Mother of the Universe

"Everest" by Nicholas Roerich, 1938

This is the first of several retro posts from when I lived in South Asia. I just had my slides digitized. The remarks are directly from my journals and I've tried not to alter them too much. Enjoy

May 1, Patna, Bihar (167' elevation)
My trip to Nepal began with a rough start. I took a train from Delhi to Patna in the state of Bihar, India. From there, I was to catch a plane to Kathmandu. The train ride was OK; air conditioned, 1st Class. I shared my compartment with 4 brothers from Assam who went to school in Delhi, and a large woman in pink salwar kameez with beautiful eyes and 3 daughters. We played a lot of cards. The train stopped frequently which worried me, because I had the plane to catch. Bihar was dry and brown compared to the lush green outside of Calcutta where I'd recently visited. One of the Assam boys called the train a bullock cart because of its slow pace. At some point I realized that there was no way I was going to make my flight, but that foreknowledge didn't stop me from bursting into tears when I arrived at the airport just in time to see my plane take off. The next plane wasn't leaving for 4 days and the only alternative was to travel to the Katmandu via bus.

The ride up to Katmandu was great, but long. Extremely windy of course. It's amazing we didn't plummet to our deaths. There were no safety barriers on the tight turns as we saw the plains of India descending farther and farther below. We encountered a typhoon on the way and the bus had to pull over several times as gusts reached 70 mph. Most of the route followed a river. Lower Nepal is called the Terai. It's very jungly. The jungle used to be so thick with mosquitoes that humans couldn't even live there until DDT was developed.

As we ascended in altitude the large foothills (mountains in other parts of the world) varied in color - patches of rice and corn were green while others were dry. The meticulous terracing gave them a kind of psychedelic look.

May 4, Kathmandu (6235')
By the time I arrived in Kathmandu I'd only had 3-hours of sleep, but decided to go for a walk. Turned out that it was Lord Buddha's birthday and the entire city was celebrating. I bumped into friends from Berkley -it was a little ridiculous.

Kathmandu

May 7, Lukla (9380')
From Kathmandu I flew to Lukla where everyone starts their voyage into the Everest region. In Nepal, Mt. Everest is called Sagarmatha, Mother of the Universe.

Lukla Airport

May 8, Namche Bazaar (11,286')
I finally made it, but with a slight headache, made worse after drinking 2 glasses of chung, a local brew made of fermented rice. After landing in Lukla I arrived at a village right before the steep climb to Namche. I was pretty exhausted because my pack was very heavy. I stayed in a little hotel that was nothing more than a big wooden room with a few wooden beds. There were holes in the roof and in the walls and you could hear the wind blow like it was right next to you. Right outside was the Dhude Kosi, a beautiful river of milky aquamarine and freezing cold. Its roar could be heard constantly. No electricity. Ate by candle light. Nothing but potatoes and rice. The 2000 foot climb to Namche wasn't that bad. I did it in 2.5 hours. About half way up I got a great view of Everest.

I needed to hang out for a few days to get used to the altitude. Up here there is no end to stories of super athletes succumbing to altitude sickness. I took a walk North of Namche to a village called Kunde. The view looking down on horse-shoe shaped Namche was great. I passed another airport at 12,000' and saw some rhododendrons in bloom - they comprised an entire forest at this elevation. The clouds blew wildly and every once in a while I would get a glimpse of a magnificent peak. I found it hard to walk because there was so much to look at.

Namche Bazaar

Kunde (12,600') is a small village between some huge mountains; a maze of stone walls and houses of the same color, blending everything together into a monochrome landscape. It looked nearly deserted and I realized that if I didn't ask someone for chai, I was not likely to interact with any of the locals. I found several women at a well collecting water in large plastic containers - square 5 gallon gasoline cans. They would carry them on their backs with a rope running around the bottom of the container to the top of their heads. I asked one of them if chai was available and after a small bit of confusion, one woman asked me to follow her. We walked to her house, through a room that was obviously where the animals slept, up ladder-like stairs, to what seemed typical Sherpa architecture; one large "living room" with bed/seats along the walls and a black from soot kitchen. We walked into the kitchen, equipped with woodburning stove, plates lined against the wall and a large can of Nescafe. There was a very old man sitting there. He put on his thick coke bottle glasses and he looked like the most ancient of Tibetan characters. We sipped chai together. Shortly thereafter, 2 visitors arrived; an old man with beautiful light eyes and a younger boy. The man was none other than Khunjo Chumbi, who traveled the world with Sir Edmund Hillary and the infamous Yeti skull. He was wearing his Tibetan garb, cowboy hat and turquoise earrings. He was collecting money for the annual monk reading of holy books. He told me that if I stopped by the monastery next day in Khumjung and he would show me the skull.

