"Tough Cake"

Nepal 1996

Summary

I vacationed in Nepal leaving 10/4/96 and returning 11/1/96. I had a great time. We had a great group. And the Himalayas were as spectacular as ever.

Itinerary

My flights to Nepal were Indianapolis to Chicago to Los Angeles to Bangkok, Thailand (with a stop in Seoul, South Korea). Flights were such that we spent the night in the Bangkok Airport Hotel and then flew on to Katmandu, Nepal the next morning. After a day of touring in Katmandu we took a local flight to the area we were going to trek in. The flight was in a Chinese copy of a Canadian Twin-Otter, a propeller driven, unpressurized, 18 seat plane. We trekked for 19 days going to the base camp of Makalu, the fifth highest peak in the world. Coming back was just the reverse of going in, local flight back to Katmandu, rest day, and then flights to Bangkok, L.A., Chicago and Indy.

Flights

People know that Nepal is halfway around the world. But sometimes they don't realize just how long it takes to get there. Here are the travel times and time changes involved in each step of the journey to Nepal. All times are in hours. 

Destination    Travel Time   Time Change
-----------    -----------   -----------
Indianapolis         1            0
Chicago              0.5          0
L.A.                 4            2
Seoul               12            8
Bangkok              5            2
Katmandu             3            1.25
-----------         --           -----
Totals              25.5         13.25

Weather

On any trek or hike, weather is always an important factor. On our first day on the trail, it started raining, then it started raining hard, then it started pouring. Someone made the comment that they thought the monsoon season was over. We had rain 7 of the first 8 days on the trail. However only the first day was enough to shut us down.

After those first 8 days, the weather generally followed a pattern. Mornings would be perfectly clear. About noon clouds would start rolling up the valley and by evening it would be totally overcast. But we only had one more day of any significant rain. We got snowed on a couple of times but nothing that ever accumulated. While the starting weather was a concern, everything turned out ok.

Jungas

Actually I don't know if jungas is the correct spelling since I've never seen the word, just heard it. Junga is the local word for leach and we had to deal with them for part of the trip.

The place where we started trekking was quite low in altitude (about 1,500 feet) and quite tropical. All of the rain brought out the jungas. While the image of Humphry Bogart and "The African Queen" may come to mind, these leaches were not very big and not every dangerous. They were about the size of an inch worm. The longest I saw may have reached three inches at full extension. They were about as big around as a piece of pencil lead.

We found several on ourselves and on others. However I only got bitten once and it was exactly the way our trip leader described it would happen. I got to camp and took off my boots and socks. Inside one sock was a small streak of blood. I then spotted a small bite on my leg. These leaches just take a bite, drink their fill and then drop off.

Leaches have an anesthetic so you don't feel their bite and an anti-coagulant so that the wound doesn't close up too quickly for them. These properties are the reason there's an increased interest in leaches in medical research.

Blank Place On the Map

This section heading almost became the title of this report. One very interesting aspect of this trip was that at least some parts of it were new territories for almost everyone including our guide and the Sherpas. This area is not as frequently traveled as other parts of Nepal such as the Everest and Anapurna regions. So not only were people in our group not familiar with this region, the maps of it were not nearly as good as those for other areas.

It was interesting going into the dining tent before dinner and seeing Sergio, our leader, with the itinerary in one hand and a map of the area in the other. Some of the problems included major villages and bridges not appearing on the map, different spellings of place names and different maps not agreeing on names and locations of places.

Of course everything worked out just fine and on schedule. But, it was fun watching it all play out.

John was keeping a very detailed journal of the trip. One day Pasang, our Sherpa leader, said that he figured out the name of the village above our camp site that day. John got excited and asked him how to spell the name, knowing about the problem of different spellings of a name. Pasang replied that he didn't know how to spell the name in English, he only had the name in Nepalese script. And, this is one of the reasons for the various spellings of names. There isn't a fixed transcription from Nepalese to English.

Hiking Versus Trekking

As I was hiking along one day, I started thinking about how trekking differed from hiking. Of course the obvious differences are that trekking involves more hours per day on the trail and more days on the trail. Also trekking usually includes altitude to factor in.

