New Delhi to RISHIKESH April 15 2006 (continued from About Baseclimb)
(taken from the expedition diary of Heather Swan)
Our first day on the bus was an adjustment for everyone, but particularly those with no previous experience of Indian roads. The heat and dust are relentless and there are no discernable road rules other than 'anything goes'. The number of times our bus, in a bid to overtake a cow, or a bike, or a rickshaw, careered at oncoming traffic became too numerous to count. Each time one of the vehicles got out of the way at the last possible second. Eventually we stopped closing our eyes and holding our breath to marvel at the split second timing of the drivers. Of course some get it wrong as evidenced by the many wrecked vehicles abandoned on the side of the road.
Lauren Swan in Rishikesh
Rishikesh our first stop on the journey from New Delhi to Mt Meru, is a fun town. Situated on the banks of the Ganges, the international home of Yoga is a riot of colour, people, cows and stray dogs. 16 members of the expedition and trekking team took the short boat ride from our government owned hotel to the nightly 'Puja' ceremony across the river. We missed the start but the stress of 9 hours sweltering in the bus was quickly soothed by the rhythmic chanting and swaying. There must have been 300 shoeless people at the ceremony which lasted about two hours.
We completed the evening with an excellent 'taali' (a large plate with a selection of Indian curries, breads and condiments) at Chotiwala, a jam packed colourful restaurant best known for its reliable food and the rotund painted man enthroned at the entrance.
Uttarkashi
RISHIKESH to Uttarkashi April 16
Another long day in the bus, only punctuated by 'pee' and snack stops. It was quickly decided that well wooded areas close to the road represent the best places to pee. Our stomachs have not yet become sufficiently insensitive to handle the Indian roadside toilet.
In Uttarkashi Glenn and I go in search of an 'Internet cafe' so I can send final emails chasing gear we're missing - like the data cable for the satellite phone. It never did arrive, so I never did get to update the Blog I'd set up. The 'internet cafe' was a funny blue phone booth resembling Dr. Who's 'Tardis' but it worked and I got the emails away. The owner looked lovingly at my Mac G4 PowerBook. It was playing up - I don't think it liked India much - so I couldn't show him anything other than it's sleek design. He was impressed regardless.
Everyone else headed to the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering for a tour of the impressive facilities. NIM was established in 1965 to honour the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who was a great mountain enthusiast.
Nehru Institute of Mountaineering
We spent the night at the lovely family owned 'Mahima' Resort. Business must have been booming because they had added a whole second floor since Glenn and I stayed in 1995. We relished the 'bucket bath', knowing it would be the last wash we would get for at least 6 weeks. I packed many of my 'luxury' items, including our mobile phones, into a bag to leave until our return. I glumly thought of Alison Hergreaves (the British mountaineer who had died on K2) leaving her hair dryer and other girly provisions at the K2 hotel - she never got back to collect them - and fervently hoped we would all be back unscathed to collect ours. That night we celebrated Paul's birthday but got to bed early in anticipation of an early start the next day.
Uttarkashi (1158m) to Gangotri (3042m)
April 17
The drive took much longer than last year. A combination of the slow bus, blasting and road works along the way and constant stopping to film. I had forgotten how tedious filming can be. Every sequence for the film requires shots from a number of different angles. So in this case Glenn wanted to film the bus winding up the narrow switch backs so the poor bus driver had to turn the bus with what seemed like a 100-point turn to drive the same section of road with the camera at a different view point. Tove (our principal camera person) demonstrated the incredible patience and tenacity that would characterise her over the entire trip. I tried to follow her example, but sometimes I don't see the point (I've seen how much of the stuff that takes ages to film ends up in the computer's trash bin). I needed to give up 'Western time' and adopt 'mountain time'. There was no need to rush.
We stopped at the famous Hot Springs for a dip. The place was filthy but the pools, particularly the men's is too hot to harbour any unwelcome bugs. The braver guys stripped off and took the plunge, or more correctly stuck their toes in the water. After much procrastination Mick jumped in. His face was priceless. Mick is one tough guy, but this water was HOT!
Mick takes a bath at the Hot Springs
We arrived in Gangotri just before sunset and snow. It was a mad rush to get tents up before everything and everyone got wet. The crew from Rimo Expeditions did a great job. The camp site was much nicer than the previous year. We were outside the town in the forest, right on the edge of a sheer drop to white water about 200 metres below.
Gangotri Temple (photo Helen Mahoney)
One of the major attractions of Gangotri is the ancient temple of the goddess Ganga. The temple was built by the Gurkha General Amar Singh Thapa in the 18th century. Hundreds of Hindu pilgrims visit every year between May and late October, early November when the temple closes on 'Diwali' day.
Gangotri to Chirbasa (3600m) April 18
Everything was covered in snow. Apparently it had been snowing for four days straight. We are just over 10,000ft above sea level and it's cold. Unseasonably cold. We have to wait a long time at the Park check point while Glenn and Parvan from Rimo sort out just how much we have to pay. We have to pay a fee for each person, each tent, each day, each camera, each day of filming. It all adds up and this is on top of what we've already paid to the Indian Mountaineering Federation.
Finally we're clear to go and the Trek proper begins. We have 9 kms of reasonably steep walking ahead. The trail is degraded after the winter snows and we are the first party in. There has been no work done on the trail. It will be completely different when we return.