Village of Kunde

Khunjo Chumbi, who traveled the world with Sir Edmund Hillary and the infamous Yeti skull

Khunjo Chumbi's wife. Notice her necklace made of Dzi beads and coral

The infamous Yeti skull

Walked to Khumjung (12,475') where Sir Edmund Hillary set up a school for the Sherpa kids.


Every village path is lined with prayers carved in rocks; Om Mani Padme Hum.

"Stronghold of the Spirit" Nicholas Roerich

May 11
I woke up with a bad earache. I'd had a sore throat earlier and ignored it. I took ampicillen, codine, Tylenol and Actifed. By the time everything started working I felt OK. I headed for Dole. Had lunch half way at a funky tea shop run by a grandma and daughter with baby. It was a little gross because the grandmother would drink some chai and then spit it into the baby's mouth. No such thing as baby bottles. The weather was cold and it started raining. It was very foggy all day and I couldn't see anything.

May 12,Dole (13,400')
The didi (big sister) who ran the lodge where I stayed was a little crazy - anyone would have to be to live up here 9 months of the year. The Sherpa bring their tzo (a cow-yak) to graze up in this high mountain region during the summer, but it's the trekking season that causes them to stay so long. Trekkers and mountaineering expeditions mean income for the Sherpa who feed and house everyone. All day long Dole didi would truck back and forth for wood and water, singing and whistling the whole time.

Didi from Dole

Sherpa Children - you can see everything needed for catering to trekkers in the background. The large pot is used for boiling potatoes and the large plastic jug is for hauling water.


Gokyo Lake (14,400')

May 14
Me on Gokyo Ridge (17,600'). Cho Oyu (Tibet) in the background (6th largest mountain in the world). I stayed up for about an hour and got a huge headache.

Mt. Everest (29,035')
Sagarmatha (Nepal)
Chomolungma (Tibet)
This was taken from Goyko Ridge and you can see the Ngozumpa glacier in the foreground.


Village of Machermo (13,200')

Ngozumpa, the longest glacier in Nepal. Jobo Lhaptshan (21,128') is in the distance

May 16
Yesterday I crossed the Ngozumpa glacier and today I climbed over the Chola Pass (16,260'). It was the most physically stressful thing I did in my entire life. The altitude takes such an enormous toll on your body so that climbing (nearly straight up at the top) requires a rest after ever step. From the base of the pass it took 2 hours to get to the top. I hired a Sherpa guide, Lukba to help me cross it and if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have even found it. The bottom of the pass was a giant boulder field and then the rocks got smaller as we climbed up. The top was covered with a snow mound that was a few hundred feet high - we must have climbed alongside it in the rocks. Time slowed down to a standstill and then went backwards a bit. Every minute was like a lifetime. The top of the pass was a giant snow field covering unseen crevasses. Crossing this section was much more dangerous than climbing the pass and I don't think I was a happy camper...

Chola Pass (above the rust-colored band in the rock)

Crossing the snow field at the top of Chola Pass

...until I saw the view from the other side. There was Ama Dablam (22,349') in all her glory.

Nicholas Roerich, 1937

My sexy life. Having spent the last 12 months in sweltering India, I had no warm clothes when I arrived in Nepal. I had to piece together a few things that I found; Salwaar pants, a man's long-sleeve shirt, warm-up jacket, wool hat, gloves & scarf (super itchy) and an umbrella hanging off the back of my shirt to protect me from "brain fry"- the result of spending time at high altitude. I swore I could feel the radiation (and lowered oxygen) deleting brain cells. When I got back to Kathmandu I traded the jacket for a really cool Tibetan purse that I used until it ceased to exist.

