’s the same flour as they use in Sicily for bread I think. I used it to make gruel in the morning for breakfast, very filling and good for you. We camped in a ploughed field above the Dudh Kosi gorge.
We’ve really been enjoying the remoteness of this valley but now we contour around many hills above the Kosi and join the more popular approach route. For the first time in days we see foreigners. This is where the chai (tea) shops start, lots of them. They sell evening meal for 6rs and sleeping for free. We cannot afford 18rs for the three of us and would rather stick to our tent than flea infected houses. We make our own fire and buy some root tubers that are like potatoes which are very good though a bit stodgy. Kaji sleeps in the rest house.
On the way through the village Khari Kola we see a shop and treat ourselves to some sweeties. We have a long climb ahead of us into the clouds at 3,000ft. We stopped for a tea and tatties on the way up. The weather is awful, in fact there ahs not been one clear day since leaving Lamidanda. We climbed to the top of a pass through very mossy leafy misty autumnal woodland at 9000ft and then set our sights on the next village for camping. We underestimated the distance and ended up still very high and it was getting dark. Luckily we came across a house on the side of the path and asked if we could camp there. They offered us a dung heap to pitch the tent on, but what’s a bit of cow shit when you are desperate and knackered!! It was all very cosy with the cow breathing heavily next to the tent.
They were very kind and let us cook our rice on their fire in their house. They sold us some stringy spinach and our meal was awful. I think it was pudding rice and it went like glue – yuk! Anyway, we let Kaji eat his fill of it and we bought some vegetable stew to share with a lot of hot chilli in it. There was another Nepalese couple who were stopping off en route to Namche and they seemed really nice at the time but I think they pinched our last remaining knife. We bought 2 glasses of roxy from them, they were taking a whole load of it to sell at the market at Namche.
After a big bowl of rice pudding made from the remainder of last night’s mush, we made a long descent to the Dudh Kosi. We stopped for a tea and Kaji was upset because we didn’t buy him one, but it’s not usual to buy your porter tea and other things you get yourself. He also decided he wanted more money so Pete said OK give me my rucksack and you can go home. Anyway we sorted it out and explained to him that we were spending many rupees for food for him as well as his fee for carrying. He also wanted to make it all the way to Namche which I think will earn him prestige in his village.
The climb along the side of the Dudh Kosi was now quite gradual, passing through many villages. We stopped for some boiled potatoes for lunch then went on to a small village where we camped, bypassing the busy camping ground where al the rich people were who had flown in to Lukla. They are so funny, these people on organised treks who fly in. They don’t carry very much and have millions of porters to do it for them and they all have the same jackets and breaches and twee little hats, all dressed up as if they are going to attempt a climb all the way up Everest, and they have unnecessarily huge climbing boots which you don’t need unless you are going on icy snow with crampons attached to the boots. They really make you sick, they don’t know what it is to be without tons of cash and they up the prices in Namche so that us poor little hard working trekkers can’t afford half their stuff.
Most of them are Amerian and when you talk to them they are pea brained idiots with little character. The people you meet who have walked in most of the way like us are much more interesting. Anyway, where am I, we camped in the grounds of a rest-house and ate a smashing meal of rice with a mixed veg stew adn hot chang of fermented rice water beer.
The lady let us use her fire to cook our porridge and we also bought some things from her store which consisted of stuff left by expeditions. We got some of that heavy German rye bread, some porridge oats, crispbread, all for quite reasonable prices but things are getting more expensive now we are on the tourist route. We were feeling rather angry and concerned about some information we got the evening before about an unplanned and un advertised 60 rupee entrance fee to be paid at a check point 1 ½ kilometres further on. We had not been informed about this in Kathmandu but apparently the rule was only 1 week old – not made by the government but by the Everest National Park organisation. We felt really annoyed because we had already paid enough for trekking permits and visa extension, 120 rupees was ridiculously greedy – just cause the mountains are in Nepal why should htey charge a fortune for people to see them? The Alps are free to anyone. Anyway we decided we were definitely not going to pay the fee – we didn’t have 120 rupees anyway so we were all set for a confrontation.
Before we left the village teh lady from the rest house where we did not eat demanded 4 rupees for letting us pitch our tent on her land. Her husband had said we could pitch it for nothing. We just walked off and she spit at Pete and cursed him. This is an example of how the tourists create greed in the locals and we expect to encounter more of this. What a difference to being welcomed to pitch our tent for free in the villages from Lamidanda to here.
