Tibet 2014

Trekking with the Buddhas of Longevity and Wisdom
in Mallory and Irvine's footsteps

by Christina Crowther

To make things clear from the start, we were not headed for the North Col of Everest: our aim was to get as close to the Kangshung face as possible and enjoy the views of Everest, Lhotse and Makalu from the northeast. Nevertheless, reading accounts of Mallory's search for THE route to the North Col of Everest on his first expedition in the 1921, we were very much aware that we were following to some extent a path he and his companions had followed almost a century earlier, hoping it would eventually lead them to the summit of the highest mountain in the world.

Group at Everest Base Camp no views
Photo Christina Crowther

Our group of eleven assembled in Kathmandu at the beginning of October. Everything had been excellently organised by Margaret and George Taylor along with Wilderness Experience who provided our guide, Phu Tashi, our cook, Biri, and 5 sherpas to accompany us. Our Tibetan guide, Dawa, was to join us at the Chinese/Tibetan border. The plan was to drive from Kathmandu, crossing the Chinese border at Kodari, and make our way via The Friendship Highway (the road to Lhasa) turning off at Tingri and driving along the Kharta valley to Kharta, our starting point for the trek to the Kangshung face. Although a short trek, the immediate ascent to over 4000m means that some acclimatisation has to take place en-route before the trek even begins.

The drive itself is an adventure. After leaving the Kathmandu valley, the road winds perilously up through the Sun Kosi gorge, a stretch battered annually by the monsoon rains and prone to massive landslides. This year a huge part of the hillside had slipped on 2 August, killing a dozen villagers, destroying houses in its wake and blocking the river for days, threatening to cause huge floods lower down the valley. When we arrived two months afterwards, there was still no through road, but the army had cleared the river and built a footpath, which we and a dozen porters, carrying our trekking supplies, bags and tents, could cross in order to reach the bus the other side which would take us to the border. Border formalities after crossing the Friendship Bridge (no photos!) into China were surprisingly simple. Apart from having to present our group visa, we only had to assure the Chinese authorities we were not carrying Ebola into the country.

Himalayan Gentians

After the border the road begins to climb to a serious height, making it necessary to spend two nights to acclimatise at Nyelam (3730m) and Tingri (4390m) on the way to the Karta Valley. In between, the road crosses 2 passes exceeding 5000m with wonderful views of Shisha Pangma to the west and Cho Oyu and Everest to the east. The road to Everest Base Camp and the Karta valley turns off in Tingri and deteriorates to a dirt road. Nevertheless the contrast to Nepal could not be starker. In their 64 years rule in Tibet the Chinese have crisscrossed the Tibetan Plateau with roads and railways, enabling them to access the remotest areas. At present the road to Everest Base Camp is being developed from a dirt track to a highway. It has already become an easy, if uncomfortable, drive of 4 hours from the main road, featured on nearly every Tibetan itinerary. Most tourists in Tibet are motorised and arrive at base camp in a 4x4 SUV or a minibus, some even by bike, but certainly not on foot. Very unromantic!

Having passed all the checkpoints on the way to Kharta, we reached the starting point for our trek. This was a 12 day hike over Shoa La (4910m) and up to the high pastures which lead to the Kangshung glacier and Kangshung base camp. This is the closest one can get to the northeast side of Everest and views of Makalu, Lhotse Shar, Everest and the Kangshung Face can be spectacular - weather permitting. The return route backtracks and crosses another high pass, Langma La 5360m), dropping down into the Kharta valley further north. As it was, we were not so lucky with the weather. The first 4 days went well, apart from the usual short delay organising yaks and yakmen. The Chinese have introduced a rotation system, whereby all the yak herders get their slot and trek leaders are obliged to take the next on the list. This just-in-time principle means the yaks only appear on the day the trek leaves, not before.

Camping near to Rongbuk Monastery

Our 15 yaks and five yakmen and one yak lady did us proud. Yaks are wayward beasts, however, and sometimes stray far from camp in the night, which means rounding them up the next day and this takes time. The terrain we crossed was mainly high grazing pastures for yaks in the summer. There are no villages or villagers, so we saw no-one except a few yak herders on the way. Trekking groups are rare and there were just two groups ahead of us.

The views of Everest and Lhotse were splendid as we got higher up but, unfortunately, the weather started to close in after 4 days and the yakmen were worried that we could get heavy snowfalls as in the previous 2 years, when avalanches had caused severe casualties. Without a weather forecast and cut off from all communication with the outside world, we had to rely on the experience of the locals and decided to curtail our trek, not wanting to go so far up the Kangshung glacier and risking trouble getting back if snowfalls were severe. This was exactly the time of the heavy snowfalls in the Annapurna region in Nepal, as we later discovered.

