So Far...




Sorry for the lack of updates, seems like the IT department in the valley here is on holiday. That and we were deceived about having AC power up in Samdo so the battery went dead on the computer and we couldn’t charge it until we got back… Here’s what’s been happening:



15 Sept - Rest day in Samagaon. I'm up early and manage to get laundry and some general organising done before breakfast. Our plan is for Tchouky and I to head up to base camp tomorrow with the others following the day after. Word is that the groups that are at base camp have not gone higher than camp one, some fixed ropes are installed but no major progress. So far, there is the Himex, Chinese, Altitude Junkies, a mixed group including Canadians, and one other group for a total of 4 on the mountain.



14 Sept - The day starts well, a few biscuits and tea and then we set off for a Tasa, another peak beside our camp at 5435 m. From below we can't tell which is the actual summit so we decide to climb the couloir leading to a ridge, which we would then follow around to the summit. The approach consists of some grass slopes which we climb in the dark, reaching the bottom of the scree slope at about 6 am. As we reach the ridge, it seems the summit is the farthest peak from us which will add a bit of fun to the day, the ridge looks fairly thin with a few rock features to navigate. After a bit of discussion, we decide to go onto the summit. We sat for about half an hour, straddling the border of Nepal and Tibet admiring the view, we can see a campsite setup on the valley floor as well, seems like we're not alone. After a quick snack, we head back down to camp, total time is about 5 hours.



As we're now out of food, we have to return either to Samdo or right back down to Samagaon. We still have a cache of gear in Samdo so we have to stop there. Tchouky sends me ahead and says, there's a path at the bottom of the valley, looks a bit longer but it will probably be faster. Just head straight down until you hit the river and follow it. I descend through a heard of yaks, there's a couple of stone houses and I find a yak that has managed to get stuck inside one of them. It's a bit wary of me approaching but generally seemed happy to be free. A bull nearby is making funny grunting noises so I walked for a while with a big stone in my hand in case he fancied me.



Once I reached the river, I followed the path along side. The adventure began here, a bridge crossed it but seemed to go no where. There was a well beaten path that was quite steep and seemed to go up for a couple hundred metres. Thinking of Frost, I follow the less travelled path along the river thinking, it's a river, it has to go down to the village. The path seems to come and go and then I'm faced with either traversing a rock face or turning around. I scramble across the rocks and find myself standing on the top of the moraine on the other side and Tchouky waiting for me at the bottom. We reach Samdo at about 1:30 pm, have a quick cup of tea and look for a porter that will make the descent to Samagaon, preferably one that doesn't drink.



We reach Samagaon by mid afternoon to find a nice surprise; the rest of the group will arrive later today. It seems with a national holiday coming up, the porters forced the pace and turned a seven day hike into five. I enjoy my first "shower" of the trip, a nice bucket of hot water with a cup to douse myself. The group arrives around 6 pm and we have our first dinner together since Kathmandu. Lots of stories about the hike, including our skis being left in the bus on day one. Luckily the driver noticed and turned around. Michel even managed to find some funny looking plants on the way up. It's nice to not have Dal Bhat or Chinese noodles for dinner...



13 Sept - Hardly slept over night, either the altitude or lack of air in the tent. The headache tells me maybe its the altitude. We had alarms set for 4 am, I heard them but Tchouky slept right through so I didn't bother waking him. We have a slow morning and enjoy the view, Thandorjee appears with an armful of Rhododendron and lights them on fire to perform a small Buddhist ceremony, unfortunately his English is not good enough to explain it. After lunch, I set out to the lesser peak slowly to see how I feel. I go up 100 m, then stop for 5 mins and keep repeating this. In just about 2 hours, I find myself atop one of the peaks at about 5180 m. Tchouky has joined me and we wonder if anyone has ever been up this, there's three eagles circling in the valley looking for marmots. The map we have isn't that accurate so we start calling the peak Mt. Coco. I feel great so blame the headache on lack of air in the tent. On return, Thandorjee performs another ceremony, this time adding some juniper bushes to the fire. Dinner is again Chinese noodles with tomato soup. I sneak out a bit later to find the gents, amazed at number of stars as there is no moon. I can vaguely see the silhouette of Manaslu.



