…. or google earth view. While stading at the top, a choba comes to this height, over six thousand meters height. It looks like the old tales where an animal come to deliver a message from the gods and go.
I have been so afraid during the ascension that I only want to come to safety. Luis goes down and wait on the rappel down line while I have to wait while talking to the australian guy that tells me that yesterday y climbed the Mera peak. X. and Coultin arrive. Xan sprawl on the floor and Karma helps me all the way down by changing the safeties. This is easier and faster than going up.
I think about all this crazyness that I have lived in the last hours and at the moment I think this stuff is not for me.
Going down takes all my strength and the plastic boots are rigid and do not help. Luis and Karm wait for me all the way down.
We reach the base camp where Sonam is getting my backpack. We celebrate with a coke that the cook gives me and I grab a snicker that Tomás offers, when we reach the camp.
We finally have lunch and decide to go down and descend the altitude all we can so we can sleep and regenerate better during the night. It is several hours walking until we reach Dingbuche.
We went to bed at 6pm to be ready to get up at midnight. I used an sleeping pill and ear plugs to avoid the snores of the colleague. The sleeping bag has forst on the outside. I get out early and X. gets mad at me because I did not leave the tent completely open.
We have breakfast and a procession of lights starts moving lead by Karma, and then Luis and Tomas and I join the other groups.
It is a difficult path upwards, full of rocks, and when I look up I only see lights near the rocks , all them ascending towards the stars. Tomás does not feel strong and goes back.
We cross paths where we need to grab ropes and we barely see where we put our feet, but the dark recedes, the sun comes and we reach the snow and the ice, so we start to set up our gear. Karma helps me with the crampons and the harness.
We find the first wall where we need to use the jumar, it is exhausting even if it is only 5 or 10 meters.
Then, it comes….The first pass above the abyss. It is over a several set of aluminium stairs tied to each other. My emotions are frozen so I am able to walk setting my cramponed feet to pass over the crevasse.
Just after passing this, in the distance, it appears a 100 meters wall of ice. I tell Luis that I am afraid and thinking of stopping here but he encourages me continue. We join a queque full of people climbing with crampons and jumar. I reach a point that I am uber thirsty, with so many people the queue takes hours and we need to get strength to keep our arm grabbing the jumar just standing there and trying to avoid to be taken down my the people belows me that draw so near that barely give me space. I get upset with the german below me, because it keeps pushing me to the left, even when I ask him several times to keep the distance.
Looking around I see the snow vertical world where the sherpas moves up and down without difficulty around us, like Spidermen.
At the top, we still have to walk without jumar towards teh very top, a 2 meter square platform. We receive the congratulations from the people there and the beginning I just crawl and sit on the floor, but soon I join Luis and we stand to take some photos. Everything is from eagle point of view.
We walk through a path that seems taken from another planet, full of smashed rocks, like from a film of the Riddick chronicles, a desert.
We don’t cross or see other trekkers but we see the Island Peak on the distance and follow that direction.
Luis, Tomás. and I go first and soon we find Sonam and Coultin, the climbing guide that is helping X.
The base camp is arranged in several clusters of tents and ours seems to be in the last pocket.
We are received in a big yellow tent marked with the sign of Prestige Adventures.
It is tall enough to accomodate us standing up and it featur5es a central table surrounded by camping charis. We received a warm welcome and have our lunch there prepared by a cook in the nearest tent.
When it is getting dark I depart alone for a walk, and I am taken by the beautiful sights and sounds: The sky full of stars, and on the ground everything dark but for the globes of lights that come from the inhabited tents, the contour of the mountains arranged on the horizon…
The captivating sounds of a distant song played by an unknown musical instrument, it is a soothing melody in this distant land.
I slack on the bed while X. prepares his stuff. So without changing clothes I have the breakfast first, and then go to select the pieces that we won’t carry to Chhukkung.
Since the house is powered by solar energy, the powerbank is only charged to a half so the hostess only charge half the price.
We start the ascension even if it’s a smooth one with a steady pace. We are accompanied by the river and when looking back we get an impressive look at the valley and Dingbuche below.
Chhukkung seems to be the typical place here with full of lodges with english signs. Our lodge claims to be one of the highests.
Not so much to do during the evening. L. is having a hard digestion so I give him some almax.
I take a nap, meditate, and notice how attached I became to receive messages from my loved ones, so I spend some time writing letters and letting go of this thoughts.
Today I took my breakfast with milk and a porridge based on corn and my usual black coffee. The others have grown fond of the masala tea and they order it at each presented chance. We wave goodbye to the kind hosts, in my case, they shake my hands with some words in spanish, and also we wish well to the rest of the family and the fellow climbers.
