Nepal Trekking | Open and Closed regions Autumn 2020

 

Important information for all those who plan to trek in Nepal this autumn - please see below what is open and closed.

Please note that this information is collected from October 5th to 10th 2020 and can change at any time. Nepal rules can also change - there is a proposal as on date to allow tourists only from mid November 2020 and not October 17th 2020 - it is yet to be confirmed by the Government.

Other rules like PCR negative test 24 hours before any other restrictions like rapid antigen test on arrival is to be followed.

1. Tsho Rolpa -> No trekking and outsiders are allowed

contact -> Naa view point hotel 9843813119 / 9840531500

2. Everest Region -> Allowed, required PCR Negative result report required of no longer than 72 hours

3. Manang / Tilicho -> not allowed

Contact -> Hotel Yak and Resturant (Manang)9841461082, Khangsarkang hotel 9843172015

4. Gosaikunda -> Allowed

Contact -> Deurali Hotel 9849434107, Hotel yak n nak In chandanbari : 9741203099

5. Mustang -> Not Allowed

Majestic mustang "hotel north pole" 981-3727397

6. Timbung Pokhari Trek-> Allowed

facebook page "Timbung Pokhari -Trek Divine" for more informatio

7. Sikles Trek-> Trekking and outsiders are not Allowed

Contact -> Namaste Guest House

8. Annapurna Base Camp Trek -> Not Allowed

Contact -> Real Chhomrong: 9846359659

9. Mardi Himal Trek -> Allowed

Contact -> Hotel Fishtail And Restaurant (High Camp) 9856014765, Hotel Green View And Restaurant 98065369

10. Dolpo Phoksundo Trek -> Trekking is Allowed with PCR Negative Report, documents from ward office and permit from NP

Contact -> Tashi Homestay, 9848304204 Tashi Lama, Ringmo

11. Mundhum Trail Trek -> Allowed

12. Panchpokhari Trek -> Allowed

Contact -> Resham Tamang 9741337147 Ngima chhiring Tamang 9843497149

13. Poonhill Trek -> Not Allowed

Contact -> Hotel Old Village Inn 9856047031, Kamala Lodge and Restaurant – 977-9846646349

14. Helambu, Ama Yangri -> Not Allowed from Tarkhegyang side

15. Langtang -> Allowed, required pcr report

Green Lakes Trek Zemu Valley | Sikkim

Photo from the Zemu Valley with the peaks courtesy www.himalayan-info.org

The north east  base camp of Kangchenjunga in the Zemu Valley has been "out of bounds" due a rigid permit system imposed by the Government of India and Sikkim. However, if you can manage the hassles associated with getting the permits then it is one of the most rewarding walks in the Himalaya. South Col  has trekked this route twice the last time in October 2014. The details of the route are below:

October 27^th 2014 Gangtok to Lachen 2750 metres 6-7 hours

We left Gangtok on a sunny autumn morning with Kangchenjunga floating in the clouds. The road followed the North Sikkim highway and we followed the valley of the Teesta river all the way to Chungthang where the permits were checked. Travelling along this road I thought of the early pioneers like Paul Bauer, Douglas Freshfield, and Vittorio Sella who has walked along Teesta valley on their way to Lachen. We stayed the night at the very luxurious and comfortable Apple Orchard Hotel.

October 28^th 2014 - Drive Lachen to Zema and then trek Zema to Tallem 3250 metres  4½ hrs.

 The morning was cold and cloudy and the group had breakfast at Apple Orchard at 8 AM and left by 9.30 AM.  There was a problem with one of our vehicles so we walked part of the way until Zema.  There was another problem at Zema about the weight of porter loads but this was also sorted out. We left Zema at 10.30 AM after receiving Khadas for our full group.   The trail went down from Zema to the river and there were a lot of landslides to be crossed on the trail in the first two hours – the upper trail has been damaged by landslides and the current lower trail follows the Zemu Chu river. In many sections there is no trail and the path requires clambering from boulder to boulder using both hands. There is a steep section like a chimney which needs to be climbed up with cascading water spraying the trekker from a nearby waterfall.  We stopped for lunch around 1.20 PM in a clearing near the river. There is a proper trail after lunch which climbs above the Zemu Chu through some very pleasant forest of ferns and rhododendrons. Just before the camp site of Tallem, the trail passes through a large meadow which at this season had plenty of dried flowers. It would have been a spectacular site in summer. Tallem was reached around 3 PM – the walk took 4½ hours with a half hour lunch stop. The weather remained cloudy in the evening with low mist covering the tree tops.