12 Sept - The morning came fairly quickly and I was surprised how well I slept. After a "pancake" for breakfast, we were packed light for two days and headed up again. Our route took us along the moraine of the Samdo Glacier toward Tibet. Yesterday was clearly the main route for yak traffic as we didn't see a soul. To give you an idea, the valley we went up is similar in size to Chamonix, except instead of 10,000 or so inhabitants, there were just the three of us and some yaks. Thandorjee is like a mountain goat, I was going slow, trying not to earn another headache. The weather is clear this morning and we actually had our first decent view of Manaslu. There is also a peak at about 6300 m which on the map is tempting to climb, in reality its another expedition. We settle in on a nice little plateau at 4650 m beside a spring and pitch our camp, two peaks above us will keep us busy for the two days. The menu is somewhat limited, Chinese noodles and tomato soup, we packed light. Having finished my only book, I tried to amuse myself and stay up a little longer as we're trying for the 4 am start again tomorrow. Not sure what time it was but a yak came to visit us in the night, I heard the bell and snorting as it sniffed at our tents. Thandorjee managed to chase it off and the heard was far away by morning. I didn't know yaks were nocturnal.



11 Sept - I definitely noticed the difference in being in a more remote location. There were no singing porters or anything to disturb us during the night, the closest thing was a Yak caravan at about 7 am. We opted for some basics on breakfast, Oat Porridge, which was definitely basic accompanied with some honey or jam that was made in 2005. Milk is fairly scarce up here. We set out for Larkye Pass, it's quite a ways away but will take us almost to 5000 m and be a good first hit of altitude. We can see the trail and the pass from the village, on the map it's about 12 km away. The map says 6 hours, the guy at the lodge says 5, given that it's not so steep, it won't be that fast coming back. Half an hour in, we decide to turn right and head for one of the passes into Tibet instead, about half the distance and the same altitude.



After an hour or so up the valley, we come across another Tibetan refugee settlement. This place makes Samdo look like a modern metropolis. The stone huts are all build for basic purpose, the have blue tarps as roof cover, if you want to call it that. Outside, there must be 50 yaks wandering around and more higher in the hills. They seem to be drying some sort of Yak cheese outside the huts and we watch as they scurry around trying to get it inside as it starts to rain. It's really mind-blowing to see these people living at 4300 m in half built stone huts just to get out of Tibet.



We turn NE and start the real climb up to the pass. Along the way, a yak herder warns us of Chinese soldiers at the border. When we arrive, they have since left, I feel a pang of regret as I would have like to have seen them. Approaching the pass, it's everything you would imagine, the last 100 m is a scree slope and then you come to a white border marker, place in 1962. There's a few prayer flags but for the most part it's barren. We tempted fate and step into Tibet to find a bit of shelter. Another yak herder tells us the soldiers left a few hours ago so we sit an enjoy the view while we have lunch. On the walk down, Thandorjee shows us a make-shift grave of some poor fellow that got sick and died on the spot. It wasn't even really a grave, they seemed to just have place some rocks around his body and then placed a marker. As we came back to Samdo, Thandorjee couldn't resist helping the poor local girl that had her yak herd split in two. He drove half toward town while she rounded up the rest. They make some crazy sound that apparently the yaks understand, otherwise they just instinctively move when humans get close. I'm surprised that they haven't bred some herding dog to help with the yak trains, I guess you would have to feed a dog whereas the rocks along the way are just as effective and free for the taking.



I was pretty tired after the 7 hour hike and with the first crack at 5000 m I also had a headache. This a good indication that I probably went up too fast. We settled in for a few pots of tea and another Dal Bhat. The plan was now to head NE into a different valley and establish a camp so that we could climb some of the peaks in the area.





