red panda

cheers!!! here's my trek post. if you want the short version i've put a brief summary and if you want details, the long version is below. oh and i ditched the rolling duffel from hell!! unfortunately it was ditched unceremoniously but it had to be done! i hope someone in yuksom finds use for that lunky thing! i personally would've liked to crawl inside it and blast out of the mtns in it luge-style but that would've required it to be lugged up...

short trek summary:

- with israeli couple for first few days. visit dzongri top for sunrise (a 1 hr steep 4a.m. climb with amazing stars and frost shimmering under the light of my headlamp), visit dzongri pass later in the afternoon for more fab mtn views

- next 5 days trek mostly alone with my guide and porters right at my heels. the guide doesn't speak much unless i ask a question and if the porters are around they chat in nepali right behind me. if i stop for any reason (to cough, blow my nose, pull my trekking poles from a rock or something, they all stop, nearly crashing into me and become silent). i spend much of my time devising ways to get my entourage to go around me. i'm served my meals alone usually next to my sleeping bag on the floor of the trekkers hut. they have this large thermos type thing with 4 silver pots and i always get 4 pots of things. way tooooo much !

- day to tashing is beautiful scenery: meadows, ridge walk, mtns everywhere... it's gorgeous

- this night i share the floor with west bengalis. start hiking at 2:30a.m. and reach goechela for sunrise. it's breathtaking!! it's a long, hard hiking day and i drag my body back to camp, pack up and head to the next lower hut (12 hrs hiking at altitude... zzzzzzzzzzzz). 2 more days and i'm out!



if you want the long version it follows:

