Just arrived in Cheram, where Namgya was waiting for us with juice in our little tent camp. Today (16 april) was a very pleasant and easy trek from Torangdin along the river through a valley full of blossoming oleander and rhododendrons. Namgya had sent a sherpa down with lemonade and cookies to meet us halfway. Very nice! Basically, we are now back on track and will stay a day here at 3900 m to acclimatise.
A long hike today (15 april), after an awful night in Hellok. I slept on a kind of balcony and non-stop porters, climbers, and trekkers passed by, shining in your face with their head-lamps, a dog underneath the balcony was non-stop barking and outside they were celebrating Nepalese New Year. Anyway, after breakfast we set out for a hike up to Torangdin, about 840 m up, but with a lot of undulation in the terrain. We expected it would take 6 to 8 hours. As usual I went pretty quick but that worked against me this time. At a bifurcation of the path there was a sign ‘to KBC’ which looked on the map the right direction, whilst the other side was ‘Lase bridge’ that apparently would bring you to the wrong side of the river. I climbed 5-10 min in the direction of KBC, sat down at a nice spot, had lunch and waited for the others. When no one had shown up after more than an hour, I realised I was probably wrong. So, I went back, followed the stone-men that brought me to the river. I crossed it which was pretty difficult and I realised most people in our team would not be able to do it. So I went back and tried to go stream upward, again not a good plan. Finally I went back to the last stone man and looked carefully around for a stone man and discovered a tiny one that led to the mountain slope. That was the right way and actually, you pass the river twice before arriving in Torangdin. Pasang already walked down to look for me as the rest of the team had arrived 20 min earlier at the Green View lodge where we stay tonight.
Today (13 april) we left Taplejung (where we arrived very late yesterday, and had dinner after midnight) quite late. It’s not very far to Tapethok, but the road is very primitive and in many places kind of non-existent, so it takes us 5 h to get there (at an average speed of 8 km/h). Tapethok is kind of in middle of nowhere and has only 1G, so no internet today. The little lodge “Hotel Tamor” we are in, has only 11 beds, so 3 of us will have to sleep on the floor. Despite the fact that Tapethok is at ~1400 m, it is still very hot and humid. There is still bamboo growing and palm trees around. Plans change daily… our next goal is Cheram, but there has been a land slide and it seems we cannot get our luggage there overland. So we will probably fly by helicopter tomorrow (or the day after) and keep our fingers crossed that we will
be able to continue from there.
Yesterday we had planned to fly to Suketar, the airport of Taplejung, with Sita Air that has small planes.
After taking group photos, we got to the airport, after some waiting got boarding passes passed the security and waited for 6 hours. Then it appeared that Sita Air had found a commercially more profitable use of the plane and dumped us. So we went back to the Shanker. We discussed all options in the group and decided to fly to Bhadrapur , in the southeast of Nepal and drive from there to Phidim, sleep there and continue the next day to Taplejung. After another swim in the pool, went for dinner in the Vino Bar, one of my favourite spots in Kathmandu. We had a wonderful hilarious night
This morning we got again to the airport and this time we flew without any problem to Bhadrapur. On the way we even had a glimpse of Kangchenjunga.
At Bhadrapur we got two small buses and set off to Phidim. It is hot (over 30 degrees and palm trees…) and humid but we should drive up and it would be cooler then hopefully. The road is by times very bumpy or gone in spots.
On the way, we stopped for lunch and learned that Phidim had no lodges available and it was decided to drive all the way to Taplejung where we arrived just after 22 h. So after a very long ride we actually regained a day on the schedule, which is important for the trekkers to Kangchenjunga base camp.
Last Thursday Aly brought me to the airport where the lady at the check-in didn’t bother about the excess luggage weight. I had a very pleasant flight with KLM to Dubai, where we arrived – despite the more than one hour delay in departure – only about 20 min late. Moreover, the purser gave me a bottle of wine ‘since I appreciated it so much during the flight’.
