GREAT HIMLAYA TRAIL
Section 1, Ghunsa to Thudam (over Lumba Sumba Pass)
Two high passes are ahead of us — Nango La and Lumba Sumba at 17,000 feet. The trail gets wilder and we see no other trekkers.
Snowy passes all to ourselves
It’s a good day off in the sun, a hot shower and doing everything I can to mitigate this nasty cough. We return to the spur up to Nango La and it turns out to be a very short, but incredibly steep, climb.
It’s stairs the entire way with views back to the viewpoint we climbed on our first day of acclimatization. Funny that going up doesn’t give me too many problems. I breathe steadily, pursing my lips to force air out and allowing my lungs to simply work as a bellows and vacuum up the next breath.
It’s when I stop that I cough, almost uncontrollably. But it passes and we arrive at a beautiful karkha or meadow to camp for the night and prepare for our first in a series of high passes.
It’s very steep, but again, short up to the 13,500-foot Nango La or pass. Prayer flags flutter in the breeze and we linger at the low point, some of us (including me with my cough) climb a bit higher for a more expansive view of the steep and snowy climb down.
All of us put on micro spikes and slip-slide down this magnificent valley, eroded by land slides in some places. When we stop for lunch under a hot sun on grass turning amber in the fall coolness, some of us want to stay right here forever.
We can see our tents already set so far below in another unnamed kharka. There’s just enough sunlight to warm ourselves before dinner, which includes chips (French fries!) It is a very long and hard day again as we wend our way steeply down a wiped out ravine to Yangma Khola.
This is the moment of truth where a washed out bridge would mean an enormous detour. We sent one of our guides ahead to check it out. Imagine, he and one porter travel in a day what takes us three!
The bridge is intact over a raging river of glacial melt. But from this lowest spot, it’s another massive climb, this time up an experiment in road-building. There’s a reason Nepal is filled with walking trails rather than roads. Its steepness means most routes are soon wiped out by landslides and impassible.
We are able to walk some of it, but then head up unbelievably steep and narrow switchbacks. I am going well, but my breathing just can’t keep up and I cough uncontrollably. It’s at this point that I am convinced I can’t go on. Ben, our English guide and Bihm. the head guide or Sirdar walk with me and convince me to keep going.
I beg them to let me go home, but they won’t hear of it and push me on. Eventually I make it, reaching the Tibetan-style village of Olangchungola with its cobblestoned walkways, brightly painted wooden houses and farm animals everywhere. We set up tightly in a small garden, then eat inside a smoke-filled guest house. Ben calls a doctor who convinces him to give me antibiotics and hope for the best.
I sleep and wake and set my mind to getting up and over Lumba Sumba Pass. It’s just shy of 17,000 feet and has me freaked out. I have been that high before, many years ago at K2 in Pakistan. But a pass is something else entirely because once you start going, you gotta keep moving up and over without retreating.
We leave the lovely village of Olangchungola, yaks, goats, chickens and one very special black dog walking us up the stone walkway along the river mostly on road. I am absolutely dying and begin weeping. I can’t breath, I’m coughing up a lung, it’s horrible.
Ben and Bihm ease me along as we leave the river and head up into a valley. Somehow I keep going, one step at a time, up and up. It helps that it’s still absolutely spectacular. The colors are chestnut and amber, the sky is a deep cerulean.
Everyone is stopped at a lovely meadow for lunch. I have no idea what comes over me, but I keep moving as mist fills the valley and it gets colder. After one particularly steep climb, I cough so hard, I throw up. But it’s just a reaction to the coughing and I keep going.
We cross a chasm on a very narrow log. Everyone reaches out to ensure I make it safely. We are a pretty darn great team. I forgot to mention that when I reach the high points, usually only about 10-15 minutes after everyone else, they cheer and we all give each other a big hug. I really need that!
We come to a kharka with only a horse-shoe shaped pile of stones. It was intended for us to go higher, but the porters have mutinied. They picked up a resupply in Olangchungola and are at max weight. So we’ll camp here with a longer day over the pass tomorrow.
I’m fine with that and ready to tuck in as a deep chill sets in. I wear all my clothes, use a sleeping bag liner and sleep with a bottle full of boiling water. I have so got this!
Pro tips:
- Bring micro-spikes and gaiters in case you hit snow on the steep passes.
- Just put one foot in front of the other.
- Pack an umbrella for shade and rain/snow/sleet.
- Invest in adventure travel insurance in case you need to be evacuated. A helicopter ride can run in the tens of thousands and you don’t want to be stuck with the bill!
A mountain weasel entertains us on the way to Lumba Sumba.
I would never claim to be a particularly resilient person, or possess a secret ingredient that keeps me moving forward in the face of difficulty. I imagine I’m just stubborn and no matter how much I cry, whine and complain, I keep forcing my body forward.
I feared this pass, but I feel good. One trick is that I continue to take diamox throughout the trip. It’s a diuretic, but I sleep better and manage to handle the rigors of the altitude.
We have a mighty hard climb right out the gate, which I take slowly and steadily. I breathe fine until I stop, then hack and spit. But on we go, hitting very deep snow where our micro-spikes are well used.
Huge puffy clouds billow behind us though Kanchenjunga peaks out from them saying farewell as we press on towards Makalu. It’s a few humps to get to the first set of prayer flags, false summits that can play tricks on anyone’s resolve.
The little black dog scampers ahead knowing we’ll offer up treats along the way. A cute mountain weasel checks us out, protecting his den but bouncing around much to our delight.
We take a short breather at the first summit, then see it’s a traverse to the final up. Ahead, Makalu peaks out, an almost perfect triangle of snow and ice. We’re headed exactly there!
It’s a short celebration at the top, then down out of the wind for lunch and a long slog to yet another kharka. We pass a lovely grassy valley with a stream passing through it, but continue steeply down. It’s already in shadow when we arrive and begins to lightly snow.
I put up my umbrella as we watch the porters arrive, some visibly angry we went so far, throwing down their loads and screaming at the guides. Fortunately tomorrow is a very short day and we’ll end up in a tiny village, so everyone calms down and we quickly set the tents, eat and go to bed.
It is a very easy walk to Thudam, as we enter forest again meet a cobblestone path along a rushing river. Meat dries in strips on the porches of wooden houses, boulders on the roof to keep it in place during the rough winters.
Our cook, Jagatman, is so creative making different meals each day that are nutritious and interesting. I am not entirely sure how he does it, but he makes us a cake with Lumba Sumba spelled out in chocolate. Phil, the oldest member of the group and the one who invited most of the people who came, accepts the honor of cutting it.
The reason becomes clear soon. He’s ill and will be evacuated the next morning. What a shame! But we are really very far from any medical attention and this is a wise course. When we wake in the morning to crystal clear skies and a view straight down the valley to Makalu, a helicopter arrives and whisks him away.
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Section 1, Thudam to Seduwa (reroute due to Cyclone Montha)
We have fabulous weather for Kanchenjunga and the big passes includinh Lumba Sumba, but then we walk straight into a cyclone. It rains for six straight days yet magic appears in unlikely places.