10 Sept - Between the singing and rain pounding on the roof last night, it took me a while to get to sleep. It seemed toward the early morning that every time I came close to consciousness, I could still hear the rain on the steel roof so I went back to sleep. Finally, around 8 I decided it was time to get up. The rain had stopped but it was overcast and not great. We had to decide whether to go on to Samdo or stay another night.



The morning entertainment was watching another expedition organise their porters to go up to base camp. Local law prohibits porters from further down in the valley from passing any further than Samagaon. This turned into a bargaining exercise when at one point, I thought it was going to come to blows. There was some old Tibetan with half his teeth missing trying to hang onto a barrel as it was given to someone else. The standard load coming up the valley is 35 kg but from Samagaon to base camp it is 30 kg. So if you can imagine, having to repackage the entire expedition from 35 to 30 kg bits, it takes some time. Child labour here is of course forbidden, but it doesn't seem to stop the locals. It seemed to be the norm that the father would negotiate so many loads for his family and then they would split them up. Sometimes, the kids would follow along with a younger sibling or maybe the food for the day, sometimes they had part of the load. I watched as three generations divided the load and set off. The standard rate to go to base camp from here is about 1500 Rupees, or about 15 Euros. I was told that most expeditions learn the hard way about the loads and how to pack. All of the food is packed in barrels, instinct would be to pack the heaviest on the bottom but they all carry the barrels upside down because it's easier to attach the rope.



Mid-morning we decided the weather was a good as it was going to get so we made the decision to go, as the other expedition had already left, it gave us room to move. The mistake here was that most of the porters were already gone. We asked the owner of the lodge if she had anyone left, she promptly ran up some stairs and started yelling what I assumed was a call for one to come. She had to do this a few times before one actually showed up, an who should it be? Our toothless Tibetan from who couldn't get any work that morning. We managed to negotiate down to 1300 Rupees since it was much flatter than the route to base camp. At about noon, we set off. The walk to Samdo was interesting, the valley is fairly flat here and the trail follows the river. With all the rain, there was a fair bit of mud. Along the way, there is actually a rock wall with a door built into it, this prevents the yaks from wandering too far.



It was about mid-way, we came around the corner and found four small girls that were stopped on the side of the trail, they wouldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old. They seemed to take a liking to us and followed us for a while, taking the opportunity to practice their English; "Hello..." and a few other pleasantries. They were fascinated with the video cameras, especially when I turned the view screen around and they could see themselves. We kept moving and eventually they lost interest in us and stopped for another break.



We rolled into Samdo at about 3 pm which is about what we had expected. It's a village of Tibetan refugees that it only about 5-6 km from the border with 3 different mountain passes close by that offer entry or perhaps more importantly, exit from Tibet. We had the choice of two lodges. I guess as you go farther up any valley, the traffic decreases and the services offered do as well. In Samagaon, there were at least 4 or 5 lodges and they even had electricity at night. The lodge in Samdo had a solar panel the size of a notebook computer. So we settled in to the Samdo Lodge, seemed like the better of the two, and ordered some lunch. We thought the easiest would be Dal Bhat, a classic Nepali dish. We ordered a pot of tea to pass the time while it was prepared. At the time, we weren't sure exactly where the porter was but knew he was somewhere behind us. It was about an hour and half later that Thandorjee sensed something was wrong and decided to go and look for him. Tchouky and I started pondering what could have happened to him and I think my last thought was I hoped hadn't expired along the way. We saw three people come through the village gate, thought them to be trekkers because one was carrying a large back pack. They came into the lodge and one of them presented us with one of the bags we had given to the porter. Well if that didn't make us wonder... Half an hour later, Thandorjee crested the hill with the other, he had been gone just over an hour. I was trying to figure out what had gone wrong for him to have gone that far. He came in, sat down and explained that he found the porter asleep beside the river on the bags. It turns out, the reason this guy couldn't get a load to go to base camp is because as soon as he has work, he buys some whiskey. I guess he figured he'd drank enough along the way to earn himself a nap by the riverside. Thandorjee remarked: "Porter ok, whiskey no good..." and we all laughed.



So our acclimitisation has begun, we have several possibilities in the area, all look good. The weather will be key as we're now free of any porter issues.