so i booked my 8 days trek to goechela from yuksom with a company in gangtok. i felt a bit apprehensive about booking with this company... seemed maybe a bit shady but none of the other companies i talked to had groups going out. there was one company i wanted to use b/c the man in the office seemed professional, spent a lot of time w/ me assuring me there would be a yak, horses in case my knee blew out and i needed a lift, a tent, etc, etc with the horses in case someone had a problem being the greatest selling point. however, he said he had one older indian man who probably wanted to go and that was it. couldn't envision spending 8 days in the mtns with one older indian man (wierd) so i looked elsewhere. i went to resum (silk) tours and treks which was right across from my hotel. i walked in and asked "do you have any groups going out for the goechela trek in the next couple of days?". the answer was "yes, we have a group of 4 americans going out day after tomorrow. they're in yuksom already so tomorrow you will go to yuksom". yahoo! i had met an israeli couple earlier who wanted to arrange a trip to yumthang valley but were also having trouble organizing a group so, they decided to do the first 3 days of the trek with me as they had seen me sign my life away in the office. they found me later and relayed the news and i thought, great! there'll now be me, the other 4 americans and the israelis for a few days at least. the more the merrier! we're on our way to yuksom and the israelis, dvit and moses, have heard nothing of the 4 americans. hmmm??? i question the managing director who refers to himself as red panda, who's a total sales guy and does resemble a red panda somehow, a somewhat short guy with this funky patch of dyed reddish hair, funky ear piercings or something... hard to describe but he thinks highly of himself and is all "no problem my friend". so, i find out there is no group and it's me and the israelis for 3 days and then i'm on my own with the guide after that. i explain to him that this isn't what i was sold and not what i wanted. i wanted companionship on this trek as i'm traveling 3 mths solo and was trying to meet people but he told me it is luxurious to trek solo and i should feel lucky. there was no getting thru. i then found out there was no yak which is fine there were two horses and porters to carry stuff. i then found out there was no tent so i would not be camping at the dreamy camp at the base of the climb to goechela that i have been dying to camp at for a very long time and would be staying in yet another trekkers hut about 2 hrs from that point thereby adding an extra 4 hrs onto my hiking day if i did, in fact, go for goechela. i'm thinking i might call it quits at dzongri which is 3 days out and 3 days back (what the israelis were doing) but i've already paid for the full deal and i'm not good at quitting. i also contracted a nasty head cold before starting out and i feel like crap. the first few days are somewhat uneventful (mainly trekking thru rododendrun forest which when rododendrun are in bloom must be amazing but now are not and without mtn views first 2 days), lonely, disappointing... sharing trekkers huts with the israeli couple which was fine with the highlight being hiking from dzongri hut to dzongri top for sunrise. the sky was absolutely littered with stars and the light from my headlamp made the morning frost glisten as if the earth was covered in diamond dust. the climb was steep and my breathing was hard and fast and i sooo wanted to turn back and slither back into the warmth of my 2 sleeping bags but i pushed on and was at the pass in an hr's time. the view of the mtn's bathed in the early morning light was beautiful (however not much different from that of tiger hill in darjeeling without the crowds so i thought again of turning back with the israelis). it was beyond freezing so i stayed for about a half hr and then turned back. the sun made the frost-covered alpine plants glisten like red and orange gems... it was really beautiful and reminded me of the alpine gardens of the white mtns. the israelis left this afternoon. i dined alone with my dinner served on the floor of the hut next to my sleeping bag (which i eventually got somewhat used to)... ugh! later that night i was joined in the hut by a 31 yo basque man who had ridden his bike from basque to mumbai india and had done other adventurous long bike rides, like one from i think he said durango to panama! unfortunately his english wasn't that great and my spanish is horrible so... i didn't get enuff info on this adventurer. however, he met three other guys from spain that were tenting there that night and they invited me to hang out with them while they had their dinner. it was like a night out for me!! it was awesome to hang out with people i could relate to and not just be laying in my sleeping bag shivering by myself as i felt like i had been doing forever. one of the guys spoke really good english and he acted as translator or we just had side chats. they were a good laugh and were also climbers and had been to areas of south america i had so that was cool too. their guide was also great... very energetic and talkative and enjoyed entertaining his clients. my guide is a very nice 21 yo guy who has done the trek many times but has limited english and doesn't have a lot to say to me. so, he's fine to lead the way but doesn't offer much more... altho he tries to answer my questions when asked and knows the names and elevations of the surrounding peaks. anyway, the spanish guys invited me to join their trek but they were doing a route that required a tent and i didn't have one so i was stuck alone. thinking of the prospect of the next days alone and dining solo from my sleeping bag, i again started considering turning back. however, i made the decision to go one more day beyond the dzongri trek, see if the scenery started getting more spectacular and then would decide. the trek from dzongri to tashing was beautiful... following a ridge, crossing meadows with snowcapped peaks looming in the distance and yaks making a trail to the mtns, the sound of their bells ringing thru the hills. this is the first day i'm truly glad i came on this trek (day4 i believe). after a couple hrs of trekking however, the trail leads steeply down... REALLY steeply and for a very long time (like 2 hrs). my knee started cracking and burning and i was a bit panicked but luckily it got me in one piece to tashing.
my guide, pouran, follows right on my heels like a trained dog... i have a cold but if i stop to blow my nose, he nearly crashes into me. when he meets up with his porter friends, they all follow at my heels, chatting in nepali and if my trekking pole gets stuck and i have to stop, or i have to blow my nose, or whatever, they all stop and become silent. i find every excuse i can to have them go around me. this goes on for the entire 8 days! so anyway, i survive the trek to tashing from which i'm supposed to then go to goechela (this is the highlight of the trek and it's over 16,000ft basically to the base of kachenjunga, the world's third highest peak). a group of 20 older europeans (i think the austrian alpine club... can't remember either austrian club with also 2 swiss people or swiss alpine club with also 2 austrians) are having lunch at a plastic table with chairs at the hut when i arrive. they're a very inspiring, sweet, energetic bunch in their late 50s to maybe early 70s and i chat with them before their lunch arrives. they tell me it's 8 hrs from there to goechela which would mean i'd have a 16 hr high altitude hiking day to get there and would most likely not make it for sunrise which is the highlight. i'm feeling very alone and defeated. i didn't come for the challenge of my life, i just wanted a beautiful trek. i would have to leave at 10p.m. and hike all night in order to catch the sunrise and then hike back all the next day on a crap knee with no one to feel like crap with. this is not appealing to me at all... so i wish them well before they set off to their further camp but say i prob won't see them again. that night i find i'm sleeping on the floor of the cold hut with 2 older west bengali men. one stands up and announces, "madam, madam" "only unbuckling my belt nothing more". very funny, the cultural differences here and i wonder how this is going to be. how strange for all of us. then another west bengali couple and their six year old son join and a gangster looking pair of younger guys also join to dine there (one rolling his own cigarettes which when my guide comes in to drop off my dinner, he does question him on to make sure its' only tobacco). the gangster types do a lot of staring at me as i try to rest shivering in my bags and decide what i want to do. i decide to come out of my coccoon and make conversation to deflect the staring and everyone is very nice. i can't help feeling so strange being a lone american girl sharing the floor with this odd mix of west bengalis (all from kolcata). they think i'm crazy to consider going all the way to goechela from this hut but then again, they're all in tennis shoes and no trekking gear at all and walk very slowly. i tell porin (my guide) i'm not going but he convinces me it'll only be 8 hrs round trip and i should go for it so i agree to try knowing full well it'll take me longer than 8 but convinced it won't be 16.

