April 2010
Emails sent during April 2010
- (Les textes français sont ici.)
- Mail from 07 Apr 2010: Back in the (relative) warmth of Namche Bazaar
- Mail from 23 Apr 2010: End of trek, Kathmandu
Subject: Back in the (relative) warmth of Namche Bazaar
Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2010 02:23:49 -0700
Dear all, we are now back in Namche after almost 4 weeks above 4000m. The whole thing was a full success. The weather, though sometimes cold, was bearable (actually, it was better than in Oct 2008: less clouds, more sun). On the other hand, we had real snow in Namche, a first even for us! The major aim of our early start was of course to avoid the groups and on this account our cunning plan worked perfectly. It was practically empty higher up and those people we met en route or in the lodges were mostly individual trekkers. Only now, beginning of April, there is a noticeable influx of big groups. But we really don't care as we are now on our way back;-) We did all we wanted to do, spent ten days above 5000m (list will follow in KTM). The only tiny fly in the ointment was the day for Kala Pattar (5445m) where it had -5C and gusts of wind of reportedly 100km/h. It certainly felt even worse than that and we shot just a few photos (Everest was a bit in the clouds) and hurried down. But we have many, many other nice shots of all the great mountains and the glaciers and cols we crossed and and and... Also many panoramas. We will only be able to prepare and upload these after we're back home, but some shots are really great and worth the wait;-) It was also nice to be able to watch the village life in the Khumbu undisturbed by masses of tourists: tending the fields, driving the yaks up to the summer pastures, potato planting, the expedition preparations for Everest (it's incredible how much logistics is required for this: sometimes it felt as if half the Khumbu population is involved in getting supplies, food, material up the mountain). Anyway, more will follow from KTM where we should be in roughly 2 weeks, after a total trek length of around 50 days. The remaining stages will be rather hot and sweaty though there is still a 4000m peak (Pike peak, near Junbesi) waiting for us. So, all the best and next mail will come in 2 weeks from KTM. Cheers Vero and Thomas
Subject: End of trek, Kathmandu
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:01:33 +0545
Dear all, after exactly 50 days on trek we are now just back in KTM. The trek was fantastic, there's no other word for it. Contrary to Oct 2008, the weather was really good (only 2 rainy/foggy days out of 50, not bad at all); there were a lot fewer tourists (less than a third as compared to autumn 2008, we estimate, and relatively more individual trekkers than groups) and the lodges were a lot better (probably because there were so few tourists and because we chose more wisely;-). Interestingly, there were a lot more Anglosaxons around than in autumn but nearly no French, groups or individuals -- what does that tell us? Quite some Germans, Austrians and Swiss, but proportionally not more than in autumn. Not many Japanese... perhaps the recession bites hard there? We had absolutely no health worries: in fact, we feel simply great after "detoxing" for 50 days with only black tea and Dal Bhat (that's mountains of rice with lentil soup and veg curry). The first part of the trek, the walk-in from Jiri, took us nine leisurely days, mainly because the bus was so fast this time that we started with a half-day. The amazing thing was that the trails were practically empty: we have never seen so few people walking in or out from Jiri. That's good for us, a bit less good for the lodge owners (about 30 to 40% of all lodges are now closed or shut down completely) and it's clear that the Jiri trail is dying a slow, prolonged death. In a few years' time it may well end up like the Salpa-Arun walk-in: done by the occasional trekker or even group but otherwise ignored: everyone flies in to Lukla because it's a lot faster (many groups these days have an extremely tight, fixed schedule for a standard circuit of exactly 17 days) and of course "more convenient". Well, Namche, when we arrived 12/3 was just waking itself from hibernation. Many lodges were doing a Spring cleaning, lots of shops were still closed and the whole village had a sleepy feeling. We continued quickly up the Lobuche valley (the few Lobuche lodges are the big bottleneck in the Khumbu region), to do Kala Pattar where the winds almost beat us down. Then we crossed into the neighbouring valley to the west, the Gokyo valley, where we stayed three days and did some nice daytrips. Again west, over the Renjo La, to the Thame valley, where