When we reached the checkpoint Pete was all ready, specs off!! He just carried on walking past it and three tiny scruffy little guys called us then ran after us and tried to man-handle Pete – obviously making no difference. They grabbed hold of Kaji but as soon as Pete made a move back towards them they let go, so we escaped paying 120 rupees, £5 which we did not have nor had we been warned that we needed it at the official government trekking permit offices in Kathmandu.
This part of the route is probably the prettiest, the track goes along the side of the Dudh Kosi which is really spectacular, through big pine forests. The last part of the climb to Namche is rather steep and very busy and at times you almost had to queue up on the track There are a lot of porters with gear for expeditions and organised treks and also yaks laden with gear. Poor Pete got the shits half way up so progress was slow. When we arrived in Namche Bazzar it was in the clouds and very old and we were a bit disappointed. It wasn’t as we imagined it would be, in fact it was a bit scruffy looking. We went to a tea shop and paid Kaji off. Pete went in search of a hotel with a double room, they don’t exist, they are all dormitories. Luckily Pete went into a private house and asked if they had a spare room and they agreed to let us stay there. We got a room with windows on two sides, great for the view but it wasn’t half cold. One day was so cold we stayed in our sleeping bags all day. We had views of tow really beautiful snowy peaks and the whole of the village from our room so I think we were lucky.
We rested in Namche and did the washing but had to wait ages for it to dry out as it was so cold and cloudy. We looked around the shops and bought a carpet with dragons on it for £19, our big souvenir. There is a lot of second hand climbing gear around for quite cheap prices. We got a climbing helmet for me and a full body climbing harness for £3.20 which will fit us both. We tried here to get climbing boots and crampons etch because we fancy the idea of climbing Island Peak sout east of Everest at 20+000feet. However we couldn’t hire gear and were informed that we could get good gear at a village higher up.
We treated ourselves to a hot shower, 36p each that involved us stripping in the room, running to a cupboard sized cubicle outside and shouting “ready” to the people back inside our house who poured hot water into a pipe that ran overhead to splash down onto our freezing smelly bodies. I suppose it was like a snow and sauna experience though I don’t want to repeat it but it was good to feel clean again and worth exposing one’s flesh to the elements.
In Namche we ate at one of the lodges, mostly Sherpa stew, 2 rupees for a big bowl consisting of potatoes and meat stock. We sat round the fire where the lady cooked. She also made good yak steak dinners with fried potatoes, thick gravy with spinach in it. She made good jam pancakes and rice pudding with cinnamon flavour. She also made good wholemeal bread so we stocked up on that to take with us.
When we left the house we had been staying at we had a very upsetting time. The guy wanted to charge us twice the agreed price. We had used a bit of water and their fire to make tea in the morning and they wanted to charge a fortune for that. Also we were paying for a revolting meal that had not arrived. Pete tried to be calm and fair but the stupid bitch wife started saying we were no good (maybe if we had been rich and willing to pay through the nose she would not say this) What really influenced their greed was the fact that a rich Austrian who stayed three nights at the same time as us gave them loads of money, rich idiot, so now they expected the same from us. This is the tourist induced inflation that we observe since joining the chewing gum and litter trail (negative influences of tourism). We thought it fair enough to give them something for the use of the fire but not the amount they were asking for. We were going to leave some gear with them but we didn’t and we didn’t give them what they asked for. The woman was insulting and I got so angre I nearly smashed her one. Anyway we left quickly feeling very upset and disappointed with the Nepalese people who get greedy and try and screw as much money out of people as they can. It’s OK for these rich people who fly in and out but for young trekkers who have to look after their pennies it’s not very fair.
We found somewhere else to store the gear and after rice pudding and pancakes we set off for Thangboche where the famous Buddhis monastery is. I had developed yet another foul cold so couldn’t go very fast. We decided to camp half way by the Dudh Kos so leaving the last leg, a steep climb, until the next day. A guy let us stay in a new National Park cabin which was very cosy and warm. We also had an excellent meal of rice and vegetables washed down with roxy.
Pete decided to go back to Namche to get this good climbing harness he had seen and left me alone to do the washing and rest a bit as my cold was very bad. I was a glorious sunny morning and Pete got tremendous view, we did not see anything the previous day because of the mist. I washed my jumper and woolly tights which dried in a couple of hours. My face and arms got really brown, a shame I had not got my bikini with me and I would have got a good tan When Pete arrived back he told me all about his adventure and had brought back a treat, a piece of yak cheese, lovely. He got the climbing harness for about £3.60 and it would have cost £12 in England. It will fit us both but Pete will need to wear it when leading on rock climbs her.
