MERA PEAK, NEPAL
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An account of my trip to Mera Peak, Nepal in 2005.
(Click on any of the pics to see the full size photograph)
Links to my detailed diary pages with numerous photographs are here and at the bottom of this page
Diary Days 1-3 | 4-5 | 6-7 | 8-10 | 11-13 | 14-16 | 17-19 | 20-end
To whet your appetite, click here to see a few virtual tours of some sections of the trip - enjoy.
An introduction to the trip, the personnel and the itinerary
How on earth did I get involved in an expedition to the highest trekking peak in the Himalayas?
I'm 57 and should be sitting at home or playing golf.
Sorry, that's not me though - I love travelling and had always wanted to go to the Himalayas, originally in the mid 90's to do some white water rafting but never got round to it. Then a friend of mine, Bill Reed, did a couple of trips - Annapurna region and somewhere else I've forgotten - whet my appetite again.
I already had a big trip
organised for 2005 - I went on the Trans Mongolian
Railway taking a month to cross Russia, Siberia,
Mongolia and China - when I was
asked by Grahame Brickell (a squash and ski-ing friend) if I fancied a trip to
Nepal along with
Robin Hamer (another ski-ing friend). Robin works closely with
Sprayway outdoor clothing - he's a professional mountaineer and takes
photographs for their catalogue.
Sprayway had organised a national competition
and the first prize was a trip for two on a trekking holiday to Nepal with Robin
as the expedition leader. Robin asked Grahame and myself, along with Ewan McEwan, if we'd like
to make up the numbers for an expedition together with the competition winners
(who I suspect thought they'd be getting a gentle trek and a bit of tiger
spotting - wrong! - different part of Nepal). Robin was to take photographs
throughout the expedition which may be used by Sprayway in their 2006 catalogue
and/or in publicity about the competition and the winners.
I already had some of the
equipment that I'd need but I have to thank
Sprayway and their sister company
Mountain Equipment for providing
some of the more specialised items (down jacket, 4-5 season sleeping bag) at
discounted rates and also
Lowe Alpine in Kendal for
providing the
Asolo double boots at a discount.
I have to confess I was a bit nervous and anxious about going as I really don't like heights and haven't got any climbing experience but I was assured by Robin (and Gombu - our head sherpa - who was in the UK at the time) that I'd be OK as he'd been on skiing holidays with me and knew what I could cope with. So, in at the deep end - here's my cheque, see you in October!
I was fairly fit after coming
back in August from the Trans Mongolian trip as we'd also done some trekking
around Lake Baikal in Siberia as well as a lot of walking and sight-seeing - and
humping rucksacks around for a month!! The squash season also started in
September and I did some extra exercises and walking to build up my fitness and
improve my stamina which is generally quite good through my sports activities
throughout my life. However, I did think, when we departed, that I probably
hadn't done as much as I should have (and as I later found out so did some of my
other friends!!).
We left the UK for Nepal on
Saturday 15th October 2005, returning from Nepal on Sunday 6th November and getting
home on Monday 7th. The flights were arranged through WestEast Travel (295 King
Street, Hammersmith, London W6 9NH
www.westeasttravel.com) and we flew on
Thai Airways to Bangkok and then on
to Kathmandu. We had to do this longer flight as no other airline would hold
the seats without the names of all the people which couldn't be provided because
the competition winners hadn't been announced!!
Grahame, Robin and I met Ewan at Manchester airport and we flew down to Heathrow to meet our fellow travellers Katrina Elliott - the general public competition winner, Dan Hagan - Katrina's boyfriend, Rebecca Gale (Becky) - the travel industry competition winner. What a small world - Dan lives in south Manchester about 5 or 6 miles from Grahame and myself and works in central Manchester close to Grahame's office but more of the small world later at 16,000ft.
Thai Airways were excellent
although we were amazed to go through all the security checks at the various
airports only to be given metal cutlery on the flight from Bangkok to Kathmandu
(and back). The wait at Bangkok airport for our connecting flights (about 3
hours outwards and 6 hours homewards) was
boring but its a great airport and very
modern. We were all tired and jetlagged but Becky was suffering with travel
sickness and was camped close to the ladies toilet, just in case.
I'll have to look up the time differences, London - Bangkok, then back to Kathmandu but none of us really knew what time zone we were in when we finally arrived in Nepal. Especially as Nepal is the only country in the world to have a time difference that's not a whole number - its 5 and 3/4 hrs ahead of GMT as it won't share the same time zone as its neighbour India. There's a bit of useless information for all you quiz fiends. Our first views of the snow capped Himalayan mountains from the plane were breathtaking.
