It’s fantastic. But safety concerns have stopped many over the years from traveling to Colombia. And stopped others from doing the trek.
Bt82 joined a group of 11 hikers to do it in the Fall of 2009. No problema. Everything went great.
… Everything went great until the post-hike celebration. That evening was a disaster.
Tricked into a meal at an expensive restaurant. Porn movies and strippers at the bar. Prostitutes. One hiker caught with Marijuana. Police demanding a $1000 bribe.
Yeesh.
Click through to TravelPod to read the sorry details – Ciudad Perdida
There are no tea houses. No restaurants. The Cho La is seriously dangerous. Often a guide, ice axes and ropes are needed. Yaks can only rarely cross.
I may not have been looking better, but I was feeling better after headache and some diarrhea the day before. (All I could stomach was Pringles, the first time I’d ever bought them.)
Actually, I awoke with a very stiff neck, a condition (cause unknown) that lingered for 2wks!
Departing Dzonghla the mountains look impassible.
High, steep and intensely glaciated.
Here’s the crux. Crossing the Cho La Glacier.
I waltzed across like it was a sidewalk.
The astonishing weather had encouraged many guides to bring their groups to cross the Pass today. There must have been 50 people eating lunch at the Cho La.
vista from Cho La (5420m)
The descent is a crappy scree scramble.
Everyone but me stopped in the next village, Tagnag (Dragnag). A charming, clean and well-organized stop.
Having lost a day to illness, I thought I’d push on to Gokyo on the other side of the Ngozumpa Glacier.
… How far could it be?
The torturous and exhausting traverse seemed to take forever. Crossing glaciers is by far the most difficult and dangerous thing hikers do in this region.
It was well after dark when I finally rolled into famed Gokyo 4790m (15,715ft).
After a long, cold night in the tent, I awoke with “mountaineer’s lassitude“:
… reluctance to put one foot in front of the other …
I’d first read of the condition in the mountaineering parody, The Ascent of Rum Doodle (1956), one of my favourite books.
I was sick again. The same stomach ailment I had on the first 2 days of the trek.
That’s the lateral moraine of the Khumbu Glacier. I first needed to trudge down. Then find a safe way across. Others had advised that it was no problem this season, … if the weather is good.
Fortunately, the weather remained perfect. There was not even snow blowing off the highest peaks!
It seemed to take a long time to reach Lobuche.
I stopped for lunch and to recharge my batteries at a restaurant. Then psyched up for the relatively short and easy walk to Dzonghla (Dzongla).
it was a pity I felt rotten. The weather was stupendous. And the scenery even better.
looking back to Ama Dablum
Late afternoon I finally reached the remote village. But I spent less time in the guesthouse restaurant than in here …
I crashed that evening without eating. And did not get up until Noon the next day.
Mid-day there was only myself and the Nepali National bird, the Himalayan Monal, wandering about the courtyard.
Everyone else had departed at first light over the Cho La, the most difficult of the Three Passes route.
I had a forced rest day. Standing around like this guy.
I heard plenty of warnings about the 9hr crossing. But in perfect weather … if you are already acclimatized to altitude, it’s only moderately difficult.
One of two access trails climbs quickly up and away from the Nuptse Glacier. And away from “teahouse trekking”. There are no facilities along the way. This is true high altitude wilderness.
I loved it.
It starts with an easy grassy valley walk. And ends in “… a lunar landscape of icy lakes and frozen ridges …”
Pokhalde Base Camp
I scrambled part way up a ridge of Pokalde Peak 5806m (19,048ft). As you can see, it’s not difficult.
This is not the route used by most trekking peak groups, however. (I didn’t want to get in trouble for not having a “trekking peak permit”.)
What a view from on high!
I lingered long at the pass 5535m (18,159ft), so late that I was the last trekker to cross that day.
The descent from the pass is the most difficult part of Kongma La … scrambling frozen loose scree for 2hrs Yuck.
I could have just barely made it down to the village of Lobuche before dark … but I’d heard bad things about those guest houses. Lobuche is a messy, littered place, the least appealing of any accommodation I saw in the Khumbu region.
It might have been a mistake to tent at 4800m (15,750ft). I was 12hrs huddling, full clothed, in the sleeping bag with my electronics. (Freezing the batteries would kill them.)
Next morning neither of my lighters wanted to function. My boots and stove were frozen solid.
After much fussing, I finally managed to light the stove … to unthaw my boots enough to get my feet into them. Yeesh!
Fact is, I’m one of the only independent hikers carrying a tent. (People thought I was crazy to carry the weight when rooms cost less than $3 and restaurants are available every hour along the main trails.)
But I enjoy sleeping in a tent. You feel much more connected with the mountains.
Happily the morning dawned sunny, cold and clear.
Everyone had the same idea … RUSH to Everest to see the summit in good weather. The world’s highest mountain’s notoriously hostile microclimate oft has the peak in cloud. It had been shrouded for at least the past week.
But for me that would mean over 800m elevation gain in one day. Risky.
hmmm … I decided to go for it.
Gorak Shep 5164m (translation Dead Ravens) is the last village before Mt Everest.
I’d heard some bad things about these remote guest houses. But I loved the outpost. One of my favourite stops on the entire trek.