It clouded over as it usually does in the late afternoon so we get in our sleeping bags and chatted and meditated then enjoyed another good meal. Everyone had been talking about the festival at the monastery in two days time in Tangboche.
As it was such a hot morning again we did a bit more washing then after lunch we went to Tangboche which was 1 ½ hour climb through pine trees and pitched our tent next to a cheerful American group, all the lodges were packed out because of the festival. We went to one place for a meal and it was so bad I refused to eat it and walked out. The other place wasn’t much better but the company was good and the fire warm. We drank a lot of roxy by didn’t get very drunk because they had watered it down. During the night the bad food made itself felt and I got the shits. Also there was an awful musical ensemble in the middle of the night with gongs and horns that sounded like farts and trumpets that sounded like a swarm of bees. It lasted about an hour so we didn’t get too much sleep.
We didn’t see all that much of the festival. It was mostly symbolic ritual with masks and costumes more mine than dance and with loud stark gongs , symbols and bells accompanying the racket. All the Sherpa People from miles around had gathered to see it and it started at 10 at night and literally went on all night. At least the dancing finished just after dark but the Sherpa People danced and sang all night so that was another bad night sleep. We made our own meal tonight as we didn’t want to risk being ill again.
In the afternoon we walked to Periche at 14,000 feet. We had been looking forward to getting there be cause we had been told that there was a lot of climbing gear to hire but there was nothing. Pete found a pair of crampons to fit his doctor Martins floppy boots but the only ice axe that we could find had a broken shaft and there was nothing for me so the hopes of climbing Island Peak are fading. The way up 2 paricha was mainly contouring above the Dudh coze we passed Lord hunt and his wife just coming down from the 25th anniversary celebration of the Hillary and Tenzing first ascent of Everest. They had their party at base camp.
At Periche we had very good food and pancakes and some very good Chang beer. We had a really pleasant evening talking to some American guys who told us where they had been and gave us some ideas as to what we will do. We stayed in a lodge as Pete didn’t fancy another cold night .
after buying some more food and Pete rushing round all the lodges To see if we could find an ice axe , it was lunchtime so we stayed for another pancake. There is a small hospital here with a gorgeous American doctor. He checked my blood pressure for me which was fine, it rose a bit looking at him though !!
The area round here is very much like Glencoe and very similar weather to Unfortunately .
We decided not to go straight to base camp but to camp by a Big Lake and attempt on 18,000 feet peak above it which the Americans had told us was straight forward and there were tremendous views. So we walked to the Lake and set up camp on a little beach by the side of the leg. It is extremely cold we cook our meals and go straight to bed. Neither of us slept hardly at all . It must have been -15 degrees centigrade. I was warm in my sleeping bag but cold under my kidneys so I had to keep getting up for a pee. Pete was frozen , his sleeping bag is not so good as mine.
We felt so bad that we decided not to climb the peak today so we will just relax and do and nothing. The son Sean this morning and made the tent nice and warm to snuggle in. Did a bit of washing which froze instead of drying. The views are tremendous from here tho. A peak across the Lake plunges 5000 feet vertically into the Lake. There are high snowy peaks all around . Last night the moon was shining and the scene was just unbelievable with all the white snow shining out and the peak was reflected in the Lake. Except for the very high pointed peaks Pete says it reminds him very much of Scotland in winter , it is somewhat higher though and we are camping at about 15,200 feet. We’ve got no idea of the time be cause our only watch has stopped. We have just patched all the holes in the tent with some canoe tape and it is quite windproof now which it is unfortunate because it won’t let Pete wind out will it’s either him or the old Jack cheese or a dead cat. Oh well we can’t help having a poorly tummy. Plans for tomorrow, get up at dawn and climb the peak .
We were extremely lucky to get such a good day today. The wind was gusting a bit But it was mainly calm and sunny. We began with a steep climb from the Lake and up onto the Ridge which led to the peak. The first view of it was for short and and it didn’t look so far but as we plodded on we realised it was much further up than it looked. There were 3 rock bands above us that’s we had to climb up and between each rock band will boulders and loose screen. The rock bands involved a bit of rock climbing but ropes weren’t necessary and in any case we didn’t have any. The altitude over 15,000 feet made the going slow but it was a really enjoyable climb.