However a major difference is the type of hiking involved. When hiking around central Indiana, there are many times what you can let your mind wander as you're going down the trail. On this trip, that's a good way to get yourself seriously injured.

The trails are very rocky and uneven. You have to constantly be watching where you put your feet. Almost every step must be considered and losing your concentration is a good way to take a tumble. It is a great relief to get to a section of trail where you can just put one foot in front of another and not have to concentrate on what you're doing. However this is usually a rare and short duration event.

What's sometimes frustrating is watching everyone who lives in these areas or does this type of hiking all the time. They just walk down these trails like we would walk down a sidewalk. Of course they were born and raised walking like this and it comes second nature to them. But it's still frustrating being so much poorer at this than they are.

Technology in Nepal

Nepal has certainly heard of the Internet. In Katmandu, I saw a number of places where for about 60 cents you could send an e-mail message. This was less than the cost of an international airmail letter. The office of the trekking company that Mountain Travel contacts to actually run the trip had their own Internet connection. When we got back to Katmandu after the trek, I was going to send e-mail to a number of people just for fun. However the office was being remodeled when we got back and it would have been pretty tricky at that time.

Ralph brought a GPS (Global Positioning System) with him on the trek. It was about the size of a large television remote control device. He would activate it and it would pick up as many positioning satellites as possible to determine our location and elevation. It had a memory so you could store positions as we went along. It could then calculate distances between positions.

With the GPS we were able to determine that by adding distances from campsite to campsite, we covered 100.1 miles. Our longest day was 9.8 miles and our shortest 2.4 miles. Of course these distances are just point to point and don't allow for the ups and downs, switchbacks and other reasons you don't just hike in a straight line from one camp to the next. Still it was fun having any sort of numbers even with these drawbacks to them.

Finally, the village we flew into and out of at the start and end of the trek, Tumlingtar, had a public telephone. Of course the airfield had a radio to deal with flights. But there were no roads anywhere in the area. All goods which came to Tumlingtar had to be carried in by people. There was just the one phone, but our leaders used it to call the office in Katmandu to let them know that we were on schedule for our return.

Trip Title

The title for this report comes from an exchange that took place one day. We had just completed one of the longer and harder days heading in where we'd ascended from 6,000 feet altitude to 11,000 feet. 5,000 feet altitude gain in one day is quite a bit.

John asked Sergio: "So after today, everything else is just a piece of cake?"

Sergio: "Tough cake."

Sergio was right; there were more tough days to come. For example coming back out, we had one day where we descended 7,000 feet. While going down takes less energy, it's tougher on your muscles. Most experienced hikers prefer going up to going down.

