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Kuari Pass trek – day 3

by site editor Rick McCharles

day 0 | day 1 | day 2 | day 3 | day 4 | day 5 | day 6

A highlight of this guided trip was the food. Here’s our chef, Kumar, who cooks inside with headlamp.

Kumar the cook - Kuari day 3

He’s from Nepal. But has cooked all over the Himalaya, including Ladahk.

One of the mule drivers cooked up Chapattis in the fire, fluffing them right in the ash.

chipattis - Kuari day 3

Another treat was our hot water wash-up every morning.

Kuari day 3

We began to get glimpses of snowy peaks.

Kuari day 3-2

Some of the most prosperous villages use slate roofing.

slate roof - Kuari day 3

This woman was separating seeds from chaff.

ridding the chaff - Kuari day 3

Another was separating beans.

sorting beans - Kuari day 3

Chilli peppers grow well here. As does seemingly everything.

chilis - Kuari day 3

Kuari day 3-4

Quality of bridge and road construction seems superior to that of Nepal and Tibet.

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That bridge is maybe 200m high.

Kuari day 3-8

The scale of everything in the Himalayas is deceptive.

electricity does not work - Kuari day 3

People here want roads and electricity. The power lines are often out-of-service, however.

To this point, we’d seen less wildlife than I hoped.

lizards - Kuari day 3

The trees are grand, however.

Kuari day 3-9

Kuari day 3-11

Kuari day 3-10

And we did see one troop of Gray Langur monkeys in the wild. We’d seen hundreds in Rishikesh, of course.

first monkeys - Kuari day 3

Here’s a rarer sighting. A house cat.

house cat - Kuari day 3

We mostly spent time with farm animals.

Kuari day 3-15

Kuari day 3-14

My favourite of the crops was this gorgeous red grain, just ready for harvest.

Kuari day 3-13

Kuari day 3-12

We again had some rain late afternoon.

rainbow - Kuari day 3

Nights were always clear. Stars and Milky Way super sharp until moon rise.

Kuari day 3-16

See all high resolution photos from this day.

day 0 | day 1 | day 2 | day 3 | day 4 | day 5 | day 6

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Kuari Pass trek – day 2

by site editor Rick McCharles

day 0 | day 1 | day 2 | day 3 | day 4 | day 5 | day 6

Packing up next morning I was surprised to find that we’d added 2 more pack animals. They carried feed for our 4 mules.

Kuari day 2-2

Kuari day 2

So two helpless “Sahibs” needed an Expedition Team of 4 men (guide, cook, 2 mule drivers). A minimum of 4 beasts. This morning, 6 beasts.

To walk.

Dogs hang about Camps waiting on the compost.

Kuari day 2-3

Seems they’ll eat anything except citrus peel and onions.

Up and up.

Kuari day 2-4

We passed many villages. All seemingly prosperous and well maintained.

Kuari day 2-5

Grazing is critical. Stone fences seem to demarcate who grazes where. But I’m not sure those boundaries are often contested.

Kuari day 2-6

We saw a number of the great birds of India.

The Bearded Vulture (Lammergeier) soared above and below us for much of the trip.

Kuari day 1-4

Our guide urged us to drink as much water as possible as we acclimatized to altitude.

Kuari day 2-8

On arrival at our night’s Camp we were surprised by a freak hail storm.

Kuari day 2-10

Kuari day 2-12

The larger 2-man, 4-season tent was provided by Red Chilli.

But I used my own 1-man tent instead. Alf got the Tent Mahal for himself. 🙂

Kuari day 2-11

We Sahibs read in our tents while our Team got a fire started with wet wood.

Kuari day 2-13

You’ve got to be ready for anything in the Himalaya.

Kuari day 2-14

See all high resolution photos from this day.

day 0 | day 1 | day 2 | day 3 | day 4 | day 5 | day 6

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Kuari Pass trek – day 1

by site editor Rick McCharles

day 0 | day 1 | day 2 | day 3 | day 4 | day 5 | day 6

Excited to get started, the day broke clear as it did every day. October through December are normally the clearest skies for hiking.

Kuari day 1

Rivers are major obstacles in the Himalaya. Many bridges are being “improved”.

Kuari day 1-2

We stopped for Chai at a lovely village, friends of our guide.

