Gokyo Ama Dablam Base Camp Trek via Phortse October 2021 -Route and Timings

 

Namche to Gokyo to Phortse to Pangboche to Namche October 2021

Route details and timings for this route is below
October 21 Namche to Dole 

We left Namche on a sunny clear morning after the rain with all the peaks  visible - the broad trail mostly level with a few ups and downs was a lovely walk with all the peaks from Taboche to Thamserku visible including Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam. We reached the beautiful Ama Dablam Lodge at Kyanjuma in about less than two hours with many photography stops on the way. After a tea break at the lodge we started out for Mong la. Within five minutes there was a sign posted trail junction - the upper trail went to Gokyo and the lower trail to Everest Base Camp. A new trail had been constructed in the initial part of the climb with proper hand railings and steps - this steep climb took about half an hour with mesmerizing mountain views all around. On reaching the top there was a small resting spot from where Mongla could be seen as well as the trail leading upwards. We followed the trail climbing uphill contouring the hillside and had great mountain views all the way. We stopped for lunch at the Hilltop lodge in Mongla. After lunch we started out on the rapid descent to Phortse Tenga. The trail dropped fairly sharply for the first 20 minutes before easing out into a gentler descent - in about an hour from Mongla we came to the two lodges of Phortse Tenga and the trail diversion which was marked - the upper trail led to Dole and the lower trail led to Phortse. The Dole trail initially climbed very gently and in about 20 minutes reached the Dole National Park check post where the permits are checked. Soon after the trail crosses a waterfall and then begins to climb steeply fir about 30 minutes before the trail levels off and reaches a resting spot with a stone bench which provides a welcome break. After this the climb continues through the rhododendron forest. Across the valley the village of Phortse is your constant companion in about an hour another waterfall is reached and ahead you can see the trail contouring up the hillside. Finally the trail skirts the hillside takes a turn and the lodges of Dole come suddenly into view. 
Namche 3450m to Kyanjuma 3615m 27 49 22N 86 43 52E 1 hr 45 min to 2 hrs Kyanjuma to Mongla 3980m 27 50 22N 86 44 12E 2 hrs Mongla to Phortse Tenga 1 hour to 1 hour 15 min Phortse Tenga 3650m to Dole 4110m 27 52 4N 86 43 50 E 
2 hrs to 2 hrs 15 min

Everest Seventy Years After the First Ascent May 29th 1953

A condensed version of this article appears in The Hindu May 28th 2023

https://www.thehindu.com/society/everest-70-years-later/article66873075.ece

On 28^th May 1953, two men started out from the South Col of Everest at around 26,000 feet to set up Camp Nine at 27,900 feet. Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa had attempted Everest six times and failed. Edmund Hillary, a bee keeper from New Zealand, was on the mountain for the second time, having accompanied Eric Shipton on the Everest Reconnaissance in 1951. The British had made eight attempts on Everest since 1921 and this could well be their last chance.  In the year of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, it was imperative that they succeed. Camp IX at 27,900 feet would be the highest that men had ever slept.  The next morning dawned clear and still as Tenzing pointed out the tiny dot of Tengboche monastery, 16,000 feet below, where the Rimpoche had prayed for the safe return of the team. “God of my father and mother be good to me today” prayed Tenzing. Hillary’s boots were frozen and he had a tough job trying to unfreeze them for the climb. The duo started out at 6.30 am and at 11.30 am on 29th May 1953 history was made as the two men stood on the summit of Everest.

New Roads in the Annapurna Region | Nepal

 In the last few years a large number of new roads have come up in the Annapurna region (most of them remain as dirt tracks for four wheel drive jeeps) and these roads can reduce the trekking days for popular treks in the region. I list some of these roads below and give the cost of a reserved jeep in some cases where I have used them.

 Pokhara to Kimche

Kimche is about 1 hours walking below Ghandrung and this road goes upto Nayapul (black top) and then on a dirt track to Kimche – the black top section is quite good now and the whole journey by jeep takes about 2 hours. There are also buses running from the Pokhara bus park.  NPR 9000/-

 Pokhara to Ghandrung

It is possible now to go all the way upto Ghandrung by taking a lower road (not the Kimche one) by jeep and it would take about 2.5 hours to reach Ghandrung. An early departure from Pokhara would make it possible to trek to Tadapani the same day. NPR 10,000/-

 Pokhara to Kimrong Danda

The same road which goes to Ghandrung carries on further to Kimrong Danda possibly a 30 minutes drive from Ghandrung.

 Pokhara to Landrung

The approach to the Annapurna Base Camp trek would be shortened by a day or more by driving to Landrung in about 3 hours and heading up to Jhinu Danda the same day. But there is also now a road which is ending below Jhinu so for ABC trekkers looking to save time this would be the better option (see below). NPR 12,000/-

 Pokhara to below Jhinu Danda

This road goes near Jhinu Danda in about 3-3.5 hours from Pokhara so from here you could walk to Chomrong the same day.  NPR 12,000/-

 Pokhara to Dhampus

This walk from Phedi is now effectively over as the road goes all the way to Dhampus in about 1 hour minutes from Pokhara. You could do a day trek in this region walking from Dhampus to Australian Camp and then down to Kande to meet the road and back to Pokhara.

