Dhaulagiri Trek
October 2007
by Philip Draper
Twenty one members of the Club, supported by some 60 sherpas, cooks. and porters, enjoyed an eventful and memorable trek round Dhaulagiri in October 2007. This relatively new trek passes round the west side of the mountain, through very remote and uninhabited country and over two high passes. One website describes the terrain as 'only slightly less hospitable than Mars', but that is perhaps an exaggeration.
Excitement began on the journey to the start. A broken down bus had completely blocked the road but a remarkable arrangement of swapped transport from either side of the obstruction allowed the route to be completed. The first few days of trekking used dirt roads and good paths through intensively cultivated country and numerous villages. Then paths became narrow, and wound over stones and tree roots, through deep gorges clad in dense vegetation, past many waterfalls and over bridges that might be described as inventive. It was hot in the daytime, and tended to rain in the late afternoon and at night, which made the paths slippery and encouraged the leeches. The rain was unexpected, because the weather is normally stable in October. This year the monsoon had been late arriving and seemed reluctant to go away completely. Rain at night did not really matter much in the gorges, though the consequences of continuing poor weather later on presented us with a considerable problem.
Eventually, after passing through rhododendron, pine and bamboo forests, we came out into alpine grassland and reached the first of the numerous Dhaulagiri base camps at 3700m. My map marks five base camps, mostly named after the nationalities who first used the sites, and there are certainly more. From our campsite at Italian base camp we descended 100m of near vertical moraine before crossing beneath the end of a glacier, then walking for an hour or more beside a stream in a wide gorge before winding up moraine ridges on a dry glacier to reach Japanese base camp on the moraine. Happily, earlier users at the site had flattened out some areas of stones to allow tents to be pitched comfortably.
During the night and for most of the following day it snowed and we were confined to camp, with the loss of one of our spare days. This was unfortunate as apart from making the going much slower and harder; the possibility was that poor weather or deep snow could trap us in the 'Hidden Valley' between the high passes. Also the snow made things very hard for the porters who normally walk in flip-flops. On low level treks they either sleep out or find local accommodation. Wilderness Experience, our trekking agency, had provided them with warm clothes and boots and had brought a tent for them to sleep in but they were vulnerable.
Happily, the following days were brilliantly, even hazardously, sunny. Several sherpas, indefatigable people who seem capable of indefinite exertion at high altitude, broke track and we moved over glacier and moraine through amazing mountain scenery dominated by the west face of Dhaulagiri, first to Dhaulagiri base camp 4800m and on the next day over French Pass 5360m into the Hidden Valley, which rather resembled a high Scottish glen under winter conditions. This was perhaps our most uncomfortable camp, on deep snow at low temperatures; -21°C inside the tent was recorded.
The problem with Hidden Valley is that apart from being a notoriously cold place at about 5200m it is rather featureless, and navigation is difficult in white-out conditions, which are not uncommon. Escape down the valley is impractical so one has to cross either of two high passes to get out. The plan had been to spend two nights there and to climb Dhampus peak 6035m on the intervening day, but this was abandoned since the soft fresh snow would have made the trip impossibly long and because it was important to cross the pass in clear conditions and continue with the trek. So we crossed Dhampus Pass 5258m and after an interminable high level traverse in deep snow and a final exhilarating descent down zig-zags on firm ground, at last we reached safety at Yak Kharka at about 3800m. The curious name refers to a temporary, summer grazing place for yaks.
After a steep descent through scrub and forest to Marpha, famous for apples and apple brandy, we followed the route of the Annapurna circuit back to the road. Notable points were the gorge scenery, a prolonged soak in the hot springs at Tatopani, the 1600m re-ascent to Ghorepani, a 360° panorama of snow-peaks, including Dhaulagiri and Annapurna, from Poon Hill, the estimated 4000 stone steps down to Hille and finally the enjoyable distribution of spare kit and tips and after dinner sing-song with enthusiastic dancing by the sherpas and trekkers.
Such treks take a lot of organisation. We are extremely grateful to George and Margaret for meticulous planning, to Ang Phurba, our Sirdar and part-owner of Wilderness Experience, who seems to be able to organise anything in Nepal with no apparent effort, to our remarkable cook 'BM', who can cook anything (pizzas, cakes) on a primus stove, to the sherpas who never seem to run out of energy, to the porters with their enormous loads and to three members of the party who nobly supplemented the first-aid services provided by Wilderness Experience with their knowledge of medicine, dentistry and nursing.
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Last updated: 20 March 2008