Images on the Way to Mera

Here's a pic from Kare, on the way to Mera. It was actually distilled from my old video camera in "super-nightshot" mode.

I'm a bit pissed that I wasn't more liberal with the camera up there, but you can see another handful of pics here (in slideshow format...give them time to load).

Mera Peak, Amazing Sherpas

I just returned from a jaunt up Mera Peak. "Jaunt" is a fair describer of the climb...there were really no technical challenges on the way up. The last 50 meters or so is a bit steep, so they've got a line onto which you can attach a jumar, if you wish. The line is interrupted by a snowbar or ice-axe or something at some point, so it's necessary to detach and reattach your jumar at that point. Never mind, though...they've got a Sherpa stationed right there, ready to take care of those pesky details for you. The immediate impression I got was that of being on a scary amusement park ride, where operators check that you're properly harnessed before the ride proceeds. Honestly...that's what passed through my mind at 6,450 or so meters!

The lines disappear quickly over a course of days or weeks. A mountain like Everest must have thousands of ice screws, pitons, and snowbars embedded in her rock and ice. The really dangerous work is to re-establish a grip on these mountains. These days, that work is accomplished almost entirely by Sherpas. With the lines already set, the clients need only be bright enough to make sure their jumars are simultaneously attached to their lines and harnesses. Hmmmmm.

From my own count, few folks failed to make the summit. Some of those who made it did not have the most impressive physiques. The speed at which one can adjust to the altitude does not seem to be easily gauged beforehand. One pleasing fact: older folks seem to handle the altitudes better than young folks. Hooray! Where else does age give one a physical advantage? A mid-aged German guy spoke with joy of his encounter with a super-fit young Canadian climber who needed assistance down to a lower camp.

I don't mean to poo-poo the experience of climbing Mera. Having woken around 3:00 AM, you walk up a decent slope with less than 50% of the atmospheric oxygen available at sea-level. Depending on your speed, it could take 3-5 hours from high camp. Even my Everest-conquering guide Nima vomited on the way down. Rust-colored. I think it was the canned tuna fish our porters fried up for us. In the week we spent trekking toward the peak, it was obvious that the climb had taken a toll on many folks via seriously chapped lips, sunburn, a gimpy gait, whatever.

The weather is a huge factor in your chances of success. We enjoyed perfect weather on the summit. With the sun reflecting off the snow, I could have shed a layer of clothing. The next day was sour, however, with one Czech dude suffering frostbite on his toes. He was worried that the docs might have to do some snipping in Kathmandu, though I do believe he'll be OK.

More than anything, the appeal of Mera is the view. Everest and Makalu are right in your face. Kanchenjunga, the 3rd highest mountain in the world, looks like a fortress in the distance. There's Cho Oyu, beautiful Ama Dablam, Pumori, and more. Hopefully, you'll retain enough consciousness to appreciate it all in the rarefied atmosphere.

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Unbeknownst to the morons at TITV here in Thailand*, there are good reasons why folks don't climb Everest in October. The lack of action on the monster peaks at this time of year means that you'll meet some really amazing Sherpa climbers guiding expeditions on the lesser peaks. Let me tell you a bit about these guys:

Most impressive was Dawa Sherpa. If you watch the Discovery channel, you know that your typical Everest expedition requires a base camp and four higher camps. The whole process might take 2 months for a foreigner, who shells out as much as $100,000 to reach his dream. But Mr. Dawa simply began his adventure at the base camp on the Tibet side of Everest, reached the Summit, and traversed down to the Nepali base camp in a total of 20 hours. He told me he was a bit disappointed, since he was shooting for 18 hours. All told, Mr. Dawa has summited Everest 8 times.



Then there was Danu Sherpa. Our trek paralled that of Danu and his two wonderful clients, Christian and Chantal (sorry, no photos), so we had plenty of chances to interact with Danu. Not only has he summited Everest 11 times, and Annapurna I once (which is enough, given a 50% death rate), but he's also a radiantly friendly individual.

I shouldn't neglect my own guide, Nima. At the age of 22, he organized and led a Nepali team up Everest.



Finally, there's the story of a Sherpa whose name eludes me who loaded up on Nepali rakshi (a hard alcohol that Sherpas sometimes refer to as "oxygen"), left his home in Pangboche, summited Everest, and returned home to Pangboche in a span of 30 hours.