Bodhnath is a Buddhist temple in Katmandu. It is one of the largest in the world.
Buddhist prayer flags flying at Bodhnath. The flags have prayers printed on them. As the flags flap in the wind, the prayers are sent to heaven.
Pashupatinath, a Hindu temple in Katmandu. The platforms extending into the river are cremation sites.
More Pashupatinath
Software in Nepal. Even in 1996 when this was taken, some of the version numbers of the advertised software are pretty out of date. Of course it could be that it's just the sign that's out of date.
Note the goat on top of the wall.
Looking down the Arun River valley. This is the way we came back from Makalu. It really started raining hard not too long after this was taken. No surprise given those low lying clouds.
Rain and Dinner. This is looking out of the dining tent after dinner. All the dishes on the table should give you some idea of how well we ate. The small tent seen through the dining tent door to the right is the bathroom. The standing water on the ground is a sign of how hard it rained.
Homes. We were at a low altitude, around 2000 feet or so. It was a very lush and prosperous region.
Taking a break on the trail and looking toward the Arun valley. The sweat patterns on peoples backs give you an idea that it's hot down here.
With wet tents in the foreground, you can see the Himilayas just peaking above the clouds. This was the best view we got all day.
"You are here." The sign board shows the Himilayan peaks you can see from here. They'd also be in the picture if the rain wasn't in the way.
We headed down the ridge to the village of Nun. The next day we'll head down the ridge to the left and cross the Arun River. The river did an arc to the west between where we started and here. We just hiked across the chord of the arc.
It was nice to have a good solid bridge to cross the river. It was also very hot and humid. We took a break on the other side of the bridge and I think I managed to wring out about a quart of sweat from my t-shirt.
Looking upstream, up the Arun River.
Looking downstream
Looking up. As we head up the other side of the valley, this looks at the side we just came down.
And up.
Nun is just barely visible on the opposite side of the valley along the near ridge. But you can't see down to the river from here. This may have been one of the shortest days in terms of distance, campsite to campsite. But it was sure a tough day.
Tough way to go. In the center you see a broken down bridge which most of us didn't use. We went around the rocks to the right. In the lower right Ralph is getting a hand up one of the difficult spots in the trail.
Welcome to camp. We knew when we got to the end of the hiking for the day. There would be a Sherpa with a cup of hot fruit drink waiting for us.
Kanchenjunga. Along the skyline you can just make out Kanchenjunga, the fourth highest peak in the world.
Rainsuits. Our porters were issued yellow rainsuits when they were hired. Guess what those clouds did to us later in the day.
The passes. This is taken from the Shipton La, the first pass of the day. Just under the clouds is the second pass for the day. The bright spec in the lower left is a porter in his rainsuit.
Snow. We got snowed on overnight. The tent still has a little snow/frost on it. Most of the opposite hillside is fresh snow.
And sun light. However having a bright sunny day after the snow is nice. If we could only get off the north side of this hill so we could get in the sunlight.
Makalu. The white peak in the center is Makalu. Given all the rain and cloudy days, this was really our first good view of it.
More rain. However after that good view of Makalu, the weather closed in again. The pattern became for clear and sunny in the morning with clouds moving up the valley becoming overcast by mid afternoon. The bridge is crossing a branch of the Barun River. We'll be following this river most of the way to Base Camp.
Dawn on Makalu. Since the sun hasn't hit us yet, it's really cold. We started hiking earlier than usual to warm up and to get into the sunlight sooner.
Up the valley.
Clouds rolling in.
Morning start. While that little log across the stream looks easy to cross, it wasn't. It was a little slick with early morning frost. Also the stream was load and moving fast. No one wanted to slip and fall into it to start the day.
Scenery. Mostly unnamed peaks on our way to Makalu.
More scenery. Progressing toward ourhigh camp.
Panaroma 1. The next series forms a panaroma from the area of our high camp.
Panaroma 2
Panaroma 3. Makalu itself.
Panaroma 4
Panaroma 5
On the way. Off and heading for 16,000 feet and the Makalu base camp.
Pointers - Makalu. Pasang is pointing to a small avalanche on the opposite hillside.
Avalanche 1. Avalanches sound like thunder. We were never in any danger. None of the trails we were on were anywhere near such snow fields.
Avalanche 2
We're there. The high point of the trip (literally).
Makalu. One final full view of the peak.
Avalanche 1 - Another, much bigger avalanche.
Avalanche 2
Avalanche 3
Avalanche 4
Avalanche 5
Avalanche 6
River crossing. This was a painful crossing. For one thing the water is coming right off those snow fields just visible in the background. However the stones and rocks hurt more than the cold. I didn't get cut, but it sure hurt.
Plan B. However just charging in with boots, socks and pants as normal certainly makes for a faster crossing. Of course drying out takes longer.
Civilization. We camped in the field by this little store. This is just occupied in the summer. They lady who runs it returns over the passes to town for the winter.
An early morning start for a long day. Mostly downhill, but still a long day. The trail is still a little icy from the snow and rain the previous day.
Last look at Makalu.
The passes again. On heading in, this was almost totally covered by clouds.
Drying day. We finally got to a place where the location and the sun cooperated and we were able to lay almost everything out to dry.
Dawn. The sun rising behind a hill.
Rice fields. We're back down to lower altitudes where crops such as rice can be grown. And we have to start paying attention to leaches again.
Long drop. Although we were just following the Arun river around, there were many valley crossings which involved steep downs and ups. You can just make out the suspension bridge across the river.
The bridge. It was really a good bridge. Much bigger than you might expect from the previous picture.
Ladder. The ladder the porters are on is just a big log with notches cut in it for steps.
Ladder 2. I'm glad I just had to deal with this while carrying a day pack. I'd hate to try it carrying a full load like these porters.

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