The summit was snow covered and there was a steep drop on all sides. Pete had brought a billy can lid with him and scraped some holes in the snow to make it safer to climb up the last part of the snow cap on the peak. We enjoyed tremendous views as we ate our lunch. In One Direction was Everest Lhotse Nuptse and another beautiful peak called Amadablam that is shaped liked the Matterhorn. This view was a panorama of the highest and most beautiful mountains in the world it had taken 5 and a half hours to climb from 15,000 feet to 18,212 feet and took 2 hours to get down.
We both felt rather ill with altitude sickness. I was sick and collapsed into my sleeping bag and slept for an hour while Pete bravely made the tea although he felt bad too, and nice tea it was too. Tice and lentils in beef stock. Another extremely cold night of not sleeping.
There is a change in the weather pattern, an extremely cold wind blowing. It was so cold that when Pete washed the dishes after breakfast they all immediately stuck together with ice within minutes. He felt extremely weak and tired after our climb yesterday and made very slow progress towards Lobuche which is the last village before base camp. It is a really good walk getting closer and closer to all the big mountains. We pitched our tent at Lobuche and ate a horrible meal in the lodge which upset our tummies again.
It really is bloody cold here, it must have been minus 17 or maybe minus 20 degrees C in the night. Pete eventually emerged from the tent cursing and mumbling and the tent was pitched near to the track that the trekkers follow from Namche to Everest base camp. He is quite noisy in his cursing, not caring who hears but a couple said that they not only heard him but recognised good Cumbrian cussing and they introduced themselves – John and Hazel Thwaite (a good Cumbrian name) and we kept in touch and eventually moved into their rented accommodation when we returned to Cumbria.
We walked to Kala Patar, the hill opposite Everest, and from the top you get good views of the Khumbu ice fall and the South col. The weather was a bit disappointing, very cloudy, hopeless for photos but we caught a glimpse of Everest summit several times and quickly got our camera out. We decided not to go to base camp only a bit further up the valley because it inbolved climbing over too much moraine and apparently the views weren’’t as good. Kala Patar is usually the end of the trail for everyone, unless you want to cross over into China! It was a shame that the wather was so bad with a really strong driving freezing wind, so we couldn’t stay at the top and enjoy the view for too long as we got so cold. We stayed long enough to eat our celebration tin of prawns. I wish we had kept our rum too, it would have gone down a treat. We were both feeling the altitude and the cold so we walked back as quickly as possible to Lobuche and had some hot Sherpa stew. We stayed by the fire until bedtime and talked to a lovely couple from the Lake District and got their address and will look forward to meeting them again. We also learned a lot of fascinating things about computers from an American computer programmer. It’s quite frightening how far computers have developed, there are now computers that think and make decisions, heuristically, hard to believe. We reluctantly retired to bed to the coldest night yet and neither of us slept very well.
Woke up to a horrible snowy windy day – winter in the Himalaya at x000 feet, the winter is really setting in. It was so cold that we just needed to get down as quickly as possible but there was still a question in our minds about Island Peak – should we or shouldn’t we? We got down to Periche and had Sherpa stew by the fire, it was so cosy that we just stayed there for the rest of the night instead of pitching the tent in the freezing conditions.
The man of the house was wrapped up in his sheepskins and drinking raki spirit, his way of keeping out the cold during the winter, and would remain in this stupor until spring, according to what a guide told us.
We definitely wanted to get up Island Peak but we had no money left for food or huts and the tent was a cold last resort. We stayed in Periche trying to work out a solution with the Nepali guy who hires out gear. He accumulates it from expeditions when they leave Everest and the surrounding mountains because it is easier for them to donate it than pay for it to be carried back to their home countries. The equipment is, of course, designed for high altitude climbing and the crampons were huge and designed for double boots, so were ridiculously huge for my floppy soled Dr Martin’s airflow “boots” that were really just shoes that came up to the ankle without giving any extra support.
The wonderful Nepalese owner of the hut decided that we could get food and gear on credit and his wife would later come to Namche with us when we returned and we would pay her when we cashed some travellers cheques at the bank in Namche. In the meantime she would keep our passports. We enjoyed good company and good food at the Ama Dablam hotel. We had a good talk to Dr Hacket who has a high altitude treatment and research clinic there about Island Peak and he gave us some pills to clear up Joy’s kidney infection and to help us sleep – a really good guy.
Walked from Pheriche to Chukung which involved crossing the hill above Periche into the next valley. The view from the top of the hill was tremendous with Island Peak right in the middle at the head of the valley. We fell in love with it immediately. As we walked up the valley there was Lhotse Nuptse wall towering above us on the left and steep snow covered peaks all around.