High altitude climbing, not to mention high-altitude portering, will never be an Olympic event, but I find the accomplishments of these Sherpas to be truly mind-blowing. It was about 30 years ago that Tenzing Norgay surmised that Reinhold Messner must have cheated on the way to the first ascent of Everest without bottled oxygen. Since then, however, it seems that the Sherpas have discovered their almost unhuman high altitude talents, and I'll be a bit surprised if any non-Sherpas come close to duplicating the above feats.
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*The Thai TV station TITV sponsored an Everest expedition in October-November of 2007. The unusual timing was supposed to honor King Bhumibol, whose birthday falls on Dec. 5. You could see updates and live reports amidst bombastic music nightly on TITV. The team failed about 800 meters below the summit. In May of 2008, the first Thai reached the summit. He had failed to attract any sponsors whatsoever, but later managed to minimize his costs by joining a Vietnamese team. The accomplishment was met with surprisingly little fanfare in Thailand.

Despite the comparative ease of climbing Mera, no Thais have done it! We scoured the records! Below, I attempt to advance the cause. Pardon the fractured footage...apparently, Nima found my video camera to be more challenging than Everest.

Mera Peak, Trekking, Maoists in Nepal

Above is my favorite pic from a trek in the Everest region. For a few more nice, if unexceptional, pics, click here: http://s219.photobucket.com/albums/cc143/ngong/trekking1/?action=view&current=b63d4c70.pbw

The initial plan was to climb Mera Peak, perhaps the 2nd highest non-technical (i.e. no serious climbing skills required) summit in the world. Aconcagua in South America is probably 1rst, though the distinction between "technical" and "non-technical" is, naturally, fuzzy.

Unfortunately, we were hit with heavy snow after just one day of trekking. You can trek on rock, you can trek on heavy snow, you can trek on ice (with crampons), but there's no easy way to trek a steep, rocky, snowy, icy trail. Our porters clearly didn't want to continue.

We settled for an "ordinary" trek in the Everest region. Having done it before, it was a bit of a disappointment. I was mentally and physically primed for a fairly serious challenge, a new experience, and a first hand view of the amazing postcard pics of Mera that initially inspired me. On the other hand, it's difficult to complain about this part of the world...you've got to be awfully dense to be un-amazed simply because you've seen it once before. I remember very little of the initial trek 15 years ago. I guess that's a blessing.

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While we were trekking, Nepalis were voting. The mountain folks were glued to their scratchy-sounding radios for a number of days (results poured in slowly). When things were sorted out, the Maoists had won a plurality of parliamentary seats, against most Western predictions.

I'm puzzled by the Maoists, and those who voted for the Maoists. Prachanda and his disciples are supposedly responsible for 13,000 deaths over the last decade. I've spoken to folks who have lost relatives via a Maoist's kurkri knife to the neck. I've spoken one-on-one to a Maoist who sought to eliminate religion, the opiate of the masses, from Nepal. Just below, in my previous post, you'll see an ancient mani stone defaced with Maoist graffiti. Though trekkers weren't killed, they were forcefully asked for "donations" (typically around $100) in the days when Maoism was more underground.

So how could the Nepalis vote Maoist? Some have claimed a "Stockholm Syndrome" of sorts. Others claimed voter intimidation...though Jimmy Carter and friends monitored the election in big cities, the myriad smaller villages were supposed hotbeds of manipulation. Less conspiratorially, it seems that the Maoists simply offered better slogans, were better funded, more motivated, and more PR-savvy. And they offered bigger promises, right on up to a $3,000/year standard of living. That's awfully hard to deliver in a country where the average income comes in at about a sixth of that.

Finally, the Nepalis dislike their King. Polls showed that this dislike was limited to roughly 50% of the population, but you've got to wonder about the accuracy of such a poll in a country where, not so long ago, anti-monarchists were persecuted. This time, none of the four major parties supported anything other than a ceremonial monarchy, but the Maoists were clearest on this issue...they seek to remove the King from the palace and dismantle the monarchy in its entirety. There seems to be some debate as to whether the King should receive some sort of yearly stipend or not.

In any case, I didn't meet a single Nepali who seemed horribly concerned about the result. Perhaps that's because, in terms of promises/policy/platform, this "Maoism" seem to have little
in common with historic Maoism. You know, MAO Zedong, government control of land and wages, loony agricultural policies, cultural revolution, suppression of human rights/religion/voting, one-party state, etc. The Nepali "Maoists" have yet to show the slightest inclination toward totalitarianism, socialism, etc. So either the Maoists really have nothing to do with Mao/Maoism, or the Nepali people will be seen to be the victims of a supreme con. Or something in between. We'll see.

The tendency is to suspect a Chinese hand behind all this. The Nepalis deny this, and there aren't any known links between Prachanda and the Chinese. On the other hand, I was surprised to run across Chinese folks on trails and buses. I have no memory of ever meeting a Chinese national in my previous travels to Nepal. Perhaps I'm just seeing the result of increased Chinese affluence and the freedom to travel beyond Chinese borders. Perhaps not. Even if there's no Chinese version of the CIA manipulating events in Nepal, it'll be interesting to see if Prachanda and crew attempt to strike deals with China in an attempt to raise the living standard in Nepal.