The trek starts by going back down and now crossing the river and following a path up that is testing our stamina and forces us to walk slowly to catch our breath.
The Dukquosi (Milky river) is at our right side becoming narrower as our ascension continues.
The first part of the trail is almost all upwards and we cross more porters, a woman herding yaks, more women carrying stuff and some other trekkers. They are not as common as in our first days around Namche Bazaar.
Again I take the moments while we have a rest when Tundu marks it to breathe from the beauty of the mountains and allow the sun to warm my skin.
We make a stop for lunch around 11 a.m. knowing that the rest of the way will be easier for today.
We are now over 4000 meters of altitude and I feel a bit of pressure on the back of my head. It’s very subtle but I decide not to risk it and take my first pill: one paracetamol.
I forgot to mention that Sonam got behind at the lodge however he catched up a little bit before our lunch place.
Another man in the lunch place resulted to be one young man from Kathmandu, in his thirties, he speaks a very good english and told me that this trek was more beautiful than the others and that he would spend nine days on them.
Everest: We will go to the base camp, and Island Peak…We will climb it!
At last, in Marchemo I salute the porters in nepalese and the hostess smiles when she notices me using some words like «duk chya» (tea with milk) with Tundu.
The interior of the lodge
Playing football
Stories about travels around Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia using Bangkok as a hub to get the visas are told by L. and T.
Today I feel like wishing for more time in the evenings under the sun. Some times I think about my people back home and what worried me, feeling distant and wishing for more clarity.
The hotel was busy with some celebration, it seems like a wedding
The first thing that came to my attention is the amount of traffic on the streets, a river of cars and motorbikes and the traffic light that probably went abandoned 30 or 40 years ago. So the only way to cross this street is a leap of faith and start walking towards the other side, and like a rock in a river, the traffic starts to make room for us while never stopping going forward.
The cables tangled in every post. I wonder how are the repairs made. Probably just setting a new one over the old.
We visit an exchange place where we can get some rupees and after that some of us need to get some equipment, mostly for when we do our final ascension to the Island Peak, so I buy some mittens and a water bottle.
The next day we go to the airport where we can take a flight to Lukla, however there are no screen signs here, people is sitting everywhere on the floor, and the communication with the people at the desks seems to lead to nowhere. We spend hours there and it seems flights are getting delayed due to the weather in Lukla.
Hours waiting at the local airport.
When it seemed that we may even not flight today, one of the guides appear and to our delight he has arranged a couple of helicopters to flight us to Lukla. We walk around trusting that everything amidst this chaos have an inner order, and finally that is manifested when we are transported to a nearby facility where we will be able to catch the helli.
From here on, I continue with my notes from these days
14-October-2017
Second day in Nepal. We arrived today to our first shelter after some trekking.
The astounding beauty of the scenery is exceeding my previous expectations set in Kathmandu. I did not expect to find such splendid cascades falling as in slow motion. It is also a gift for my inner child to discover these evergreen sea of mountains while flying for the first time in a helicopter.
Our pilot, Eric «Riddler» Riddington does not seem to be a man of much words. Mónica is sitting on the left front sit. I am next to the left door at the rear, with David in the middle and Xan to the right.
Eric «Riddler», our pilot.
Mixed emotions overcame when the rotor started and I fixated my attention on when we would start to float.
The first surprise was, that when it happened, it was far from frightening. Joyously and confidently I set myself to record some videos to proudly show later to my family and friends.
We start to navigate through the countryside around Kathmandu that is surrounded by infinite hills.
Unlike Kathmandu, as crowded with houses from above as it is with people on the ground, the countryside presents a more appealing display for me, green mountains whose sides have been carved by man to cultivate the land with a set of artificial plateaus fit for farming. I notice that the houses take root on the lines that the slopes form at their top. Many blue roofs are seen from this vantage point of view.
Getting too near when a big slope is erected in our front sight set some of my alarms ringing, but only I get really worried when some wind pushes our helicopter upwards or side to side even if it is only for milliseconds.
After an hour flying, what appears to be a farm with a prairie on the skirts of a mountain, reveals itself to be a helipad with a landing point.
The helli dives down and moves again upwards after sweeping over and above the buildings. Amazed, I enjoy with how the pilot takes us circling around the mountain, a mountain which I can’t see the top, full of greenery and hidden by the clouds.
When he completed the circle we were back at the landing point. This time, slowly, as if showing off, the helli finally lands.
The little prairie is specked with the colors of the trekkers’ coats, trekkers that have come from all over the world and are here today.
A girl in her first twenties races towards the helli, she seems to be organizing the arrivals. A shabby man that reminds me of a nepali version of Johnny Depp asks us some questions, and soothes us to leave behind our concerns about our missing bags, partners and guides. He ushers us towards the hall room and take some tea.