Tribute to climbers who died climbing Ama Dablam

"Black Gobi", Nicholas Roerich, 1929

May 18, Kala Pattar (18,513')
Climbed to the top of Kala Pattar today. It took 3 hours. By the time I got to the top it was snowing, but I was still able to get some great shots of the Mother of the Universe. I stayed up for about an hour. Notice the Khumbu (Everest) glacier at the base of the mountain. It's basically giant upside-down ice pinnacles. Many climbers consider crossing the glacier as the most dangerous part of the Everest climb. My friend Robin crossed the glacier to visit some American climbers at base camp then left late and (without a jacket) and ended up spending a sub-freezing night on the glacier, lost, digging holes to stay warm. When I saw her she had some frost bite on her nose but was otherwise OK.

Everest and Nuptse (25,270') from Kala Pattar

May 21, Chhukung (15,518')
Today woke up to a couple of inches of snow. Didn't go anywhere. Tomorrow, no matter what, I'll be in Pangboche (13,200'). I'm looking forward to being downhill, although I've been told that once down there I'll wish I was back up here in the mountains. It would be better if the weather was sunny and warm. It's so cold that it's too painful to wash my hands and face. I haven't had a proper shower in 2 weeks. At least my ear isn't giving me as much trouble as it did. Been thinking a lot about food. Just about all I've eaten is potatoes, rice, flour, eggs. Just this afternoon I vowed to never be a vegetarian again. I could really go for a roast beef sandwhich.

May 23, Thayanboche (12,500')
This is my second day at Thyangboche Monestary. I didn't have any luck getting weather good enough to climb the Chhukung Ridge during the day for a view of the huge ice wall that runs between Nuptse (25,790') and Lhotse (27,240'). But on the last night, just at sunset, the clouds parted enough for me to everything, including Ama Dablam. There were no spectacular views on the way here - too cloudy - but there was something else equally wonderful - a lush green rhodadendron forest.

Rhodadendron forest and tzo, a yak-cow hybrid

I arrived here during a cloudy afternoon and took a photo of a beautiful stupa:


This is what it looked like the next morning:

Thangboche Monestary where I heard a yeti in the middle of the night

I think had a yeti experience. I was sleeping in a room full of beds. It was the dead middle of the night and everyone was sound asleep. From out of nowhere I heard a large thud, like someone with a really big footprint, followed by the sound of it dragging something really heavy; Thud (pause) drag (pause) Thud (pause) drag (pause). The sound kept going until it was so far in the distance that I couldn't hear it any longer. Other than this commotion, you could have heard a pin drop. No one stirred but me, and I was too scared to look out the window. It must have been a yeti.

Namche Market
I arrived back in Namche Baazar in time for it's weekly market where Sherpa and low-landers come to buy/sell/trade goods.






June 3, Lukla Airport (9380')
I've been here for 3 days. The fog makes it impossible for planes to land. I read most of Journey to Ladakh by Andrew Harvey. He got a little boring and self-righteous toward the end. Also read The Beans of Egypt, Maine. One day I took a nice walk up a ridge behind Lukla. I sat on a large rock in a stream for a while. I started playing with the waterfalls - daming them with small rocks so that the water would fall in greater quantity somewhere else. An old Sherpa man walked slowly up the path, watching me very suspeciously. He hid behind a bush and watched. I think he moved all the rocks back to their original position after I left. The group of us staying at the Buddha Lodge became close in a way. We put up with each other well; read, went for walks, and every afternoon we'd hike down the runway to Sherpa Co-op Lodge for fresh cinnamon rolls with butter and raisins - the best part of the day! Every morning we'd wake up to unbearably cloudy weather and strain our eyes to see the hills on the other side of the valley - a sign of hope that the plane would come. We'd joke; "Look, it's clearning enough to see the clouds!". On the 29th it was pretty clear and everyone thought the planes would come but the control tower said that the planes were committed elsewhere. Some foreigners actually went up there with rocks in their hands to confront the control tower because they were so angry.

Here's a map of the Khumbu region and my trail in red:



Here also is an excellent map of the region:
http://www.evk2cnr.org/it/node/290?res=original