9 Sept - Out of bed at 5:30 this morning to bring the bags down, early breakfast and then off to domestic terminal of Kathmandu. Tchouky had set two alarms, both somehow failed but staggered down just after six wondering why went wrong. I was giving him five more minutes...



The domestic side of the airport resembles more an open air market than a travel hub. There are massive bags of rice, crates of vegetables, palattes of beer and anything else you can think of. We go through three securiy checks and the only thing they are interested in is my water filter. It seems that an ice axe is fine to have inside the cabin on a domestic flight.



On my last trip here, we were arrived on time only to wait until 1 pm for our flight to take off. Tchouky tells me he once had to wait four days for a flight. This morning, we're told that the weather is ok at the landing area but now it has socked in a bit here and we will have to wait. This means anywhere from five minutes to five days. The good news is that if the pilot decides to take off and cannot land on the other end, its a free flight. If we insist he take off and he can't land, another wad of cash changes hands. After about 20 minutes, we're told we're on and ushered to the Fishtail Air van, it's more like a go-cart with a couple of seats. We've weighed in with 90 kg of baggage and told that because of this, they will have to make two runs at the landing zone. Stopping short at around 2000 m altitude, then proceeding with only two of us and one bag. The pilot will then return and take the other guy up to 3500 m. Sounded like a disaster waiting to happen but I keep my mouth shut.



We pile into the heli, it's not Russian so I'm pretty happy, then I see that they have loaded the cabin with cans of jet fuel for the return flight. I ask Anseng if he can give me a cigarette for the flight but he doesn't see the humour...



The area is beautiful, wild and hardly inhabited, I get a quick peak at Manaslu but it only lasts a second. To me, the lack of devolpment is a welcome contrast from the Khumbu valley. The valley walls are all steep with torrents running their way through. We reach the intermediate area and after a quick landing, the Fishtail Air mechanic jumps out with the fuel. It seems we're all going up. The pilot explains he just didn't want the weight but we should be ok. I butt out my cigarette and nod, why smoke when there's no fuel on board?



We put down about a 20 minute walk from Samagaon, Tendoji is very apologetic for this but I would have walked anywhere up to a day to miss the 7 day hike that we just leap-frogged. We stroll the mudpacked path and come to the Mount Manaslu Hotel and Lodge. It seems my memory of these places has not done me wrong. You can see beneath the walls outside and through the floors. The staggering thing is the temperature, it must have been 20C, and we're at 3500 m. As the all the work is done for the day, we have a little stroll around the village. The most interesting thing is watching a house being built. Stone that has been hand carved, is carried up the path and then resized and placed in the walls. There's not mortar, just the mass of the rock, should be an R-value of about -10.



At the lodge, we meet another expedition, Altitude Junkies, I find the name a bit odd. I've met an Aussie, and American, they tell me there is also a Fin, German and a couple of others to make Six. At the neighbouring lodge, we meet the Mexican Expedition, well its a guy and his wife. After killing the rest of the morning, we have a lazy lunch and talk of plans for tomorrow. The afternoon siesta is calling and I settle in for a bit of rest. Funny thing about this time of year, the monsoon is still going strong. I'm rudely awaken from my sleep by the sound of pounding rain on the tin roof.



Tomorrows plan is to head toward Samdo, the next town up the valley. As the main group is now 6-7 days behind us, we will be doing some trekking and small peaks in the area to start the process of acclimitisation. Lucky for us, this will take us right up to the Tibetan border and perhaps up to a 6000 m peak. First it has to stop raining though, it's now 7 pm and still raining hard. I can't believe our luck...



8 Sept - We met our Sherpa today, Thandorjiee (Ten-doe-gee) He's exactly

what I think a Sherpa should be, tiny, unassuming, quiet and so

gracious. Mingma, the boss of the trekking company explains that this

is his cousin, who is also from Pangbouche: "he looks small but he's

very strong, he's been to the summit of Everest five times and Manaslu

once." I'm not sure we could have done any better...