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Kuari day 1-9

Kuari day 1-10

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Women work hard in the mountains. It’s almost impossible to find one resting at any given moment.

Kuari day 1-12

Kuari day 1-5

Foreigners are regular visitors at this home. The ladies tried to convince this little one that we were friendly.

Kuari day 1-11

We chatted with two young women home for the Soy bean harvest. One had a Bachelor of Arts. The other was in first year University.

Our guide, Anil Panwar, insisted that the men of the Himalaya work hard, as well. But I wasn’t convinced.

Kuari day 1-13

We set Camp next to a school.

Kuari day 1-14

Kuari day 1-15

A Saturday, exams had just finished. The kids had Dhal Bhat for lunch. Then most ran off home.

Several hung around to play. Anil led them in some Yoga.

Kuari day 2-2

Kuari day 2-3

There are many things the mountain people don’t understand about foreigners.

Kuari day 2

For example, why do white men need a “toilet tent”?

Kuari day 1-16

Embarrassed at the extravagance, that was the only campsite we used it.

See all high resolution photos from this day.

day 0 | day 1 | day 2 | day 3 | day 4 | day 5 | day 6

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Kuari Pass trek – day 0

by site editor Rick McCharles

day 0 | day 1 | day 2 | day 3 | day 4 | day 5 | day 6

The trek over the Kuari (“doorway“) Pass in the Indian Himalaya was the route followed by Shipton and Tilman and other early mountaineers en route to the peaks on the Indo-Tibetan border.

It is also called the Curzon Trail as the famous former Viceroy of India traveled this route in 1905. (Some say Curzon abandoned that adventure after being attacked by wild bees.)

Frank Smythe:

“We breasted the slope and halted, silent on the path. No words would express our delight. The Himalayas were arrayed before us in a stupendous arc“. (1931)

The tag line for Kuari is “best mountain vista in the Himalayas“.

Kuari panorama

Click over to kuaripass.co.uk to see the entire panorama, the best I’ve seen online. 7000m peaks are lined up like soldiers for your inspection.

Kuari, as well, is one of the best two treks for those, like me, who want to see famed, mysterious Nandi Devi. Not quite visible from the Pass.

Nanda Devi

This is Arnaldur Indridason from Norway.

Kuari day 5

Call him Alf.

Alf and I both signed on separately for the Kuari Trek with Red Chilli Adventure out of Rishikesh. (trip details PDF)

Red Chilli’s Vipin Sharma returned our emails. Gave us clear answers and specific prices. That’s a very professional company.

Cost $600 each for 2 hikers. (Price drops up to a maximum of 10 hikers.)

• 82km over 6 days of hiking
• 8 days all inclusive (Oct 18-25, 2013)
• 34,000 rupees + 3.1% because I paid with credit card
• tips to 2 drivers, 2 mule drivers, cook and guide

Animal trackers, gun bearers and skinners are extra. 😦

Note: Lonely Planet recommends this hike in the opposite direction. LP got that WRONG. There’s not one single reason to start in Joshimath. Especially if you are not acclimatized to altitude.

We wisely started at Ghat 1330m, slowly and steadily working our way up to over 3500m.

Alf and I did not meet until the morning of departure. Always a gamble, it turned out that Alf and I had many common interests. We were both travellers. Both hikers. We’d both done Milford Track in New Zealand and Huayhuash in Peru, for example.

Red Chili provided an excellent vehicle and a safe driver for the 8hr trip up into the Himalayan foothills.

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I stayed awake for almost all of that. There are many interesting sites en route.

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Well past monsoon, the roads were in good repair. We had no delay longer than a few minutes.

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It’s rare to find a valley in the Indian Himalayas without people. During the trip we bought last minute provisions at roadside villages.

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It began to rain as we arrived at our trailhead campsite.

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First order of business in all things India is … Chai.

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This fellow needed to climb to turn on the Village electricity for the evening.

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Road repair and animal grazing. Those seem to be the two main industries in roadside Himalayan villages.

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The youngest babies rode along on mules.