Covid 19 | Trekking Update from South Col Expeditions

COVID 19 | AN UPDATE FROM SUJOY DAS, FOUNDER, SOUTH COL EXPEDITIONS

 As some of you would have seen from our whats app messenger posts, we have cancelled our summer treks in Ladakh for the period July to September 2020.  We are very sorry to lose the summer season in Ladakh with some of the best short camping treks in the Himalaya, some of which have been pioneered by South Col. However, Ladakh is under fourteen days quarantine for new arrivals at present and Delhi, the jumping off point for Ladakh is a major covid 19 hotspot in India, so it would be advisable not to trek this summer in Ladakh. Further, international insurance companies are not providing insurance for visits and treks to India, Nepal and Bhutan so far and this rules out a lot of our international clients.

We are still open to conducting treks in the November – December season 2020, if possible, but as days go by and with rising covid 19 numbers both in India and to a lesser extent in Nepal, it does seem to be a long shot at present.  Nepal flights are still not open and like India they are following fourteen days quarantine for any of their passengers arriving on repatriation flights. We will be constantly reviewing the situation and advising you as we get updated information.

Following this cancellation of our Ladakh summer treks, I would like to thank everyone for their support and kind words. As an adventure trek and photography tour operator focusing on Himalayan countries we are probably more used to the risks of losing seasons than most other regular travel operators. In the past, we have also dealt with cyclones during Autumn 2013 & 2014 seasons in Nepal and Bhutan. After the 2015 earthquake in Nepal we had to cancel our entire Spring season and though we were back in autumn in a limited way, it took some time to rebuild the numbers of trekkers again.

Everest | Reflections on the Solukhumbu

We are happy to share some good news at the time of the global pandemic - our book Everest Reflections on the Solukhumbu published by Bidur Dangol of Vajra Books was shortlisted amongst four books at the New Zealand Mountain Film and Book Festival for the Mountain Heritage Award. . We congratulate the winner The Great Unkown by Geoff Spearpoint and are happy that we were able to take part in the festival. The press release is below:

Mountain Books
Seven books have been shortlisted for the 4th annual Mountain Book Competition. Con-tenders for the Mountain Heritage Award include: Leading the Way, a historical account of 100 years of the Tararua Tramping Club, by Shaun Barnett and Chris Maclean, Exploring the Transantarctic Mountains by dog sledge, 1960-62 by Peter Otway, The Great Un-known, a chronicle of select trans-alpine journeys by Geoff Spearpoint, and Everest – Reflections on the Solkhumbu, with photography by Sujoy Das, and text by New Zealand’s Honorary Consul to Nepal, Lisa Choegyal.

For the Mountain Narratives Award Living the best day ever, celebrates the life of Hendri Coetzee, whose African whitewater adventures ended with a fatal encounter with a Salt-water Crocodile. Bewildered explores Laura Waters’ life changing catharsis of leaving toxic relationships and lifestyles for a long walk on Te Araroa. And In Fearless Chloe Phillips-Harris gives us a glimpse into the Mongol Derby; a 1000-kilometre endurance race across the wild steppes, desert and mountains of Mongolia – a competition with no marked course, no support team, that requires riders to switch horses every 40 km.

Competition is fierce for the NZ Mountain Book of the Year. This $1000 award was found-ed and is supported by Dave Bamford and John Nankervis. The award is only for a book of the very highest quality, and the judges say there are several books at that level.

For more details on our book do visit  https://www.amazon.in/Everest-Reflections-Solukhumbu-Choegyal-Sujoy/dp/9937928893/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=everest+sujoy+das&qid=1594447493&sr=8-1

Everest | 8th June 1924 - Mallory and Irvine

A historic image of Rongbuk monastery by Capt John Noel  with Everest in the background

On 8th June 1924, two men left  Camp VI (26,700 feet)  to make an attempt on 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.

