Annapurna And The Langtang Nepal 1990
Paul Glendenning
I went to Nepal with a friend from the mountaineering club at university. We had no clear objectives and hoped to team up with some people to climb a trekking peak when we got to Kathmandu. Apart from an obscure Irishman who ducked out at the last minute we didn’t find anyone willing to accompany us with similar ambitions. However, we had a great two months trekking and climbing, including Yala Peak (5500m) in the Langtang valley.
15th Oct – 6th Nov : The Annapurna Circuit & Annapurna Sanctuary.
A truck took us from Dumre on the Kathmandu-Pokhara road up to a village called Bhote Odar. The mud was in some places about 3 feet deep, the truck was overflowing with bodies (mostly alive I think) and it kept breaking down. Five hours after setting off we reached the village in the dark. The first five days walking are along beautiful green valleys with spectacular rivers and the occasional glimpse of the high mountains. It was warm and at least for the first 2 or 3 days we were walking in shorts and T-shirts. We carried all our own gear and stayed at Nepali lodges or “tea houses” along the way. On 21st October we reached Pisang (3000m).
Our stay at Pisang was one of the morememorable nights of accommodation.Our room had a hole in the floordropping into a cattle shed and thewindow (very small) had no glass in it.However, the view out of the windowof Annapurna was superb. We ateour evening meal of dhaal bhaat (rice & lentils) by the light of a small wood-burning stove whilst we sat cross-legged on stools about 6″ high. Thesmoke from the stove went out througha hole in the roof and the meal wascooked by an old Nepali woman whileher husband listenedto a battered-looking transistorradio and tried tosell us some “lucky-buddhas” which he said were carved out of Yak bone.
The following day we took the high route along the side of the valley to Manang (3500m).
After a day acclimatising at Manang (during which we went for a walk up a ridge above a nearby small lake to gain some altitude) we headed on up the valley to Phedi (about 4000m). The lodge at Phedi was chaos, overcrowded with trekkers and porters, and a place we were pleased to leave early next morning to climb up to the Thorung La pass. The porters all wanted to leave at 3 am to reach the pass before it got windy. This didn’t go down well with the rest of us and in the end the two of us set of walking at about 5 o’clock.
We reached the top of the pass (5400m) at 10.30am and descended to Muktinath on the other side. There are a couple of peaks you can climb from the top of the pass if you feel like humping your snow & ice gear up there. At Muktinath a day was wasted while I was violently ill with Giardia but the next day we made it to Jomsom where I could see an Indian doctor.
On November 2nd we bivouacked on top of Poon Hill (about 3000 m) from where we watched sunset and sunrise on the Annapurnas. By now it was quite cold at night and I had to shake the ice out of my bivouack bag in the morning.
From Gorepani (near Poon Hill) we cut across to Chomrong on the Annapurna Sanctuary trail. After about 18 days trekking we were now feeling very fit and we made it to the Sanctuary in three days. This is a slightly steeper and narrower trail than the walk round the Circuit and cuts through a green valley with bamboo forest to come out at Machhapuchhre base camp and Annapurna base camp a couple of hours beyond. We didn’t stay in the Sanctuary but in a lodge at Machhapuchhre base camp. Although you can now buy chocolate cake at a lodge in the Annapurna Sanctuary (sad but true) in early November the sun goes down at 3pm and the temperature plummets.
16th Nov – 6th Dec : The Langtang valley and Yala Peak
The Langtang is different in character to the Annapurna area; less green and more rocky. We hired a porter for this trip as we had a tent, rope, ice axes, plastic boots and crampons to carry. He carried all this and wanted more.
Three or four days took us to Kyangjin Gompa (3800m), the end of the trail for most trekkers, where we stayed in a lodge called “Hotel Yala Peak”. The plan was to base ourselves there for ten days or so and to explore up the valley possibly climbing something in the process.
On the 23rd November we camped at Yala (about 4600m) intending to climb Yala Peak in the morning. Yala is a small group of empty Yak huts. The view of the fluted snow face of Ganchempo from the tent was beautiful. By now it was very cold – the best way to secure tent pegs in the loose earth there was to pour water over them so that they froze in place.
The next day we were both suffering from altitude symptoms and spent the day exploring the area above the camp. On the following morning it was all we could do to carry our gear back down to the lodge. (Our porter, Ram, had helped us carry our equipment to the camp site and then returned to the lodge where he was helping with the cooking.)
Back at the lodge, the news that Margaret Thatcher had resigned finally filtered through to the top of the Langtang valley and we ordered some beer to celebrate along with another English bloke.
Two hills near to Kyangjin Gompa were useful for acclimatising. One is near the airstrip and the other is nearer to the lodges. Both are around 4500-5000m.
A day or two later we made another trip up the valley and camped near the head of the valley at Pagari Goldum and lower down at Langshisa. From Pagari Goldum we went for walks further up towards the Tibetan border alongside the Langtang glacier and up the moraines above. The area is very spectacular with several peaks in the 7000m range and a number of steep-looking glaciers. There was no habitation, just the occasional empty or ruined Yak hut. The only other living creatures that we saw were some small furry rodents.
On 1st December we returned to Yala and camped higher up on a flat grassy area next to a frozen pond just below the moraines. We climbed Yala Peak (5500m) on 2nd December setting off at 7am. After some boulder scrambling up moraine it is a walk up a glacier followed by a 40° snow slope to the summit ridge. We were on the top at 11.15 and back down by 2 o’clock, greeted by Ram who had come to meet us with a chocolate cake in a carrier bag. We’d asked him to order one for us at the lodge as a celebration but hadn’t intended him to carry it up there!