This Article first appeared in
AAC(UK) Newsletter 170
published Summer 2006
[Return to Index of Meet Reports]
All photos by George Taylor.
Yaks at Arye on the way up to Nangpa La
High camp below Nangpa La
Short break, with Everest in the background and Nuptse just in front
Returning from Cho Oyu Base Camp
with Cho Oyu in the background
Crossing the Cho La
with Lobuche East in the background
Climbing Lobuche Easte
(in the background)
Summit party on Lobuche East
Summit group at Base Camp after successful ascent
with Lobuche East in the background
Last updated: 11 July 2008
Solu Khumbu Trek
by John Vernon
In autumn 2005, a party of 17, led by George and Margaret Taylor, trekked for 23 days through the Solu Khumbu. We spent 16 consecutive days and very cold nights above 4000m, and made a cumulative height gain of about 16 kilometres!
We reached Thame in 4 days after leaving Kathmandu. The Maoist rebels had opportunely declared a 3-month cease-fire, which included the period of our trip, so the heavy military presence to safeguard the airstrip at Lukla was probably as unnecessary as it was unwelcome. Trekking is apparently still booming, to judge from the constant background sound of clinking of stone chisels as new lodges are built in Namche. From there, during an acclimatisation day, we visited the villages of Khumjung and Khunde, where we saw the secondary school and the hospital established by the Hilary Himalayan Trust. At Thame we camped in rain, (the only bad weather during the whole trek), outside the Everest Summiteer lodge of Apu Sherpa, a friendly and unassuming man, who currently holds the record of 15 successful Everest ascents.
The long valley heading north from Thame towards the Nangpa La on the Tibetan border has only recently been opened to trekking groups, but the route was busy with Tibetan traders and their yaks, bringing Chinese made goods to the market in Namche. About a hundred yaks passed by our camp at Tarnga and later, crossing a steep scree slope, we were stuck in a 'contraflow', as about 300 were coming up the valley. We also passed many places where yaks and traders had rested for the night and the animals were being loaded again for the march. More concerning was the sight of Tibetan refugees, including children, straggling past another camp just below 5000m.
We progressed slowly up the valley, allowing time for acclimatisation, to a camp on snow at 5200m, from where it was nominally only another 500m and 6 miles to the Nangpa La. However, next day only one of the party, going strongly with Tashi Sherpa, made it to the pass and hack. It took them 12 hours, and they accompanied down a young Tibetan, who had already been walking for 22 days and was minimally equipped for the difficult terrain and intense cold. The rest of us were beaten by interminable ups and downs, loose rocks and slippery steps as we negotiated the Nangpa glacier and walked between dramatic ice cliffs and milt water streams. We reached about 5400m but turned back, still several hours short of the pass. Flocks of choughs shared the scraps from our packed lunches, a lammergeyer cruised by overhead and, at one point, a flock of beautifully marked snow cock, like oversized ptarmigan, moved unhurriedly ahead of us clucking contentedly.
Despite the lateness of the season, we saw blue-and-white Himalayan gentians above 3400m, a smaller prostrate violet gentian above 4000m, and edelweiss and a fragile blue delphinium on bare scree slopes up to 5000m. The red-orange leaves of the giant spurge were widespread on the slopes above Niche and these, with the darker red of thorny Berber's, were a colourful reminder of autumn. Mammals we saw included a stoat on the snow above 5000m, pika (a tailless rodent), thar (brown mountain goats, the male sporting a magnificent mane), and the small Himalayan musk deer. Most colourful among the birds were the scarlet minivet and yellow-breasted magpie, the latter with a remarkably long tail. We also identified robin accentors, brown dippers, goldcrests, grandalas, large-billed crows and ravens, redstarts, snow pigeons and wrens.
From Arye at 4400m we climbed to a high camp, superbly situated by a lake below the Renjo La, where one of the party bravely took a swim. Next day, crossing the pass gave us fantastic
views towards Everest and Makalu and down to Gokyo by its glistening lake. From the summit of Gokyo Ri, an easily accessible viewpoint, we could see four 8000m peaks, including the great bulk of Cho Oyu at the head of the valley. From Gokyo it was over the Cho La, again with sensational views, and down, initially on snow, to the base camp for the projected climb of Lobuche East.
We had inspected the profile of Lobuche East from each successive pass, eagerly and somewhat anxiously seeking the route up. We also learned that only the shoulder, variously called the 'false summit' or Lobuche Far East, at the eastern end of the ridge was deemed to be the normal trekking summit. This was linked by a fragile, corniced ridge to another snow summit, which, in turn, was separated by a deep notch from the main summit. In the end, four of our climbing party successfully made the 1000m climb from a high camp, using fixed ropes on steep snow, with strong support from six very experienced Sherpas.
The trekking party continued to Everest base camp at 5360m, which afforded a close-up view of the Khumbu icefall, but no comfortable sites for tents. The area has been cleaned up from the debris of previous expeditions, although the wrecks of 2 helicopters remain on slowly growing pillars of ice. Next day. the summit of Kala Pattar, 5545m, was a fine view-point for the whole cirque of mountains from Pumori round to Everest and Nuptse. Trekkers and climbers were reunited at Lobuche, where we had another cold night, but only -11°C!
Five more days to walk out were full of interest, not least for the views of Ama Dablam, Kangtega and Tramserku. At Pheriche two American doctors described their work at the mountain sickness clinic. At the beautifully kept village of Phortse, we visited the school and gompa, both of which, as well as the recent provision of piped drinking water and electricity,
Five more days to wa;lk out were full of interest, not least for the views of Ama Dablam, Kantega and Tramserku. At Pheriche two American doctors described their work at the mountain sickness clinic. At the beautifully kept village of Phortse, we visited the school and gompa, both of which, as well as the recent provision of piped drinking water and electricity owe so much to the long-term support of Tony Freake, with help from the OeAV. At Thyangboche a circus of trekkers, tourists and yaks milling around outside contrasted with the measured chanting of the monks and the disciplined outbursts of raucous music inside the famous gompa.
After the short flight from Lukla, we were back in Kathmandu, still with time for shopping and sightseeing. We were able to visit a project supported by Practical Action in the old Newari village of Khokana, where a women's group process farm produce for sale in the markets of Kathmandu. The final meet dinner was a leasureky affair at the Bhojan Griha, where George and Margaret were presented with a painting of the Solu Khumbu by a disabled Sherpa artist, whom we had met earlier in Thame, and 'Yaks' was read by its author.
[Return to Index of Meet Reports]
[home], [benefits], [activities], [membership], [AAC(UK) shop], [links], [contact us]
Last updated: 04 December 2007