We haven’t finished the tea, while the girl is helping us calling Parajuli, our contact in Kathmandu, when Sonam, Luru and Jetta arrive alongside with the porters. In a matter of seconds, and once again, I discover how everything seems to unfold perfectly while I feel myself confidently trusting in the people that are taking care of us.
Presentations are made, Luru asks me if I am the leader, I told him that no, but that I could be, and he laughs and says «you seem like an smart guy».
The trek starts. Jewels from nature are everywhere so slowly we leave behind our morning concern about waiting at the airport for our twice delayed flights.
The trail is an stepped path carved on the rock, surrounded by sudden falls into the valley. I can only see trees, plants and from this height I can see rivers, waterfalls and the gigantic mountains on the opposite side that dwarf the ones I walked in Grazalema or Málaga.
We cross many little villages, buddhists mantras engraved or painted on the stones or flags…
One of the many suspension bridges on the first stages.
Stupas
Near the end, Tundu and Tenshi comes to guide us to the guest house where the meal is served.
To wash myself, only a faucet and a rocky basin helps me to wash a bit my face and arms clean.
We enjoy noodles and masala tea comforted in their warm personalities, full of hospitality and good sense of humour.
I set myself to sleep while remembering the many events, the dog that followed us, the little girl and boys that laugh and play in the villages, my friends and family with whom I could not contact today, although Mónica kindly lend me her mobile to send a SMS to my father. I wonder what is H doing today.
This is the second post with the chronicles of the travel I did to Nepal on 2017, including the Trekking on the himalayas and the ascension to the Imja Tse (Island Peak).
Yes, all started with a poster. It was during my second visit to Oseling, that I saw the picture and recognized the name of my friend announcing it. I knew I had to be there. I met Cristina during my first time I went to Oseling, so quickly after going back home I contacted her and with the help of her company I started to arrange all that was needed. He sent me detailed instructions, things to carry, vaccines needed when traveling, meds that could be needed and that are common knowledge between mountaineers that venture at such altitudes.
The thing is that due to my work I could not go during the Spring to Tibet, so the plans changed and I decided to go at the end of summer to Nepal and the heart of the Himalayas instead.
Changing plans and going to the Himalayas
The days approached and Cristina helped me a lot solving doubts that arose, and another friend of mine, Arturo (Check his travel blog http://alfabravo.org/), helped me buying all the stuff I would need. I did not have proper winter gear so we made a good stash with the clothes, sun glasses, trekking cane, etc., the cashier was amazed when she saw all the collected stuff and more when he heard it was for such a far place.
Alfa Bravo giving his wise counsel when getting the equipment.
I remember that as the day to depart approached I was very nervous, not only for the travel (I needed to go
from San Fernando to Madrid by train first to catch the plane there), but because I was preparing an exam, and
the test was one day before catching the flight.
Before packing
After packing
They day came, and I could spend the day with my friends in Madrid: Monica, Rober and Emma. I passed the exam, yay! So with the heavy backpack at my back, I headed my steps towards the Madrid airport where I met Cristina again after a year and the ones who would be my travel partners in the Nepal Adventure: Luis, Xan, Monica and David.
Visiting Monica and Rober before catching the plane
I never took a flight so long, but luckily the wariness I had on flights years ago had dissapeared, and we arrived to Delhi first. On the airport we could see many peoples with the bindi, the red dot on the forehead, and although some of us were worried about being able to catch the next plane to Kathmandu, everything went smoothly including customs.
The guides were waiting for us at the airport and Kathmandu was around us.
There, we met Tomas, after the checking was done at the hotel, we met Tomas who came from the UK and joined us. The team was assembled, it was time to celebrate our first night in Kathmandu!
During October 2017 I embarked myself on an adventure that took me across the world to a place that is revered by many: by tourists that seek to visit the colourful Kathmandu; by trekkers that adventure themselves on the natural park around the highest peaks of the world that is also the home of the sherpa people; by buddhists because north of Nepal is close to Tibet and there are temples and ancient scriptures on the rocks there; and also by alpinists who look to reach the highest peaks there; be that the Everest or one of the many one that crown the Himalayas.
At the skirts of giants
I wrote a diary during that days and I have been reluctant to publish it till now, so maybe the distance of time and space allow me to revive that days with a sense of wonder anew.
In the next posts I will be posting some chapters of it with some photographs. Let serve this to reconnect with the nepali and sherpa people whose hospitality was outstanding in all the places we crossed, and with all the members of the travel that participated on this.
Ater landing with the helicopter
One of the many suspension bridges on the first days of the trekking
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