View at Parchamo Peak (6250 m) from Trashi Labtse Pass (5700 m).
Climbers are reaching the pass at 5700 m after a very tiring walk up from 4900 m, that started this morning. The last 400 m are relatively steep and the altitude really hits you. Very few people can walk up without stopping and gasping for air every 30-60 steps. Ignorent trekkers, not used to altitudes above 4000 m, but who think they can set a height record by signing up for this trip will find out, potentially getting a bad case of high altitude sickness.
The Trashi Labtse Pass is one of several very high passes above 5400 m in Nepal you could to take to cross from one region into another. Several are covered by glaciers which makes them tricky.
This pass takes you from the Rolwaling area, accesible from the Kathmandu – Tibet Highway, into the Everest Region. A very nice crossing but also very demanding. Most people spent the night at 5700 m as going down is another 5-6 hours.
We left the pass very late, at 2 PM, and had to hurry as we needed to reach the lodge of Tengpo before sunset, at 17.30 h. We arrived at 17.45 h after a non-stop walk at high speed, just when it got pitch dark.
An added complication was that after 14.00 h, rocks get loose at the vertical mountain sides (see below) and big boulder roll down the scree every 5 or 10 minutes, sort of bowling, but the mountain gods are bowling and we are the pins.
Looking back to the West while going up the Trashi Labtse Pass. Glacier below at 5300 m.
Like above.
Camp at the Trashi Labtse Pass at 5700 m. Tents, small dots, below an overhanging ridge.Altitude far mountain around 6500-7000 m.
Going down across the “mountain gods bowling field” with many loose rocks. Tengpo (4300 m) is down in the valley, around the corner. Current altitude around 5500 m. Porters for scale.