At Chukung we stayed in a hotel and got a warm nights sleep. We were disgusted by the scruffiness of the children, hair dirty and stuck out in clumps of mud and dirt as though it had not been combed ever, and their pants split at the bum and front so they didn’t have to drop their trousers and could just squat and the split opened for them to do their toilet business. I suppose it is a survival strategy where dropping the trousers in freezing conditions would freeze legs and everything very quickly! The baby was carried around naked outside the next morning – hardy people these Sherpas, be hardy or perish! They often sit around the fire scratching each others heads and picking out the fleas. The husband sat spinning yak wool all evening. The tea was really good because of the creamy yak milk.
Walked along the ridge from Chuckung to Island Peak base camp following close behind George, a Mexican and his porters. He hoped to climb the peak too. We crossed a huge lake of sand, just like a desert and then up the valley between the Imja Kola Glacier to the right and Island Peak to the left. We walked further ip the valley with George so that we could get a good look at the route up the mountain which was 20,000 ft high. George had a guide book which described an excellent route up it. We pitched tent and had a rotten meal cooked in melted snow a there was no water around, it was just like eating grit. Had it not been for the Mogadon we wouldn’t have slept much because it was extremely cold and very windy.
A horribly windy day but after gritty porridge we set off full of enthusiasm and confidence – a 20,000 foot peak to conquer! The first part of the route was sheltered from the winds and followed a rocky ridge which was the left buttress of a deep rock gulley with another rocky buttress on its right. We could see the summit route would be on the right, so we crossed over a snow gulley and onto the neighbouring ridge to the east. We should have gone to the right of the ridge here to shelter from the wind but we went up the middle of the ridge up boulders and this is where we realised how strong the wind was. Every minute there was a strong gust which blew us off our feet, literally knocking us over like skittles. We had to lay down on the rock and hold tight to the rock and even to each other to stop being blown away. But we were not going to be defeated.
We continued up the ridge which led to the glacier to th right of the ice fall. The view of the ice fall was tremendous, blue ice hanging with icicles and crevasses. When we got to the glacier we realised how dangerous the conditions were, not because of the route or the condition of the snow but because of the wind which must have been approaching 90 miles an hour on top.
The route was straightforward and there were big bucket steps already cut, helpful for me (Joy) as I had no crampons. We tried the first 100 metres of the glacier but the conditions were impossible. We were feeling great, really fit and no signes of altitude sickness. We were at the height of about 19250 feet, 5860 metres, with only 980 feet to go to the summit but it would have been crazy to continue. In good conditions it was a simple snow walk with only 100m of steep climb on the head wall before the summit – imagine how frustrated we felt. We knew it was easy but the wind made it impossible.
[Pete: At this point the wind was so strong that at one point on a steep slope I was sitting as low as possible to keep out of the wind with the rope attached to Joy who stood up to come a few metres on and the wind blew her off her feet and she was dangling for a moment at the end of the rope like a kite!! ]
So with great regret and tears of frustration the sensible survival judgement and skill kicked in and down went, down the steep ridge trying to keep disappointment from affecting our judgement in the steep exposed terrain. The view from the glacier was out of this world, we were really high up with all the peaks around us and it gave you a feeling which made your head whirl, it was almost too much.
We were in the restricted home of the real Himalayan mountains where the altitude, cold and wind could kill and only the brave and skilled can survive. This was a place and altitude that was even higher than the alps, more remote than anything we could imagine, testing ourselves to the highest level of diy amateur explorers and being rewarded with views and feelings of privilege at being in such beauty, at surviving through our skill and determination. Those feelings helped balance the depression of failing to achieve the final summit, the experience was more than bagging a peak.
We returned to base camp and packed up. We hadn’t enough food to wait for better conditions and in any case this wind seems to be relentless and showing no signs of calming. It could have been perfect weather next day or this winter wind could continue for months. It is nearly December and really the climbing season is over. A Swiss expedition is coming down from Lotse and they were defeated by the wind and the cold, so we shouldn’t feel so bad if the best of the best of alpine experts are also defeated. Most expeditions are done in October.
We walked back to Chukung feeling tired and depressed. Pete had a bad attack of diorhea on the way, probably from all the muck in the snow [turned out to be giardia]. Stayed int the same hotel and a kind English guy lent us some money so we could get some tea, we were so dehydrated after our climb. A good night’s sleep, hurrah!
