Hank Leukart calls his Without Baggage blog posts “Essays“.
Magazine quality writing. One of my favourite sites.
I’m one of those readers who believes Hank’s secret motto is, “Whoever dies on the craziest, most dangerous adventure, wins,”
This time Hank was frustrated he couldn’t get a permit to hike the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim.
Solution? Do it late December when no sane person would want a permit. Who cares that the North Rim is closed in winter.
Starting at the south rim Bright Angel Trailhead, Hank and his brother couldn’t find the biggest hole in the U.S.A. with both hands. They were lost immediately. Not an auspicious start.
And why not put a Santa Claus suit in with your lightweight winter camping gear?
Why not?
In the end, it turned out that the Santa suit was the best decision they made.
… Early the next morning, Brian puts on the Santa suit and goes to fill his Camelbak with water. A twenty-something-year-old woman interrupts him.
“Santa! Do you mind if I sit on your lap and get a picture?” she asks.
Jotunheimen (English: The Home of the Giants) is a mountainous area of roughly 3,500 km² in Southern Norway. Jotunheimen is a part of the long Scandinavian Mountains range. The 29 highest mountains in Norway are in Jotunheimen, including the very highest – Galdhøpiggen (2469 m). …
The Jotunheimen area contains the Jotunheimen National Park, ….
Jotunheimen is very popular among hikers and climbers, and the Norwegian Mountain Touring Association maintains a number mountain lodges in the area, as well as marked trails between the lodges and to some of the peaks. …
Hikers normally stay in cabins. Some of the popular trails out of Bessheim:
traildatabase.org - click for larger version
What about nearby Rondane?
Rondane National Park
… Rondane is a typical high mountain area, with large plateaus and a total of ten peaks above 2,000 m (6,560 ft). The highest point is Rondeslottet (“The Rondane Castle”) at an altitude of 2,178 m (7,146 ft). The lowest point is just below the tree line, which is approximately 1,000 to 1,100 m (about 3,300 to 3,600 ft) above sea level. The climate is mild but relatively arid.
Apart from the White Birch trees of the lower areas, the soil and rocks are covered by heather and lichen, since they lack nutrients. The largest mountains are almost entirely barren; above 1,500 m (5,000 ft) nothing but the hardiest lichens grow on the bare stones. …
It would be convenient to hike both these National Parks on one trip.
I awoke to this gorgeous view from Gokyo village 4790m (15,715ft).
The brown hill off to the right (in shadow) is Gokyo Ri (5360m). Famed for its view of four 8000m peaks, including Everest.
Here’s the world’s highest mountain from the top:
That’s not my photo. Actually I did not make the ascent because a guide had told me that the view en route to Renjo La, was identical. Renjo La would be the last alpine crossing on my Three Passes of Everest trek.
Instead I waited for the sun to come out while chatting with guests at Gokyo Resort.
The most interesting and entertaining was Doug Benn, Professor of Glaciology, teaching at University of St Andrews, UK and The University Centre in Svalbard, Norway.
This was Doug’s 6th trip to Gokyo. He and a number of researchers were taking measurements on the Ngozumpa Glacier, the largest in Nepal.
Diplomatically, Doug answered my questions about “Climate Change”. Al Gore is not measuring glacial retreat, Doug is.
Doug confirmed that all glaciers are retreating aside from 4 areas of the world. Climate is changing, as it has been changing since the beginning of the Earth. He wouldn’t speculate as to why. Or what could be done about it.
… Glaciers in many parts of the Himalayas have undergone significant shrinkage in the last century in response to climatic warming, which in some areas is occurring faster than the global average. Some of this warming is part of a natural climatic cycle, although over the last 50 years or so probably about half of the warming is attributable to human sources (greenhouse gases) …
Doug’s research was to get hard data on what is happening. His goal was to help people and nations better prepare for that change. He said that in every climate shift some species in some regions are winners, some are losers.
I took a leisurely off-trail hike along the crumbling moraine ridge north towards Tibet. Up to Thonak Tscho 4870m.
This one way side trip is called The Sacred Lakes of Gokyo. Six lakes are sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists.
The next, Ngozumpa Tscho, was groaning and moaning like some distressed beast. Weird. I tried to capture the sound on video, but it didn’t work. It was the sound of ice freezing.
The highlight of the day wasn’t the lakes, but rather my old friend Cho Oyu, the friendliest 8000+m peak. I got as close as I could.
Eleven years ago we did the same thing, walking towards Cho Oyu from the Tibet side. The summit is on the border. For me it was déjà vu all over again.
Two hikers from the U.K. and I walked as far as possible up the glacier, hoping we might even reach Cho Oyu base camp. That turned out to be impossible. Late in the afternoon, the Brits departed with haste, trying to get back to Gokyo before dark.
I stayed to climb this boulder, the obvious viewpoint at the very end of the normal trail. This was as close as you can get to Tibet without descending down to the glacier.
I left a Summit Stone on top. The next hiker to scramble up would find it.
… All day I’d had a feeling I should end this adventure soon. This seemed a suitable finale.
It was night by the time I got back to Gokyo. But by now I was getting used to stumbling into my lodge in the dark.
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).
The Grosser Aletschgletscher, the longest glacier in Europe, has recently been designated a UNESCO world heritage site, in recognition of its importance and uniqueness. And this place is special. The first sight of this awesome phenomenon is something a world apart from those diagrams in geography lessons, because this thing is enormous, ancient and on the move. Not millions of years ago, but now. And right there, from horizon to horizon, not a distant tongue of snow and ice poking over a rock wall.
This hike makes a memorable circuit of the Eggishorn, traversing along the slope above the immense glacier, before looping back to take in Southward-looking vistas of the Monte Rosa range and the Matterhorn. It’s a relatively flat walk too, with not much climbing required at all. …
It’s from an excellent trip report of a 6 days, 95km trek through Corsica in May.
That’s the Trailblaze blog edited by Johannes Huwe, posted in both German and English.
Though snow has been rare on the island since 1979 (presumably due to climate change) the group had significant problems with snow and melt water in 2009.
SummitJunkie posted a good trip report and photos from an April 9, 2009 summit of the best hike in Death Valley, California.
… The views were jaw dropping, perhaps some of the best I had seen on any peak I have ever climbed. You can see forever, there is nothing as high as you are for over a hundred miles. Absolutely amazing!!
I had to take my time with the pictures, my hands were freezing. I was also having problems with my camera, when the batteries get too cold they stop working. I had the same issue on Shasta and Whitney so knew the solution was to put the camera and batteries inside my jacket to keep them at operating temperature. So between switching hands and batteries, it took me 15 minutes to take these summit pictures. …
besthike.com 