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Table
of Contents "On the road to Kabul and other short stories of treks"
Walk-out from Baruntse
Base Camp to Lukla across Mera La:
tourists, porters and Mao’s
What route?
After
waiting for 4 days for the rescue helicopter to evacuate Passang's body and
again a no show due to cloudy weather we decided to walk to Lukla, a 3 or 4 day
trip.
Dead guide on Ambu Labtse
The 5800 m
Ambu Labtse Pass and the easy trail through Chukung, Tengboche and Namche would
normally be the best choice but all the rope for save crossing using a rappel
was in the high camps.
Also, only
a month ago a climbing Sherpa of another group fell down 100 m and lost his
life going down on crampons unsecured. His body is covered with stones at the
base of the pass till his family picks it up. He did not need to share a rope
with another group as he boosted, ''I have been on top of Everest twice''.
With two death in a single month and
Passang's ghost visiting the kitchen tent at night I did not want to take yet
another risk as everybody was nervous.
Mera La Route
We would
now take the shorter but more difficult Mera La route as the trail is not as
good but porters like it because the food is cheaper. The first night we would
join the Mera Peak group, Bram and Ron, who left a day earlier.
To Mera La
The first
day we left late, at 10 AM. This was my deadline for the helicopter. We kept on
walking in a fast pace, Lokendra carrying 30 kg, my big bag and his own stuff.
For the first time on our trip we met a group and they had seen our Mera Peak
Group at noon so we thought we would catch up with them at 2 PM.
We reached
a nice grassy camp site at 2 PM after 4 h and
feeling tired, expecting our group to be there as planned but there was
nobody. They must have gone higher up to Mera La, a 800 m climb.
After 2.5
long hours climbing we reached a camp site at a lake, below Mera La, but still
no group. Did we miss them? It was now 4.30 PM and the next tea house in Khare
at least another 2 h. We followed a
poorly visible steep rocky trail to Mera La that you do not want to take in the
dark. Our fast pace in the morning paid off.
At 5.30 PM
close to dawn we reached Mera La and were relieved, it would only one more hour
to a tea house in Khare across a bright glacier and down a good trail as we did
not think our group would be here.
Two groups
were camping here and I was about to ask them for tea as we heard shouting. Our
group was here) they welcomed us. Bram and Ron were surprised. How did we get
here so fast?
Bram decided to skip a camp so we had to walk
in 1 day what was planned for 3 days. Problem was not the distance but because
of the expected helicopter we left 3 h late, else we would have done the route
in 9-10 hours.
To Tagnag
Crossing
Mera La, to Khare and Tagnag is an easy stroll down from 5400 m to 4300 m. Near
Tagnag is a glacial lake of which the
dam broke in Sept 1998, releasing 25 mln m3 of water at a rate of 2000 m3 per
second.
In Tagnag
most groups have a rest day and the crew of porters and guides meet their
trekking colleagues and friends.
Parties can be loud and go on till midnight.
One of the
two porters, Baj or younger brother, partied heavily spending two days of
salary on raksi and at midnight wasn't sure what lodge room he was suppose to
be sleeping. He entered my room and unable to find his bed must have panicked
and vomited a big pile of acid rice on my duffel bag and shoes. I initially did
not notice this as I was using ear plugs to keep the nightly party noise and I
kept the window open to get rid of the smoke of the kitchen down-stairs that
entered my room through floor planks.
The next morning
the embarrassment and shame was enormous. Baj quickly cleaned my room, duffel
bag and shoes, and was very silent and shy for the rest of the day, such that
we had to cheer him up.
To Koche
In 3 hours
we walked down to Koche, a Maoist stronghold and check post for the passage
fee, 3000 Rupees going up and 1000 Rupees going down.
Some groups
suggested you could easily avoid the fee by quickly passing the village but I
did not like this as this could give us a lot of trouble, 'You should always
pay your taxes'.
We sat down
for lunch in Koche and within 5 minutes a Maoist with a black handkerchief
around his neck visited us. He looked well-educated and started a tense
conversation with our guide Lokendra. After a few minutes he leaned back and
relaxed. We did not have a receipt of the Rs 4000 payment in the Arun valley as
we only had two copies for the two main groups but our hand-written copy of the
original was accepted.
To the jungle tea house
Feeling
relieves and full after a lunch of fried rice and momo's we continued going up
the Zatre La for two hours. The first reed tea house in the jungle looked very
good for spending the night. Spacious with large sleeping places and a separate
kitchen to avoid the smoke.
We had an excellent meal and a long comfortable
sleep. Ron was woken up by a field mouse tiptoeing across his head but he was
sleeping next to the rice storage.
Crossing Zatre La to Lukla
The next
day we left at 7 AM. This would be a long day.
At 10.30 we
arrived at Thuli Kharka
and at 11.30 at the pass at 4500 m. Here we had lunch
in a tea house and warmed up under the blankets. Outside it was 5 degrees
Celsius.
At 1.15 PM
we left the tea house and had to hurry reaching Lukla. The curfew starts at 6
PM but worse, you do not want to walk on rocky trails in the dark and the army
is allowed to shoot at anyone after 6 PM.
For the
next 4 hours we walked straight down at a high pace without a rest. We got in
at 5.15 PM, relieved, a luxurious hotel and cold beer was waiting for us.