 Pokhara to Pitam Deorali

Pitam Deorali is the usual first day’s stop for the Mardi Himal trek but now it is possible to drive here in about 2 to 2.5 hours and go to Forest Camp the same day if you can leave Pokhara by 7 am.

 Mardi Himal Roads

There are the following options for the Mardi trek depending on where you enter or exit the trek:

Pokhara to Siding 2 hours NPR 8000/-

Pokhara to Kalimati  1 hour 30 min

Pokhara to Lawang 1 hour 30 min

 Ghorepani Trek

The road now goes upto Banthanti and it is being steadily pushed towards Ghorepani. From Banthanti to Nayapul would be about 50 min and 1 hour 15 min to Pokhara from there. NPR 10,000/-

 Khopra Trek

There are different approaches and exits for this trek but if you walk from Khopra to Swanta you can get a jeep from here to Pokhara via Beni which takes 4-5 hours. NPR 18,000/-

 Annapurna Circuit Roads

The Annapurna Circuit trek has been impacted by roads on both sides – along the Marsyandi from Besisahar to Manang and along the Kali Gandaki from Pokhara-Beni-Jomsom-Muktinath. The dirt track from Jomsom goes past Kagbeni all the way to Lo Manthang in Upper Mustang possibly changing the standard Mustang trek to a jeep safari. Regarding the circuit the upper route from Pisang to Manang is still spectacular and after two day acclimatisation in Manang you could attempt Tilicho/ Thorung La.  However some alternative walking trails have been built on the other side of the river (referred to as the NAAT trails) and these do by pass the roads to a great extent. The only thing is that th trekking experience in not so enjoyable as you can hear the cars and motorbikes on the other side.

 For more information on our treks and workshops please visit www.southcol.com or contact sujoyrdas@gmail.com 

Mallory and Irvine | 8th June 1924 | 98 Years After

 

On 8th June 1924, two men left  Camp VI (26,700 feet)  to make an attempt for the summit of Everest. 

Camp VI  was the highest camp of the British 1924 Everest expedition.

On the same morning, another British climber, Noel Odell, was making his way up from Camp IV to Camp VI. Odell was a geologist and he was collecting fossils from the slopes of Mount Everest. Odell recalls that it was not the perfect morning to climb Everest. " Rolling banks of mist" were sweeping  across the mountain and covering the north face. Neither the face nor the summit ridge could be seen by Odell. There was also a sharp wind which was making climbing very difficult.

Suddenly at 12.50 pm the mist cleared and Odell spotted high above on the ridge, a black dot climbing a rock step, which Odell at that point identified as the Second Step. Soon after Odell saw another black dot following the first black dot. But before Odell could be sure that the second black dot had joined the first,  the mist rolled in and blanketed the mountain and this fantastic vision was lost forever.

The two dots that Odell saw were George Mallory and Andrew Irvine "going strongly for the summit of Everest". 

Mallory and Irvine were never seen again.

Mallory body was found by Conrad Anker in 1999. Irvine has not been found. A few weeks ago some startling news emerged from Mark Synott who was part of a Nat Geo expedition to find Andrew Irvine in 2019. Synott mentioned that he had evidence to prove that Irvine had been found by the Chinese and also his camera. The camera film could not be processed by the Chinese and with it died the secret of the last climb of Mallory and Irvine.  See the link below for the article.

https://www.salon.com/2022/04/08/the-third-pole-mount-everest-mark-synnott-mystery-china/

But the legend of George Mallory and his last climb lives on.

In this post we take a look at some photographs and other memorabilia from the Everest expeditions of 1921, 1922 and 1924.

The 1921 expedition team - Mallory sitting first left

Mallory and Irvine boarding S. S. California on their way to India in 1924 

Irvine working on oxygen cylinders  on the1924 expedition

Members of the 1924 expedition - Standing from left Irvine, Mallory, Norton, Odell, Macdonald. In front: Shebbeare, Bruce, Somervell, Beetham. Members not in the photo : Noel, Hingston, Hazard.

Norton and Somervell with their sherpas before the summit attempt

Route map of Norton and Somervell's attempt

Norton set an altitude record  in 1924 without oxygen reaching 8570 metres which remained unchallenged until Messner and Habeler climbed Everest in 1978 without oxygen

Last photo of Mallory and Irvine leaving for Camp VI 1924


The list of provisions for the summit climb found on Mallory's body  - he planned to be on 2 cylinders of oxygen. Please note the rations on the left!

The 8 pm in the note to Noel should be 8 am

Mallory had no compass on his last climb

Map showing position of Odell and the last sighting of Mallory and Irvine

                                  "..... some day you will hear a different story..." George Mallory

All photographs reproduced above are copyright of Royal Geographical Society, John Noel Photographic Collection and their respective owners. 