Walked from Chukung to Pheriche with Pete feeling quite ill. It was a lovely clear sunny day but still high winds on the top of the mountain, you could see the snow blowing off the tops and the clouds were still moving at quite a speed. We had some hot Sherpa stew and sat around for the rest of the day feeling depressed. It’s hard to describe the feeling of not having made the summit. You develop a special relationship with a mountain when you are climbing it – still part of mountaineering is knowing when to go on and when to turn back if conditions are dangerous. We cooked our own meal so saved chalking up more on the bill at the hut. We planned to leave for Namche next day with the woman from the hut so we could repay her her generous credit.
A disastrous start to the day! I spilt our last porridge so we had to buy some more. We waited for the woman to get ready to go with us but she was obviously reluctant to go as market day wasn’t for another three days and she would have to stay three nights in Namche. Luckily along came an extremely kind French couple Roland and Marie who sympathised with our problem and gave us the money to pay our bill without hesitation. We arranged to see them in Namche to repay them. They wouldn’t even take a passport for security.
How marvellous to meet such trusting people. So, after treating ourselves to a tin of stew that was left by the North Korean expedition (delicious), we set off for Tangboche. It was mostly downhill so even though we set off late at 2:30pm we reached Tangboche by 5pm. Our favourite eating place was just down the hill from there so we ran all the way down 2000feet in 20 minutes and arrived just as it got dark – by now we had no torch except the candle for the tent. It was worth the run and we had a delicious meal of rice and veg and some really good chang beer. We also enjoyed the warmest and most comfortable sleeping place yet, 3inch foam mattresses, very clean. Ironically we never slept!
We had a very low waking up process and took advantage of the comfort. We were brought breakfast in bed, prridge, pancake with jam and lots of good yak milk tea. We sat and talked for ages, sitting up in our sleeping bags all rosy. We eventually got moving at 1030hrs and after a very steep path of about 2000ft reached Namze in one and a half hours in time to catch the bank. Cashing our travellers cheques was a lengthy process of an unnecessary amount of people dealing with lots of bits of paper and record books, totally inefficient, rather comical really, except we were starving hungry and ready for some Sherpa stew.
Namze is not a typical example of Sherpa villages and we wanted to move on as quickly as possible. Most of the villages consist of wood or stone built houses, often mud faced with very bad roofs often held down by large stones. High up the houses are patched up with cardboard boxes and plastic from expeditions. The houses are divided from each other by dry stone or turf walls and the fields are similarly divided from above it looks very neat. Namze is not an attractive place, it’s mainly lodges and shops built incredibly quickly and not very well. I the two weeks we were away they have almost completed a new “hotel”, I wonder how it will stand up to the winter?
We stayed in a warm comfortable lodge but treated ourselves to a yak steak dinner at the International Foot Rest where the food and the company is always good. Roland and Marie came along and there were two interesting English guys who do a lot of potholing and told us all about it. Didi the old lady of 70 (in appearance) who runs the place is so lovely, she’ more like a 50 year old and amazingly counts up the bill on her string of wooden beads.
We bought a sit harness at a reasonable price but we have quite a load of stuff to walk back with: the climbing gear that we bought and a really gorgeous carpet with the traditional Dragon pattern on. We got it for a reasonable price, 450 rupees and everyone said it was too cheap and should have been 600. Anyway it’s our one special souvenier and really will be precious to us by the time its been carried to Laomarangu which is 126 miles away on rough tracks where eventually we will meet the road that goes from Kathmandu into China and hopefully we can hitch a lift of get a bus back to Kathmandu.
It really is the end of the season now. Namze was deserted and half the stores are closed. When we first arrived there, it was seething with tourists 2 weeks ago.
We enjoyed a hot shower which only washed the first layer of muck off. The shower was fascinating – there is no running water or electric showers! There is a cubicle like an outside toilet in the yard and a pipe running from the kitchen to the roof where a shower rose is fitted. When undressed and ready you shout and the water is sent down the pipe and over your body. A very interesting exercise in temperature control by shouted commands and screams!
After a delicious bowl of porridge and a hunk of brown bread and jam we set off for Surkye 20km away. It was really striking going down from the icy rocky mountains to the forested valleys with abundant vegetation. We passed lots of porters carrying their goods to Namze for the market the next morning. There seemed to be a lot of exchanging of goods along the way. I think a lot of them try to sell their load before they reach Namze as many of them trek for miles from outlying villages with produce from their own fields such as rice, fruit, maize, meat etc. Others bring goods from Kathmandu. They seem to walk from dawn until dusk and you see many fires along the way with beds of leaves next to them. We bought some delicious satsuma oranges from a porter, very sweet.