View north from Langma La

The important thing was to get across the Langma La at over 5000m before too much snow fell. As it was, some snow did fall in the night at high camp, but not enough to prevent our safe ascent and descent back into the Kharta valley the next day. The views from Langma La were amazing, especially to the north where the ranges are all between 6000 and 7000m. We descended almost 1500m on the last day, returning to a warmer camp before setting off in our minibuses for Everest Base Camp and the Rongbuk monastery, at 5000m the highest monastery in the world. Here the weather was even worse! Our final night in the grounds of the monastery was icy, but a quick visit to a deserted and windy EBC had to be made, just for the record, a most uninspiring place especially without the view!

After a short tour of the monastery in Rongbuk, we set off on the bumpy journey back to the main road and our hotel in Tingri. The next morning the sky was blue and Everest clearly visible with a thin plume of cloud blowing off its summit. But by now we were 80 miles away!

After our trek to Kanshung base camp and the obligatory visit to Rongbuk, we decided to spend 2 nights in Shigatse, the second largest town in Tibet and seat of the Panchen Lama and 2 nights in Gyantse, a smaller town but with an interesting monastery and temple. Driving over the Tibetan plateau we were surprised how fertile the land is, barley being the main cereal produced. Heinrich Harrer, describing his amazing walk to Lhasa 1942-44, was also surprised at the fertility of the valleys around the Brahmaputra river which springs in the Trans-Himalyan plain. All types of vegetables and fruit grow in abundance in the strong summer sun, watered by the monsoon rains in July and August.

Tashilumpo monastery, Shigatse

Since the Chinese invasion in 1950 Tibet has been catapulted into moder nity and farming has increased to such an extent that there is now a risk of overproduction. The erosion of the countryside poses a serious problem. In spite of on-going political tension in Tibet as a whole, the severe persecution of the Buddhist religion and the destruction of the monasteries during Mao's cultural revolution has given way to a more tolerant policy. Monasteries are being reconstructed and maintained, monks and pilgrims can pursue their religion. Chinese tourists are on the increase and now far outnumber visitors from the West.

Street on old town of Gyantse

The monasteries we visited were full of pilgrims from all over Tibet and we had an intensive initiation into Buddhism from our guide Dawa, who devotes the winter months in Lhasa, when there are no trekking tours, to the study of Buddhist teachings. The Tashilumpo monastery in Shigatse and the impressive Dzong (fortress) in Gyantse are splendid examples of Tibetan culture. Both towns retain a Tibetan atmosphere, although modern Chinese housing is springing up everywhere and the number of Han Chinese residents rising steadily. Nevertheless the old parts of the towns maintain their original character.

The Potola, Lhasa

Lhasa itself is a thriving and bustling Chinese town, expanding fast. The area round the Potala, which is an amazing sight, and Barkhor square with the Drepung Monastery at its centre, are still quintessentially Tibetan. In the smaller monasteries in Lhasa, in the back streets where few tourists go, one has the feeling time has stood still. Tibetan ladies sell herbs for burning in the open kilns in front of the monastery. The atmosphere is heady with the smoke from butter lamps and incense. Inside hundreds of pilgrims prostrate themselves and pay tribute to the Buddhist gods in the form of small bank notes and make offerings of butter and tsampa, (roasted barley). Throngs of pilgrims in every monastery we visited reassured us that Buddhism is still very much alive in Tibet today. The Sera monastery, 15km outside the city, famous for its public debating culture gods in the form of small bank notes and make offerings of butter and tsampa, (roasted barley). Throngs of in the courtyards, is as much visited by Chinese and western tourists, as is the Potala.

Monks debating in Sera Monastery, Lhasa
Photos by Christina Crowther

The great train ride - Lhasa to Beijing

After 5 days in Lhasa it was time to move on, this time with the Tibet railway, a 42h journey in Tourist 1st Class soft sleeper to the capital. The train ride gives one an amazing impression of the vastness and emptiness of the Tibetan plateau, the first 12 hours or so crossing the high plateau and passes over 5000m. Built partially on permafrost terrain, the embankments of the line must be artificially cooled by a complex system of pipelines filled with ammonia to prevent melting in summer. The train is also equipped with oxygen for those travelling in the other direction and not yet acclimatised! The second day of the journey the train passes through the western provinces of China including burgeoning towns such as Lanzhou, a huge building site with kilometres of high rise buildings being constructed. The urbanisation of China is rapidly moving forward. In Beijing itself this process took place before the Olympic Games in 2008. Primed by our media to expect smog and traffic jams, we were pleasantly surprised by sunny days and traffic no worse than we encounter back home. We spent 4 days in the capital, visiting the Ti'Anmen Square, the Forbidden City, Ming Tombs and various palaces, excellently led by our English speaking guide, Sophie. A short ascent up part of the Great Wall, 50km north of the city, was the highest we got after leaving Tibet, with no need for acclimatisation! The homeward flight from Beijing completed a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting trip.

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