With a short taxi ride I arrived at the Hilton Garden Inn in Dubai where I spent the night and after breakfast I went back to the airport for another pleasant flight with FlyDubai to arrive well on time in Kathmandu. The problems started there,since my luggage didn;t arrive. After an endless procedure of filling out forms etc. I went to the exit where Pasang was waiting for me. A taxi brought me to the good old Shanker hotel where I’ve stayed so many times. I share my room with John Gill, from Canada, who organised this expedition with Namgya. Arien en Lisanne are also in the Shanker and Friday evening we go the the Purple Haze Rock Bar in Thamel where some (very loud, but apparently famous) band was playing live.
Saturday morning John and I get up quite early have breakfast and drink coffee with Namgya. Namgya later went picking up Fane and Catalin, the 2 Rumanians that join the expedition, at the airport and finds there one of my bags (that apparently arrived with the early morning flight from Dubai) and brings it to the hotel. The other bag comes with the second flight from Dubai and is delivered to the hotel at five. Quite a relieve that everything turned up timely, Most of the day I spent at the pool as the weather and water are very nice,
In the evening we went, together with the Indians who also arrived in the course of the day, for dinner in Thamel. We had a good time and I learned to know the Indians and some of the trekkers much better. Suresh, one of the Indians – with a very impressive climbing record – is only 23 years old and is the baby of the team of which I am the granddad. After the dinner we have a group meeting to give everyone an update of the (already changed) plans. One of the issues is that halfway the day, the Nepalese government have declared tomorrow a public holiday and that our permits have not been issued.
Sunday morning, after breakfast, Namgya, John and myself meet with Billi Bierling who now maintains the Himalayan Database. Billi and I have met several times before and talked a lot in German to catch up. We settle all the database business and then I go to do the final shopping. When I get back, I go to the pool once more and then we have another updat as the plans have changed again. Most of us will fly tomorrow to Suketar (Taplejung) where we will stay overnight. Namgya and Mingma will stay in Kathmandu and sort out the permits, They will fly tuesday to Badrapur with the luggage. Then both teams will drive to Kewang and possibly even Yamphudin.
Our last night in Kathmandu for the time being, Arien, Lisanne, Adam, Steward, John and I go to the Nepalayan Restaurant in Thamle for a nice dinner and drinks afterwards in the hotel bar. Our luggage is sorted and tomorrow we go !
The Consulate General of Nepal in Amsterdam issued me a new visa for Nepal.
As expected we got a permit for KY2, which gave us three days (25-27 January, since we need to be back in Leh on January 29th) to climb KY2. Unfortunately, another front passed with first severe snow-fall and then very clear and bright skies and – consequently – extremely low temperatures down to -40 degrees at night (where we had up till now -20 to -25 during daytime and -30 to -35 degrees at night). I have been sleeping with two layers of merino underwear below my clothes, two pairs of socks, two buffs, two caps, gloves, and my down jacket in my big down sleeping bag and still wasn’t very comfortable. During day time, I dressed completely in black as, without much wind, the radiation of the bright sun would nicely warm me. The back-side of this extremely cold wheater (considering that -40 degrees at 5100 m would imply tempetratures down to -50 at the summit) is that the snow doesn’t ‘set’ which, again, makes avalanges a significant risk. As a consequence, Tsewang and I had to decide that a summit attempt was too risky and we had to cancel a summit attempt. So, on January 25th, Jingmat was sent down to Hankar to warn Tundup to come up with the horses.
Thursday, Tundup and Jingmat showed up with the horses in the course of the morning. We had already packed most stuff and prepafred to go down. Tsewang and I left as first as usual. It was still very cold and actually I asked Tsewang just to keep going as any pause would just make us shiver. After just less than 4 h we reached Hankar, where – to my surprise – we did not camp but a ‘homestay’. This basically implies that you sleep in a kind of shed behind one of the local Ladakhi farms. Primitive, but very comfortable compared to a tent on the glacier. It took ages for the horses to arrive. Due to the heavy snowfall, several of them fell and had to be unloaded to allow them to get up again and then reloaded.