We reached Surkya in the dark because some kids sent us down the wrong path for a joke. Eventually we had a good filling meal in a lodge full of drunken porters with too much roxy spirirt and chang beer. We didn’t get much sleep because of all the pissheads going up and down the ladder from upstairs to the loo outside.
We started with a big bowl of rice pudding for breakfast and although we intended to get an early start we wanted some tea before we left and waited for ages, had they gone off to milk the yak? When they returned there was no milk after all. Anyway, we got moving at about 1030 am and the weather was absolutely atrocious with thick cloud, drizzle and snow.
The route started with a really steep climb of 3000ft which seemed endless in the mist. Eventually we reached the Kari Khola at 5pm after two tea stops. At the first tea shop we luckily got our map back which we left behind – we need it for our route back.
[Huh, navigating in the Himalaya foothills with a variety of paths and valleys and 100km and no map – huh! Just like Kashmir where we were wandering around using a charcoal sketch on the back of a fag packet scribbled by a porter after my handsigns may have been misinterpreted?!]
We had another good rice & veg meal but lousy tea. A bit of a grotty lodge but better than the ten in this weather. No privacy for the last eight days is getting a drag. Hope the sun shines tomorrow and dries up the land so we can pitch the tent tomorrow.
Chapatis for breakfast then walked up to the good tea shop for good milky tea and some lovely noodles in butter and chilli. A steep descent into Jubing. It was a perfect sunny day so we decided to do our washing at the river. We stripped off to our knickers and washed everything. It was very pleasant. We decided to put up the tent and have an easy day, we had enough food left to be self sufficient for one night. We enjoyed the peace and quiet and privacy. Pete collected some wood and we cooked our rice and lentils on the fire. It was a clear starry night and sitting by the river in the forest was lovely. The scenery is really lovely, very lush and tropical now we have descended so far.
Day 36 5th December 1978 Foothills of Everest to Mandigno Rigmo
A very steep climb ahead to Mandigno in 2 hours then Traksindu another 2 hours and then to the cheese factory in one hour.
We had tsampa for breakfast which is roughly ground maize flour mixed with water or milk. While packing up the tent we saw dozens of moneys crossing the bridge above the river. The climb up was all through forest, and it was a very hot day so the shade of the trees was welcome. The cheese factory was great and we had some really good yoghurt and bought half a kilo of yak cheese. We still had some daylight left so decided to try and make a village 2 hours away.
We descended to Rigmo where a policeman sent us along the wrong path which wasted one and a half hours. We then had to walk all the way back to Rigmo and find a place to stay. We enjoyed a really good rice and veg and excellent pink roxy and after three glasses each we were very drunk. We didn’t sleep very well because the people were arguing and singing all night. The scenery around Rigmo is really Austrian with lots of pine forests and fields that are not terrace in the way that the steep sided Dudh Kosi valley is terraced.
We had lovely milky tea, chapatis, apple sauce and apples for breakfast. The route started by going down to the river then contouring up around a ridge and down again to Junbesi. From there we ascended 2,800 feet over the Lamdura Pass at 11,800ft high with great views all around. There was quite a lot of snow at the top which reminded us of how much winter had set in and how right we were to leave the mountains when we did. We descended in the sunset for 3,000 feet to Sete and arrived in the light of the new moon. There was only one lodge so it was quite crowded and although the meal was mundane we enjoyed chatting to some Australians. There is so much ascent and descent on this route and tomorrow there may be 5,000 feet of ascent if we decide to go to another cheese factory where they have delicious food with smoked ham and bread rolls and cheese omelettes – yummy. It is one and a half hours off route but maybe worth it.
After another long ascent of about 4,000feet we decided to forego visiting Todung cheese factory, cheese with a special name!! It would have been another 1000 feet and we decided we would be too tempted by the good food and spend too much money, therefore defeating the object of walking out which was to save money instead of flying out from Lukla to Kathmandu.
Travellers told us that although there is a lodge at Todung it was to be missed because travellers invariably bought cheese, put it in their rucsacs but at night the rat population had learned that there was a feast to be had and many rucsacs were discovered in the morning with holes and less cheese!