We encounter our first problems with porters. The weather is so bad many of them quit. Those that remain are doing double loads, so that a lot of gear, and predictably sleeping bags don't arrive at the Chirbasa camp site until after 6.30pm. It's dark and it's very cold. The porter situation is a problem that will just get worse.
Some of us, including Mick, Tove and Paul, were sick with stomach ills and respiratory problems. This combined with the Porter problem motivated Glenn to prolong our stay at Chirbasa by a day.
The next day I got sick and spent the day in the tent wondering what we were doing here.
Gaumukh, the physical head of the Ganges
Chirbasa to Gaumukh (3892m) April 20 2006
The trail was particularly bad between Chirbasa and Gaumukh, the physical head of the Ganges. Gaumukh is about 18kms from Gangotri and is named for the head of the glacier which is said to resemble a cow's mouth (a bit a stretch of the imagination I thought).
Much of the trail had been washed away and rock fall and ice were a real problem. Everyone managed it well, although some of us, including me were sick. Headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. So it was a torturous walk despite getting our first glimpse of Meru. It was my father's 80th birthday and I called him from the satellite phone. He was thrilled but it made me homesick. I took to the sanctuary of our tent and stayed there. I couldn't eat dinner and doubted that I'd be able to make the climb to Tapovan the following day. Those that were feeling well, notably Michael Golding, Helen Mahoney, Ove Jorgensen, Mick and Elise went for a 'full monty' bath in the Ganges. According to Hindu tradition they had washed their sins away.
Gaumukh to Tapovan (4460m) April 21 2006
Tapovan is sanskrit and means 'Forest of Spiritual Practice'. This Tapovan is situated at the base of Mt Shivling and is home to a number of 'sadhus' (an ascetic or practitioner of yoga who has given up worldy life in pursuit of 'moksha' or liberation), most noteably one who lives in a cave with a giant satellite dish at the entrance, in which he cooks chapatis.
At this time of year Tapovan is usually 'an alpine meadow' but instead it was under five feet of snow.
Tapovan
I was still sick so the relatively short but very steep climb to Tapovan was a challenge, made worse by constant rock fall. Tove, Mick, Elise and Ove had gone ahead to film and they got some great shots of us scurrying across a slope to avoid being hit by rock bullets. Phil James from Corporate Adrenalin named the ascent to Tapovan 'the Tower of Terror'.
Our camp is directly beneath Shivling and facing the Bhagirathi group of mountains. It's a beautiful place. Unfortunately we've lost even more porters so our gear is spread along the trail as far back as Gangotri. We will have to stay at Tapovan until it all catches up. Then it will have to be repacked and we will all carry heavy loads from here on up.
Tapovan April 23rd
I am almost over my stomach problems, but still feeling weak. We all leave early to climb to the intended landing area on Meru Glacier. It's a steep climb to the top of the ridge, and the snow is very deep so snow shoes make a huge difference.
We took lots of digital photographs, carefully assessing the ice fall and crevasse fields. We couldn't land in a crevasse and there was some debate about just how far we would fly and where the best place to put landing camp would be. Just as we were finishing up and the last of the team were approaching the high point, the weather turned. Huge grey clouds rolled across the sky and obscured the sun. Glenn sent everyone down. Those of us with snow shoes moved quickly and broke trail for the others. Soon we were in a whiteout. I had a GPS fix on our camp and Denys, Wendy, Mick, Elise, Ove and I headed directly for it. Our snow shoes made an unmistakable trail for the others to follow. We made it back in just under 2 hours. We'd been out for 8 hours and ascended and descended 2000ft. It was a great day, an adventure, and wonderful to see Meru from the landing area. Such a big, impressive wall and a perfect wingsuit jump. The next day was a rest day. We were still waiting for gear to catch up. Michael, Helen and Ove went out for a recce. They hoped to make our next camp site, but the deep snow slowed them down and they didn't quite get there. Still they returned happy with their excursion. Tomorrow they and the other trekkers would leave us to head back to New Delhi.
April 25th Tapovan to Rock Camp (5280m)
The whole team at Tapovan on the day the trekking group headed back to Delhi
We were all sad to see the trekking group go. They have been enormous fun. The up side was that it marked the beginning of the expedition proper.
The move to 'rock camp' was difficult. Quite steep, a lot of rock fall and we were all carrying heavy packs. Rock Camp was situated beneath a sheer granite wall. The snow was even deeper so moving around comfortably (even going from individual tents to the mess tent) required snow shoes.
Resting on the way to 'Rock Camp'
April 26th - Rock Camp
Most of us rested in camp, but Mal, Glenn and Mick headed off for a recce of the trail ahead. Tove and Elise filmed diary interviews. Sophie and Nigel refined their snow cave digging skills. I was reading 'Mountains of the Mind' and made a note in my diary of this quote from Sir Winston Churchill - " To every man, there comes in his lifetime that special moment when he is tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing; unique and fitted to his talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared and unqualified for the work that would be his finest hour". Regardless of the 'he' bit, I thought I should keep this quote close, because I hoped I would get that tap on the shoulder soon. I knew I was ready for it.
April 27th (15 days in) - Load Carry to Base Camp
Everyone went on the 12km trip to shuffle loads to base camp. Snow conditions were extremely difficult - deep and wet - so snow shoes once again saved the day. We saw Meru in profile on the way. It's a hugely impressive wall - it appears absolutely sheer. We all take turns peering at it through binoculars while feeling suitably intimidated. We were all back at rock camp by 2.15pm absolutely exhausted from the effort.
To be continued....
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