George Mallory's body was found on Everest by the American mountaineer Conrad Anker in 1999 seventy five years after he vanished on the slopes of Everest. Andrew Irvine has not yet been found.

But even today, ninety six years after the disappearance of Mallory and Irvine, the legend of Mallory is still alive. Books are being written about Mallory, expeditions are being planned to find Andrew Irvine and his camera because Everest experts believe that the camera will unlock the secret of Mallory's last climb.

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

Everest | 67th Anniversary of the First Ascent May 29th 1953

Hillary and Tenzing about to leave the South Col to establish Camp IX on the south east ridge - May 28th 1953 - Photo By Alf Gregory / Copyright Royal Geographical Society

Today is sixty seven  years since the first ascent of Everest. And due to the cornavirus global pandemic there will be no ascents of the mountain from the Nepal side in 2020. As I write this post news has just come in that a Chinese team have climbed Everest from the Tibet side. 


On 29th May 1953 at 11.30 am, a Sherpa and a New Zealander became the first men to stand on top of the highest peak on this planet.  However the intervening years has seen a sea change as far as Everest is concerned. The mountain   has now become a playground for guided expeditions, with clients paying between thirty thousand  to  eighty thousand dollars or more to stand on the highest point on earth. The South Col route climbed in 1953 is now disdainfully referred to as the “yak trail”. The dangerous icefall below the Western Cwm is maintained by a team of sherpas right through the season led by a senior “Icefall Doctor.” 

In order to make it possible for the clients to summit Everest, the entire mountain has fixed rope from bottom to top and the first to summit each year is a Sherpa team. 

Kami Rita Sherpa created a new record in 2019 by summiting Everest 24  times - week he has summitted Everest twice in the 2019 season -  the most by any climber breaking his own record of 22 summits. I wonder if anyone will break Kami's record - maybe Kami himself  in 2021. 

 However, this post recounts through photographs,  the 1953 climb, the historic ascent of the first two men to summit Everest and the team of climbers and sherpas who supported them through this endeavour.

Annapurna South Face | 50 Years of the First Ascent May 27th 1970

Don Whillans and Mick Burke at a snowed under Base Camp

The route of the 1970 British Annapurna South Face expedition 

On 27th May 1970 just before the monsoon was going to break Don Whillans and Dougal Haston reached the summit of Annapurna I by the difficult south face route. This climb by a  British expedition led by Sir Chris Bonington   was a landmark one  in the sense that it was the start of big wall climbing in the Himalaya especially on 8000 metre peaks by the difficult routes. For the British, it was possibly the most important climb after the successful ascent of Everest in 1953.

Sadly, on the descent  from the mountain an ice avalanche without any warning  below Camp II killed Ian Clough, one of the climbers.

Interestingly, the year 1970  saw a number of  big wall climbs  in the Himalaya and Karakoram- The Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat was attempted by the Germans, The Japanese on the south west face of Everest, the French on the  west ridge and buttress of Makalu and the British on the south face of Annapurna.

This post shows some historic photographs from the 1970 climb very kindly shared with me by Sir Chris Bonington. 

Everest | The West Ridge May 22nd 1963

Tom Horbein
 “But at times I wondered if I had not come a long way only to find that what I really sought was something I had left behind.”

Willi Unsoeld

Today is the 57th anniversary of one of the most epic and iconic climbs on Mount Everest - the first ascent of the West Ridge and the first traverse of the mountain. 

As the British newspaper The Guardian mentions "The American pair, Unsoeld and Hornbein, achieved a major climb by what was undoubtedly a very difficult route which no previous party had explored at all. In 1953, the British party stood on the shoulders of the Swiss party of 1952, and the Swiss to some extent on Shipton's reconnaissance of the Khumbu Icefall in 1951. The Americans were on virgin ground for more than 9,000 feet. Second, these two made the first traverse of a great Himalayan peak, ascending on one side and descending another. Third, two American parties reached the summit on one day by different routes. 

On 21^st May 1963 at six o’clock in the evening two climbers reached 27,205 feet (8300 metres) to set up Camp 5W on the west ridge of Everest. Tom Horbein a US anesthesiologist then 32 years old and Willi Unsoeld , a mountain guide then 36 years of age were poised for the final push to the summit of Everest by a new route.