we again stayed a couple of days for exploration (even after so many visits, it is still surprising that there are always new summits, new ridges and new monasteries to discover). Back to Khumjung (that's a very nice "real" village above the Namche wonderland, at 3800m) where we recuperated for a few days amongst the busy villagers and then started the second leg, to Ama Dablam Base Camp and up the Ama Dablam southwest ridge and further up to the Chukhung valley, the fourth and most easterly of the valleys above Namche. Again, we did some extraordinarily beautiful daytrips, first to the Chukhung glacier (we actually walked on it for a while, but as we had no crampons our leeway was quite limited), then up to Chukhung Ri, a 5550m hill above Chukhung with its wonderful views of Makalu and Ama Dablam and a staggering panorama of the huge Lhotse south wall. Finally we did a day trip up to Kongma La, a high pass (5535m) leading to Lobuche: again breathtaking views (in more than one sense). Then back to Namche, a day of rest (which we spent walking up to Laudo Gompa, a nice monastery on the way to Thame). And then it was farewell to the Khumbu and time to start the walk-out. Originally we had planned to do the Rolwaling valley, but it was getting clear that this would mean a trek of 60+ days: perhaps a bit much. So we decided just to go back to Jiri but on an alternative route we have never done before. The advantages would be that we would trek through untouristed villages for six days and that we could take in a 4065m mountain called Pike Peak (pronounced Peekay). This part was really worthwhile because it was off the beaten track and we had to find our way around (asking as many locals as there are around helps;-). We also had to sleep wherever we would find a willing host: mostly local people in their homes but once we were forced to stay with two solitary monks in their monastery (forced mainly by a driving afternoon rain). The one big disappointment was Pike: the aforementioned 2 days of bad weather were timed exactly when we walked up the impressive SE ridge and the next day when we should have done the summit with its 360 degree panorama: alas, it was all a complete washout and we didn't even bother climbing the final 200 vertical meters (oh, the sights we missed...). But there was some compensation: the rhododendrons were in full bloom and what a splendid display they presented: wall after wall after wall of all shades of red, white, pink, crimson. It was an unbelievable show and we have never seen such a profusion of rhododendron bushes in bloom (we even did a few panorama photos of some of these walls: soon to be released on our website). Then again, the ridges of Pike are famous for their rhododendrons. Recommended. Another thing that struck us was that the higher bits of the Pike ridges look *exactly* like the Brecon Beacons: not too steep, bare of trees, grassy slopes, same sort of rock and stone (and the weather fits in as well:-). Just replace the Mani walls (long rows of Buddhist stone tablets with engraved prayers) with some sheep and you would swear, it's got to be Wales. Well, after 48 days we rejoined the main trail to Jiri in Bhandar and 2 days later we were back in Jiri. Next morning express bus to KTM and here we are. A few statistics: walk-in Jiri-Namche was 9 days. Namche and above was 28 days. Walk-out via Pike to Jiri was 13 days. The ten places we visited above 5000m were in the order we did them: 1. Nangkartchang Peak (above Dingboche): around 5100m 2. Kala Pattar: around 5400m 3. Gokyo Ri (with not so great views because it was afternoon): 5360m 4. Frostbitten Fingers, a summit between the 4th and 5th Gokyo lake: around 5400m 5. Again Gokyo Ri, in the morning and we stayed almost the whole day: 5360m 6. Renjo La, the crossing to the Thame valley: 5420m 7. SW ridge of Ama Dablam: around 5200m 8. Chukhung glacier: around 5200m 9. Chukhung Ri: 5550m 10. Kongma La, the crossing to Lobuche: 5535m Well, and that was Khumbu 2010! We will put a lot more stuff on the website, once we're back home: among other things many mountain panoramas and the blooming rhododendrons, a few pages about interesting people we met (among them Ang Dorjee, a Sherpa Everest summiteer with 13 ascents to his name, and a Russian helicopter pilot doing Jiri-Namche and many other cargo flights since 1995). We will stay in KTM for a few days then take a bus to Pokhara, stay a couple of days on the shores of its famous lake, and then we will take up the Annapurna Base Camp trek, perhaps for 14 days. So the next mail should come in about 20 days. Until then all the best Vero and Thomas
Go to May 2010.
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