After descending almost as far as we had climbed it got dark just as we came to a village at the valley bottom. We arranged with one of the local ladies to sleep in her house and she cooked us lovely veg and omelettes for tea. We had eaten a large rice meal at lunch time after having a bath in a stream. It is extremely hot weather and the sun makes the going tough in the early afternoon. We had a terrible nights sleep because the dog barked all night. Pete got up and hit it with a log of wood and it got the message and went away. Also two people came to drink roxy at about 4 am and made a hell of a noise.
Feeling weary but fortified by a good breakfast we started today with a walk along the valley by the river. A very tropical valley with bananas and bamboo, then walked on to terraced fields. Then we had another 3,000 feet to climb to a place on the top of a hill where we pitched the tent, feeling exhausted. We got a meal at the nearby tea shop which was a horrible place because thy were trying to rip us off all the time. However there were lovely views of the foothills of the Himalayan ranges to the north, towards China. We think we were at about 8,000 feet at Chisapani
An extremely long day of about 18 miles but not very much ascent, mainly contouring round the hills above the river. We finished walking in the dark and pitched the tent again at Shera as the lodges were no good for sleeping. We had a bad meal with too much roxy which was a good sleeping potion for Pete but I had another bad night despite 9 hour of walking that day.
Our last day – hurrah – and another long one. We had some good egg butties for breakfast which fuelled us for the last pass to cross which was 8,350 feet high with 3,500 feet of ascent. We had a disgusting meal at lunch time on the top of the pass at a rally scruffy village. A change from the day before when the houses were neatly whitewashed and had beautiful thatched roofs. The villages reflect the people in them and this one was dirty and smelled of shit. In fact the whole route today was a smelly one, probably because it is a well used track and there are no toilets so the trackside becomes the toilet! We had discovered that some of the locals do not even know that they should crap downstream form where they get their water! We had seen this also in Iran where dishes were washed in the storm drain and kids were crapping in the same drain!
From the top of the pass we had to descend 4,000 feet to Lamasangu which is the end of the hiking trail where it meets the tarmac road that goes from Kathmandu to China. They are building a road into the foothills and some of our descent was on the dug out track that would become the road. The rest of our descent was down a steep rocky slippery path which just about killed us, especially our knees. The view from the top of the pass was incredible and we could see all the northern Himalaya along the Chinese border. It was so clear that we could also see the Annapurna range to the west. It was certainly a view to remember forever.
When we reached Lamasangu we were feeling extremely sick from the awful lunch we had eaten and we were horrified by it. It was just like a shanty town and stank. We were ready for returning to civilisation in Kathmandu but the last bus had gone and we felt exhausted and depressed about staying at this smelly unhygienic dump.
However, luckily along came a lorry along the narrow road that goes through the mountains into China. It was carrying the post from China. The driver was prepared to give us a lift for the same price as the bus but we had to ride on the open back of the lorry and it was a cold and dusty ride balanced on top of sacks of mail in the back of the truck. The adventure didn’t end there though.
The last bus from Lamasangu to Kathmandu that we had missed had broken down and the passengers were hanging around looking cold and miserable so this kind lorry driver stopped and picked up more people who crowded onto the back of this lorry sitting on the mail bags with us – sorry if someone’s mail is a bit crumpled but needs must, eh? A bit further on the lorry stopped when some more people flagged the lorry down and asked if he would take them and half a hundredweight of potatoes to Kathmandu, so we waited for them to load their potatoes and clamber up the side onto the mail sacks with the rest of the crowd. I suppose it was a bit of extra money for the driver but it was certainly a favour for all of us.
We arrived at last in Kathmandu at 9:30pm with partial rigor mortis setting in and we rushed to get something to eat. Our usual eating place obliged with chop suey but there was something wrong with my stomach and I must have picked up a bug and was running to the loo all night. We slept in the same hotel as before and looked forward to a hot shower in the morning.
We finally got to bed at midnight after nine and a half of walking followed by a cold lorry ride.
Our daily average was 15 miles and average ascent was 4,000 feet per day. Altogether I think we walked 126 miles with about 30,000 feet of ascent in eight full walking days on this walk out.
Now I think that we deserve a good feed and rest before setting out on our next trek to Annapurna base camp, which we begin from Pokhara in maybe a week to ten days time. We hope that the stable weather keeps up and the snow holds off until January because we are determined to climb a 20,000 foot peak.
What rotten luck to have perfect stable weather on our walk out of the mountains and when we were trying to climb have hopeless weather. I bet it will start snowing as soon as we start our next trek and we will be foiled again!
On the whole of our Everest trek I think we have walked approximately 280 miles and most of the time we have been carrying 30 – 40 lbs so we are feeling fit although in need of a rest now.