The next morning we got up and continued to Hankar and Thinlaspa. The weather was still nice: clear skies and crispy cold, but quite enjoyable. The Markha valley is very beautiful (and apparently a very popular trek in summer, but totally deserted now).
After an almost 3 h hike, we reached a small homestay-place where we waited for the horses to arrive. The owner would drive us to Leh with his 4WD. It took again quite a while until Tundup arrived with the horses. After everything was packed, the old 4WD would not start…. Luckily all the men seemed to have knowledge about cars and after half an hiour the enigine started running. A spectecular drive over the frozen river, bumpy trails full of pitholes and rocks brought us to Chilling where the paved road started but the 4WD broke down. Once again, all men were busy for a while and we could continue (at a very slow speed) to Leh where Rigzin was already waiting for me.
Yesterday, the weather was really bad it was snowing lightly when Mingma and I went for an acclimatisation hike, but it worsened rapidly. Yesterday evening it was snowing heavily. I was already in my tent when Tsewang came to shake the snow from my tent and he warned me to keep an eye on it as he was afraid the tent might collapse under the load of snow. Apparently, it was a front with clear skies afterwards as it got extremely cold. Today, the weather looks ok. It is sunny with clouds. It stopped snowing which is good as the horses cannot come up if there is too much snow. KY1 is still in the clouds and it looks too dangerous to climb as the risk of avalanches is too high. We might climb KY2 (6240 m) instead as it is less avalanche prone. Tsewang will try to change the permit today. We have 3 days left and that might just be enough for KY2 if the weather holds.
Yesterday, we moved up from Thochuntse to KY base camp, almost 1000 m higher. As usual, Tsewang and I set off first and the others followed after loading the horses. Until approximately halfway it was fine, but then the weather started deteriorating with more wind and it got very chilly. In some spots there was a lot of snow and I couldn’t prevent getting it in my shoes. At -20°C and a considerable chill factor it got very nasty and cold. Finally, we reached the spot for base camp, a rather large plain so the wind was everywhere. I don’t think I haver ever been so cold. Soon after Tsewang and I had arrived, the others arrived as well and we quickly set up the tents and started cooking. As soon as possible I got in my sleeping back with three layers of merino on. This morning we woke around 8 when the sun comes over the mountains. You could hardly see it through the clouds. KY is totally in the clouds and it has been snowing which is bad news. Despite the light snow Mingma and I make a short acclimatisation hike to ~ 5350 m. The rest of the day we sit in the tent. It keeps snowing…
Got up at sunrise after a very bright, cloudless night with beautiful stars but terribly cold (< -25°C). The first sun rays felt really warm and I put my sleeping bag and mattresses out to freeze-dry. After breakfast, around 9 h, Tsewang and I set out for Thochuntse. The others would pack the horses and donkeys and follow with Tundup, the horseman. Tsewang and I made good progress, too much progress according to Tsewang, so we made a small detour to a nearby monastery at a 3900 m peak. Unfortunately, the monk was not there as from the inside you could see KY. However, after another hour, at a turn of the Markha valley, we saw KY. An enormous pyramid of ice and snow, dominating the valley and surrounding peaks. Extremely impressive steep icy flanks that explain its alpine rating as D-. Sublime but also a bit scary. When we reached Hankar after about 4.5 h, we sat down in the sun at a small farm and got tea. After an hour Mingma arrived and we decided to wait there for Tundup, Nankat and Jigmat with the cattle as we would now enter a small valley without sun (and it is still freezing crazy). The trail runs for long stretches over the frozen Markha, extremely slippery and more suitable for skates than shows. The hoofed animals struggle with the ice and Tsewang and I have to wait a lot. Around 5 we arrive, with the cattle, in Tsochuntse where we will camp overnight.
21/01/2022