I have to confess that I started
off with all good intentions of keeping a diary of this trip but I didn't after
the first few days of trekking although I did try to
catch up with it a couple
of times. I'm going to set out what I wrote at the time and try to fill in some
days from what I remember now. I'm kicking myself as there's so much I'll
forget.
I had initially thought that October/November time would be too late to go trekking to the height we were hoping to achieve - but no, these months, along with March and April, are the main trekking times of the year when the weather is at its best. Many of the younger (and some of the older) men from the villages are away working as sherpas or porters hoping to make enough money to tide them through the rest of the year when they then farm the land. I was also amazed about the weather - hot sunshine during the day but the temperature drops very rapidly as soon as the sun disappears, as you'd expect - bit like skiing but a lot hotter in the day. I certainly didn't think I'd be wearing just shorts and a tee shirt on many a day at the 'lower' altitudes.
The route we were to take isn't
one of the usual routes taken by travel companies who lead expeditions to Mera
Peak. Robin and Gombu are involved in
The Cherem Development Project - a
registered charity (Number 1077121) and if you think this paragraph is publicity for it
you are perfectly correct!! Unless you go there you will never appreciate the
conditions that the people of Nepal live in - its one of the poorest countries
in the world. PLEASE click on
THIS LINK where I've created a page about this
project. Gombu was born in
Cherem, as were some of the sherpas, porters and
kitchen crew on our trip. The people of
Cherem were wonderful to us when we were
there and so little to us makes a huge difference to them. This project is also
supported by Sprayway who also send clothing out to Nepal for the villagers and
porters.
Our itinerary was:-
Saturday 15th October - leave UK
and fly to Kathmandu via Bangkok
Sunday 16th October - arrive Kathmandu, meet Gombu and Susmita Maskey
Monday 17th October - fly to Lukla to meet Lambabu and the rest of the sherpas, kitchen crew and porters - sleep at Surke
Tuesday 18th October - sleep at Kharte
Wednesday 19th October - sleep at Shibuje
Thursday 20th October - sleep at Cherem
Friday 21st October - sleep at Cherem
Saturday 22nd October - sleep at
Najing
Sunday 23rd October - sleep at Choleema
Monday 24th October - sleep at Panch Pokhori (5 lakes)
Tuesday 25th October - sleep at Kote
Wednesday 26th October - sleep at Tagnak
Thursday 27th October - sleep at Tagnak
Friday 28th October - sleep at Khare (Mera Peak base camp)
Saturday 29th October - sleep at Khare
Sunday 30th October - sleep at Rato Warald (Red Caves) (Mera Peak high camp)
Monday 31st October - sleep at Khare
Tuesday 1st November - sleep at Kote
Wednesday 2nd November - sleep at Chataro
Thursday 3rd November - sleep at Lukla
Friday 4th November - sleep at Kathmandu
Saturday 5th November - sleep at
Kathmandu
Sunday 6th November - leave Nepal and fly to UK via Bangkok
Monday 7th November - arrive UK and fly to Manchester
In addition to we six amateurs, we had an experienced expedition team guiding us:-
Amateurs:
Me - Bob Hancock
Grahame Brickell
Ewan McEwan (who is an experienced sailor and judges competitions including in the Americas Cup)
Katrina Elliott
Dan Hagan
Becky Gale - who has been up Mt Kilimanjaro
Professionals:
Robin Hamer - professional mountaineer with many first ascents to his name
Da Gombu Sherpa - highly experienced and respected Nepalese sherpa with many first ascents to his name and also current President of the Nepal Mountaineering Instructors Association
Lambabu
Sherpa - highly respected
and experienced Nepalese sherpa with two ascents of Everest to his name and
50-60 ascents of Mera Peak
Susmita Maskey - 24 year old Nepalese woman who climbed to the south col of Everest in June 2005 as part of a Korean lead ladies expedition
Galzin Sherpa
We also had kitchen crew and porters - I'm going to try and get all their names if I can.
Susmita, Gombu and Lambabu have been some of the faces in Sprayway's catalogue for many years.
Robin and Gombu have a trekking and climbing company - ::walkandclimb.com - which only runs a couple of group trips a year so they remain intimate and somewhat exclusive experiences - so if you're thinking of going to Nepal check it out. The site gives profiles of Robin, Gombu and Lambabu with details of their mountaineering backgrounds.
Below are the links to the various detailed diary days with numerous photographs:-
Diary Days 1-3 | 4-5 | 6-7 | 8-10 | 11-13 | 14-16 | 17-19 | 20-end
The Cherem Development Project
All contents copyright of Bob Hancock