Kongde Day 5

I am sitting by the blazing MSR Reactor inside the tent preparing my mind for the very long walk to Lukla. After leaving Ghat, we had hiked in one day what most trekkers, the few trekkers who ever go this way, do in two days.  Now we had to retrace the long hike up the valley, the climb back up to the pass, down to Ghat, then the rocky uphill path to Lukla.  It was frozen cold hiking along the river in the morning, crossing a rickety bridge, then icy stones back and forth over the river, a beautiful clear morning.  The Himalaya at these altitudes have a unique and wonderful smell. There are all kinds of lichens and other strange vegetation. It is fall, so there are seed pods from the summer plants.

Iced rock crossings and makeshift bridges.

 This is the long valley viewed from the pass. We hiked to the waterfalls at the end of the valley, then up the steep slope to the left of them.

Then there was the long climb to the pass, with Kongde towering behind us and huge hanging glaciers on the peaks across the valley.  We hiked for hours, finally reaching the pass, where I could see Mount Everest and Laotze the village of Phortze in the distance. I didn’t realize they were in full view because we were in the clouds on the way up.  It was a  long walk down trying to be fast, but I was tired of walking. I mostly listened to the Moth and thought about things.

 Mount Everest in the distance, with the village of Phortze.

Dano, who climbed Mount Everest 10 times

Prayer flags at the pass and Mount Everest.

 Nima packing things up.

 At Ghat I left the others at the place across the river and walked by myself, very slowly, looking at everything on the way to  Lukla, looking for the cave llama, looking for the young monks playing music.  I had not had a shower for five days.  After dropping my bags at the Sunrise, I walked across the street to see if Angie was there serving tea.  She gave me some ginger lemon and I asked her all the questions I had about Sherpas and porters and life in the mountains.  Then, after dinner I went back and asked her more questions about Buddhism.  Her mother came in, dressed in the traditional Tibetan or Sherpa apron with a hot potato and cheese pie, which she shared with me. We talked for hours about her work as an activist for maternity care in the Khumbu, about education, about Sherpa society.  She reminded me that the Sherpa people are basically Tibetan, and practice Tibetan Buddhism, but that no one except the llamas and monks can read the Buddhist texts because they are in Tibetan.   I now have several places on the trail where I can get a free cup of hot milk, friends who are working to make the mountains a better place.

Kongde Day 4

I woke up at 3:00 AM could have been 3:30, but for some reason Dano was not ready to go, probably working on the pressure cooker.  So I did inside the tent heating experiments  with my stove and electric shoe sole heating experiments and hand warming experiments.  The stars were amazing. It was cold.  I put on every layer I had left and we set out in the dark up the mountain.  I think it was around 4:30 or 5:00.

 It was a clear morning as we hiked up to high camp, an amazing place next to two large glacier lakes and below some steep rock cliffs with ice waterfalls on them that would come crashing down later in the day.   Occasionally two of the Kongde peaks came into view as we hiked in the thin air up a difficult rocky scree field. 

Dawn, we had already been climbing for a couple of hours.  Looking down at the lake, across the scree field of doom.

the ice waterfall

View from the top of our upward progress, 17,000 to 18,000 feet

 Dano said that this time last year, this area was  a snow field, much more easily traversed. It was breathtaking and beautiful and extremely difficult to make upward progress. I was wearing mountaineering boots, made for crampons and snow and ice.  I needed a light pair of approach shoes.  I led a couple of long chimney climbs toward a steep couloir. Then I belayed Dano up.  When we reached the top of the chimneys the rock was steeper and even more loose. 
Dano has climbed Mount Everest 10 times.  He is amazingly strong and very skilled in mountaineering, a excellent example of a climbing Sherpa.  He said it was too dangerous to continue up in these conditions, especially since we had to return all the way back to where Nima had set up an intermediate camp. 

 I was not quite ready to stop at this particular spot, so I asked him to wait while I climbed up to a large cornice, then around the cornice.  In the couloir the rock was loose and unstable.  Because it is so cold here at night, when there is enough snow, the slope consolidates into an easily climbed snow field, provided you have an ice axe and crampons. I had an ice axe, which I was using, but couloir was too loose to climb except extremely slowly.  The adjacent rock slabs could be more easily climbed, but to be safe they needed an aggressive approach shoe or rock shoe.  Finally, after reaching the edge of the couloir that leads up to the summit block, I realized that Dano was right. The conditions were too treacherous. 

So I returned back down, knocking rocks down left and right until I reached Dano and we determined to return down slowly.  The views were stunning but the down climbing was difficult in the heavy boots. In snow, we would have been down in minutes.  Instead it took hours to get back to the lakes, which were swimming in the swirling clouds like a magical place.  Returning down to the lakes

 Notice Dano is carrying pickets and other snow protection, for snow that was not there.

 Living in the clouds

Then we walked all the way back to our camp, which we reached around 2:30.  Another 9 or 10 hours of hiking above 15,000 feet.

 relaxing time, helmet is off, harness is off

this must be lunch

 looking down to the base camp area

Notice Pimba's proud pose

 Sonam, in blue, was especially kindly toward me after I gave up my Advil for him, he returned to the base camp the following afternoon, after he had gone down to regain some acclimatization. I think her is offering me some garlic soup.

We packed it up,  I changed shoes, and started the long hike down to the base of the valley, which we reached just before dark.  It had been12 or 13 hours of difficult hiking and climbing mostly above 14,000 feet.  The five Sherpas were camped under the overhanging rock, like a cave, building a smoky fire.  Pimba was chopping vegetables, potatoes and spicing up a wild curry mixture.  Usually when trekkers or mountaineers  hike with Sherpa guides and porters, they eat separately.  But now, we all had lunch and dinner together in the smoky cave, like a ghostly ancient brotherhood.  I ate whatever they cooked, even though I know they were making it extra spicy.  Pimba's main spice were the spice packets from Ramen packages. I think they were enjoying the camping trip.  

Kongde Day 3

For breakfast we had Sherpa stew, which was rice with some leaves in it. It was a sunny morning with stunning views of the mountains.  We set off up the big valley, a long valley, toward some mystical looking waterfalls in the distance.  Soon we were back in the clouds. At the end of the valley we dropped off some stuff with Nima  who was not going to do any more hiking up.  He set up an intermediate camp under a huge overhanging rock.

 Dano said, we will need to leave at 4:00 AM tomorrow, to make up for lost time, wake up at 3:00.  That was fine with me since I am awake by that time anyway trying to figure out a way to inflate a pad while sleeping on it. s only view of the mountains that evening

 tent time

Nima loaned me a pair of fleece gloves before we left him. I bought a pair of gloves in Kathmandu that had the remarkable property of making your hands colder! Tonight I put a liner inside my liner, the long white special thermal base layer, the heavy weight thermal base layer, thick socks and a water bottle filled with boiling water. Very cozy. I do not know what Dano was eating in the other tent, he was there with Pimba, but I had a nice freeze dried dinner. Just before the dark, the clouds parted and I had a glimpse of some very large mountains close by.