so one thing i've learned during this trip is that west bengalis are typically very noisy people (my apologies for the generalization). not only are they noisy awake but apparently they're also noisy when they sleep :) i didn't catch a wink of sleep due to the snoring so when i got the wake up call at 2 i just got up and went. the initial slog thru the valley was better than i had expected; not too cold, i felt tired and a bit nauseas but i was able to somewhat enjoy the starlit hike. we then reached the steeps leading up to goechela. my breathing was very heavy, my head cold had become a chest cold and i was hacking a bit so this also didn't help but just when i was starting to feel awful, i saw them... massive stark white pinnacles, poking up behind the ridge. i wanted to climb faster as the sky was beginning to lighten and i feared i would miss sunrise, but my body wouldn't let me. i could see a line of headlamps ahead of me and knew it was the austrian group... i was so happy for them that they would make it for sunrise! finally, pooran says, "jody, 5 minutes more"... we reach the first view point about 2 minutes before the sun began painting kachenjunga, mt pandim, etc with a fiery glow. it was absolutely magnificent! as i approached, several of the swiss people congratulated me and then my two favorite ladies spotted me... they shouted to each other, "look who's here!!" and i could tell were genuinely so happy i made it! it was very sweet! they said they had worried about me and all talked about me the night before and hoped they'd see me up there. their kindness re-energized my spirit! getting to the 2nd viewpoint i felt like a 100 yo smoker... from this point we had a view of the shimmering limestone green lake below and kanchenjunga dominating the landscape. WOW! i enjoyed the view for about 1 hr despite the cold, sharing the top with a couple of younger swiss guys who offered homemade swiss jerky but i was too nauseas to partake and could only think of chocolate (Mel will be shocked since when we hit the summit of mt pisco, our 19,000 footer in peru, i didn't even rejoice i just fell to the ground and started digging for the same... chocolate). i had no idea how i was going to get myself back to camp. BUT, in the end i did. after several hrs, we returned to the valley and as i slowly worked my way back, dragging my nauseas, exhausted body, hacking up a lung and generally feeling like death rolled over, i started meeting up with different members of the west bengalis from the hut. each one shook my hand and were sooo amazed and fired up that i reached goechela from the hut, i felt like a celebrity. i think this is what got me back. it definitely helped my spirit a ton! i got back to camp, packed up my stuff and completed the last leg down to the lower hut and after 12 hrs of hiking at altitude i was done! i had no idea how i would lug myself out 2 more days on my aching, creaking knees but for the day i was done!! my cook (who was amazing and always presented things so nicely, even cutting elegant designs in napkins to serve snacks on) made me a full apple pie that evening! haaaaaaa!

so, the last 2 days out are really difficult on my knees, lots of ups and downs (not to mention the back of my knee is practically an open wound from the brace rubbing against it for 8 days) and i'm just ready to be done walking alone or with porin and troop at my heels and to be done with dining from my sleeping bag with my 4 pots of stuff coming out of the plastic thermos that follows me everywhere... very good food but i'm just tired of the routine and of course in need of a hot shower! anyway, i finally made it OUT and spent a couple days relaxing in sleepy yuksom trying to kick my chest cold! then, after a long shared jeep ride to jorethang with 14 indians and me and a flat tire that was changed 3x and another packed shared jeep on to darjeeling, getting stuck in the divali traffic jam, i'm now chilling out in darjeeling trying to get the next leg of my journey rolling. 30th i leave for kolcata and then on to bodhgaya, sonepur for the sonepur mela (animal fair), varanasi and we'll see from there. i'm off to treat myself to a cappucino after fighting for position at the train reservation counter... i'm getting o.k. at pushing and shoving but i still require respite afterwards. cheers!!!