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So far, so good … 🙂

See all high resolution photos from this day.

day 0 | day 1 | day 2 | day 3 | day 4 | day 5 | day 6

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The Empty Quarter – Trailer

Alastair Humphreys:

Wilfred Thesiger was one of my heroes. It was his books who inspired me to join (very briefly!) his old Boxing Club at university. They encouraged me to think ambitiously but simply about making big journeys. And when he died (I was cycling through South America at the time), I felt sad that I never had the opportunity to meet him.

Thesiger pushed himself hard to test himself. He lived ascetically, and scorned modern convenience, speed and luxury. The harder the life, he believed, the finer the person. His prose is simple and measured, thoughtful and honest. His photography was superb, particularly when you consider that he took fewer photographs in an entire expedition than I do on a single day. Thesiger “had the man’s courage to live out the boy’s dream.” And ever since I read Arabian Sands, I have dreamed of one day making a journey in Thesiger’s footsteps.

So Leon McCarron and I walked 1000 miles across the Arabian Peninsula, inspired by the spirit of Thesiger’s own expeditions in the Rub ‘al Khali desert, the Empty Quarter.

“Into The Empty Quarter” will tell the story of our journey.

Release date: Autumn 2013.

intotheemptyquarter.com

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

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Kuari Pass Trek, India

Of many problematic, imperfect options in the Indian Himalaya (end of October), looks like I will sign on for a guided hike with Red Chilli Adventures out of Rishikesh.

The trek over the Kuari (“doorway“) Pass was the route followed by Shipton and Tilman and other mountaineers en route to the peaks on the Indo-Tibetan border. It is also called the Curzon Trail as the famous former Viceroy of India also traveled this route in 1905.(Some say Curzon abandoned that adventure after being attacked by wild bees.)

Frank Smythe:

“We breasted the slope and halted, silent on the path. No words would express our delight. The Himalayas were arrayed before us in a stupendous arc“. (1931)

Dunagiri from Kuari Pass

Cost is about $600 for this 8 day itinerary – Kuari Pass (PDF)

Because myself and the other client are not acclimatized to altitude, we’ll start low. Climb up to see the second highest mountain in India, Nandi Devi.

We start Oct 18th. Red Chili is the #1 trekking agency in Rishikesh. This is their #1 trek for international visitors.

Trip reports:
• Araib Hasan
• Orange Rucksack

See photos on flickr tagged “Kuari”

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TrekkingPartners.com

Founded in October of 2010 in Kathmandu, TrekkingPartners helps people find like-minded partners for their outdoor activities.

People can post a trip for others to join or join someone else’s, whether it be hiking in the mountains or biking across the country.

TrekkingPartners helps people share costs, promotes safety, and find a companion to share the adventure with.

Trips are listed from all over the world. But Himalayan adventures are front and centre.

They have about 2000 members.

I’m #2001, having just joined. 🙂

Trekking Partners

Check out TrekkingPartners.com.

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Manaslu Circuit Teahouse Trek

Nepali Times is reporting that the entire Manaslu Circuit can now be done without a tent:

… The Manaslu Circuit Trek, which actually circumnavigates Manaslu (8,163m), is fast gaining popularity as an alternative to the beaten trails of Everest and Annapurna. It is touted to be the new jewel in the crown of Himalayan trekking and for good reason too.

For one, we thoroughly enjoyed the diversity of terrain that we traversed. After a bumpy jeep ride on mud and rock-laden tracks from Dhadingbesi to the start of the trail at Arughat, we hiked valleys with the roaring Budhi Gandaki as a constant companion, through primeval rainforests, before emerging into the barren sub-alpine terrain on the approach to Larke La (5,135m), while in the shadow of Annapurna, Ganesh Himal, and Manaslu. …

read more …

Internet has come to Manaslu. Reports are that it’s now working.

WiFi

That’s good and bad, of course. But I did enjoy being able to keep in touch while trekking the Everest region.

I could be in Nepal in November, prime trekking season.

As I understand it, a Restricted Area Permit: US$ 50 per week through a registered trekking agent is required. Minimum 2 people. With 1 guide.

Also:

• Manaslu Conservation Area Project (MCAP) permit: NRs. 2,000 (approx 20 Euro or US$30)

• Annapurna Conservation Area Project (MCAP) permit: NRs. 2,000 (approx 20 Euro or US$30)

I’ll check all that on the ground in Nepal. I’d prefer an independent trek.