After lunch I psyched up for the 2hr climb up this deceptively easy looking “hill”, Kala Patthar. 5643m (18,513ft). It has a couple of false summits.
Kala Patthar as seen from Gorek Shep
The intimidating mountain in the background is Pumori 7161m (23,494 ft).
Most agree that the best viewpoint of Mt Everest from the south is from the brown top of that lump. That said, there truly are no great hiking trail vistas of Everest from the south. All it’s neighbours look higher and more impressive.
As usual, it was very windy at the top of Kala Patthar.
But I was thrilled to have made it here with such good visibility.
Rick and Mt. Everest
Everyone was thankful we had been so “lucky” with the weather.
At this point I felt my trek had already been a “success”. The rest would be bonus.
Acclimatization day trekking around Namche Bazaar.
Gorgeous.
I was there for the famed Saturday Market. Cheap goods from China were being hawked by colourful Tibetan traders in the main market ground.
… But it seemed to me that there was no difference between Saturday and every other day of the week. The Tibetans were camped out semi-permanently while I was there. (They did a lot of drinking on the Friday night.)
A secondary local market was open Saturday morning, mainly Nepalis selling food stuffs.
I toured fascinating Namche town first. The small Buddhist gompa is lovely.
Next I did an acclimatization hike called Sherpa Villages of Khumbu. (4hrs)
It started with an off-trail scramble up to the quarries of Zarok. Weird and beautiful.
I was keen to see the seldom used airfield above town built specifically for the ill-fated Everest View Hotel. This Japanese project proposed to fly guests into this airstrip at 3800m directly from Kathmandu, using pressurised rooms and piped oxygen to combat altitude sickness. The Hotel was open, but I didn’t see many guests.
Surprisingly, a plane flew in to the Shyangboche airstrip. It unloaded everything, even the wings.
Climbing over a ridge I came upon one of the cleanest, best organized villages in the Khumbu.
Khunde and neighbouring Khumjung were by far the least littered towns I saw. Perhaps it’s the influence of Sir Edmund’s school.
All-in-all this rest day was one of the very best of the entire trip.
I’ll post a photo trip report of my superb 17 day trek in the Everest region of Nepal, over the next 17 days.
The highlight of the day was flying in to Lukla Airport 9,380ft (2,860m), officially named Tenzing-Hillary Airport since 2008.
That landing is enough to get your heart rate up above 200.
The safety statistics are comparatively good for a short takeoff runway. Comparatively good means planes have only crashed 3 times recently, 1991, 2004 and 2008. Everyone was killed except for the pilot in 2008.
(Actually, the taxi ride from Kathmandu to the Airport is likely statistically more dangerous.)
Immediately the mountain views are stunning. Is that Everest?
The mantra out of Lukla is SLOWLY, SLOWLY. It takes some time to acclimatize to the 2800m elevation. We did not walk far day 1.
This elevation is still surprisingly warm and lush considering the date, Nov. 11th, 2009.
A group of us hiking independently (no guide, no porters) stayed together until the village of Phakding. I checked into a room (less than $1 / night) and crashed for the evening without dinner.
When flying over the country recently I studied for almost an hour the impressive mountains of Iran. Big and mostly empty of people.
Alborz Mountain Range, Caspian Sea
That image by Views of the Earth is posted on an excellent website called Iran Nature.
All useful information you need to visit Iran natural and historical attractions and landscapes. Hiking & trekking Iran nature and ecosystem, Iran mountain, valley, and cave, Iran forest and garden, Iran plain and desert, Iran lake, river, spring, and waterfall, Iran protected and wildlife zone, Iran island.
The most popular adventure in Iran is climbing Mount Damavand, the highest peak 5671m (18,605ft). It’s near Tehran.
Personally I’m more interested in hiking opportunities. But I cannot find much information on the web. Leave a comment if you have any advice about trekking in Iran.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has many problems these days. Too many problems to think much about the 3 American hikers who entered Iran illegally, accidentally, from Iraq.
He did say that he hopes the punishment dealt out by the Iranian judge is not too severe.
Any hiker carrying their trash back from the Himalaya to Kathmandu is making a mistake. The capital of Nepal has a worse trash disposal system than either Namche Bazaar or Lukla, in the mountains.
Should we carry trash all the back to our home nation? … Think of the carbon footprint.
As far as I’m concerned, in Nepal it’s best to burn paper in the mountains. Shatter glass into a remote waterfall. Bury metal under a pile of stones.
I did the same in the Andes.
This all contradicts the dictates of the Nepali National Parks.
I’ll try for the most difficult of the “established” treks in the Everest region.
To the seekers of adventure and authenticicity, this is an ultimate trek, that will take you throught the famous three passes of Everest , namely the Renjo La pass, the Cho La pass and the Kongma La pass. It is a trek with unparalled alpine beauty and without doubt the grandest mountain scenery on the world.The highlights of the trek include the Sherpa village of Khumjung, the pristine Gokyo lake, the breathtaking scenery fron the all these passes and the vist to Everest base camp. Unlike other treks in Everest region , this trek makes a loop , hence no tracing back of the route. The good thing about this trek is despite having to cross three passes , you do not require any technical climbing and any person with good fitness and previous trekking experience can complete the trek successfully. …
besthike.com 