Mountain

It is hot and humid in McLeod Ganj, hard to imagine cold or snow, so we packed light for an expedition to Triund, Inderhar pass and Mon Peak (4,610 meters). So we jumped o

Into the taxi at 5:00 AM, and started hiking at 6:00. We made it to Triund, 9,325 feet in record time, bought five omelettes after a food inventory discussion, and set out for "snowline."  

Just as we passed some Tibetans sitting by a fire, it started to hail furiously, so we ducked under some boulders for a couple of hours, ate our omelette sandwiches and tried to stay warm. But the weather cleared and we started looking for some legendary Luhosh caves and the route to the pass. We talked to a Swedish woman dressed all in red with red converse who pointed out the proper direction. We were all standing on a glacier. It was like meeting a magical character in a fairy tale because she only put her red shoes on to walk on the glacier, she was all alone, a snow spirit. 

Mount Mon loomed in the distance, Clark had one of my mountaineering boots in his pack, Priscilla carried the other one, la sportiva spantic, and we three mountaineering tents.

We explored around and eventually found the Lahesh caves, very disappointing, and set off across the snow couloir to the next ridge to find a higher camping spot and prepare to climb the peak. The Indian guides across the couloir on the ridge shouted words of encouragement like "go back", "that is wrong way", "come down", which provided additional motivation to keep hiking.

I went exploring upward to see if I could find a place big enough for 3 tents, while from below they shouted up times, "it's 4:30", it's 5:30", through difficult snow and huge boulders. It was beyond the level of equipment we had brought, crampons would be needed by all to negotiate the snow couloir. So we wedged the tents on a ledge under a rock, with the third tent, my never before used black diamond first light, perched on a ledge at the edge of the ridge. It was a beautiful evening, golden glowing mountain, Susannah said, "this has been the best day of the trip." This was a sure sign trouble was coming. We tied the tents down and had a three course freeze dried dinner which we ate from paper cups from the Gupta monastery. 

I was worried, no one had sleeping pads, I did not have a sleeping bag, only a down jacket and down snow pants. After awhile it started to rain, my shoes were outside the tent drying out, just a little rain.  Then I was woken by bright lights all around me a thunder, it began to pour, unlike anything I had ever seen before, more lightning, close by.  I thought, this is a bright yellow tent, lightening probably likes yellow, I am out here on a ledge, with metal poles above me. What happens when lightening hits a tent? This was an extreme equipment test, getting dangerously close to the third degree of fun. How, I wondered would I break down tents in a pouring deluge?

Just at about 6 am, the rain paused, that bird from the fairy tale sang, someone called my name, I put the big boots on, we took down the camp, the stove miraculously worked, we had a cup of hot chocolate, generously flavored with mountain  chili, and soon were glissading down the glacier in a light drizzle.

Hours later we were back at the bakery, there had been a power outage, so the chocolate cake was still in the oven. But after some toast and ginger lemon tea, it was out. It was a beautiful walk down in the rain, past huge floating turkey vultures, white goats with curly horns through the enchanted rhododendron forests and huge blackened hulks of burnt out fragments of trees recently blasted by lightening.