The Hunt for Mount Everest by Craig Storti | Book Review

 Members of the 1921 Everest Reconnaissance Expedition 

This review was first published in The Hindu on  August 7th 2021

https://www.thehindu.com/books/books-reviews/the-hunt-for-mount-everest-review-the-giant-among-pygmies/article35759391.ece

For most climbers and armchair mountaineers, the history of Everest begins with an Indian surveyor named Radhanath Sikdar rushing into the office of the Surveyor General of India around the 1850s, and announcing “Sir, I have found the highest mountain in the world!” Craig Storti  in his opening chapter “Peak XV” casts his doubts on this story  and attributes the discovery of Everest to the Surveyor General Andrew Waugh jointly with John Hennessey and Sikdar.

 In 1921, around seventy odd years later, the British launched the first expedition to find the route to the mountain.  But, the extraordinary events which took place in between remain largely unknown, other than through some books on Tibet, The Great Game and early Himalayan expeditions.

In his book, Storti  brings this all together and conjures up a racy narrative with larger than life characters that tells this story starting with an audacious mission to Lhasa in 1903 by Sir Francis Younghusband which in fact unlocked the key for the British to claim Everest as their  own mountain. 

Mardi Himal Trek Nepal December 2021 | Route and Timings

 

A South Col team walked to Mardi Himal in December 2021 in perfect weather. Here is the detailed description of the route and the timings. 

December 6th 2021 Pokhara to Kande by road and walk to Pitam Deorali 

We left Kathmandu for Pokhara by the 8 30 am flight - luckily for us the weather was good this morning and we reached Pokhara by 10 am - a micro bus was waiting for us and we drove upto   Kande in a hour - the road was very good upto Kande and had been newly resurfaced. We started out from Kande at 11 15 am and climbed steeply for the first 45 minutes mainly on steps; there were very few trekkers on the route - we got to Australian camp in an hour and 15 min - the clouds had come in by noon and the famous view from there  we did not see this time.  We  took a short break and then walked down to Pothana in 25 minutes through a beautiful forested section. We stopped for lunch at Heaven’s Gate, our usual lodge, in the sunshine.  From Pothana the trail to Pitam Deorali had large sections where a new road is being built and there are signs in yellow pointing the trekker to the forest trail which criss-crosses the road - on the way soon after Pothana a new lodge was being built in the forest sadly cutting a number of trees - a lodge so close to Pothana did not make sense as Pothana has a number of good lodges.  Again just before Pitam Deorali there is a new lodge which has been built in a clearing again by cutting down part of the forest. The weather was breaking when we reached Deorali and in the evening there was a heavy thunderstorm with lightning and thunder and rain for around two hours which would have deposited a lot of snow in the higher altitudes around Mardi High camp - in the evening after the rain we could see all the lights of Pokhara valley and on the other side across the valley the lights of Ghandrung as well - the stars were just coming out in the sky and clouds studded across the rapidly clearing sky.

 Kande to Australian Camp  2050m  28 18 13N 83 49 40E  1 hr 15 min to 30 min Australian Camp to Pothana 25 min 1950m 28 18 47 N 83 49 49E
Pothana to Pitam Deorali 1 hour 2140m 28 19 48N 83 49 47E 2100 metres

Ama Dablam Base Camp | Update October 2021

The lodges of Ama Dablam base camp

 October 27th 2021

The information available on Ama Dablam Base Camp on the internet has mostly been sketchy and so I decided to go up with my group to see the base camp and check the route and the new lodges built there. 

We left Pangboche around 7- 15 am walked to the end of the village and passed the last Sonam Lodge. A little ahead of the Sonam Lodge there is a path going down to the river - take this path and in 5-10 minutes you are down to a bridge across the Imja Khola - cross the bridge and then start climbing steadily uphill for 30-45 minutes to reach the ridge line - there are some multiple trails but the general direction is uphill. 

Reach the ridge and swing left on a flattish trail for about 15-20 minutes. This trail then drops into a broad meadow where we found yaks grazing and a view to the west including Pumori on the Khumbu Glacier. From this point Pheriche could also be seen below. 

Kashmir Great Lakes Trek | August 2021 Updated Route and Timigs

 

The Great Lakes is one of the signature treks in Kashmir and has become extremely popular especially in the busy summer season of July and August. There have been reports that in late July this year there were more than four hundred trekkers on the trail at one time! However, our South Col Expeditions team went in second half of August 2021 and we did not encounter many groups - the rush had eased  by then. This is very rewarding trek and more so if done in the shoulder seasons - last week of June and last week of August into mid September. 

The trek is usually done in six days - some of the days are long and tedious - but we did the route in seven days breaking up the first day into two days for better acclimatisation as we were flying straight into Srinagar and then driving immediately to Sonamarg. This approach gave a gentle start to the walk and was appreciated by all our trekkers. 

The timings for the walk was recorded on Strava by one of our trekkers Dr Rajesh Tope and these screenshots are included here for reference. It should be noted that the timings recorded by Strava are the actual walking timings so stops for rest,  lunch, photographs etc. should be added.

 Day 1    Srinagar to Sonamarg Altitude: 2670m        Time taken: 3 hours drive - 

We fly into Srinagar by noon and then after quick lunch we drive from Srinagar airport to the base camp at Sonamarg which is called Shitkadi.Night at Shitkadi campsite.