MIR 8 ( MAKE IT REAL MOUNTAINEERING PROGRAMME)2009 EXPEDITION TO ISLAND PEAK(6189M), NEPAL
Alfa Nepal is definitely the best trek company I have engaged in my years of experience of trekking and climbing all around the world. Great service! Awesome food! The guides, Tenzeeng, Jangbu and Pasang are excellent and very experienced. Being around them I can definitely feel their passion and love for what they are doing. To us, they are more than just guides. They have become our friends!!!
......................................................................................................................................................................................
No! I'm not ready yet to scale up Everest. My aim is a much shorter peak, about 8-10 kilometer to the southeast of Everest. It's named Island Peak, or Imja Tse by the locals. At 6189 meter above sea-level, the peak is however a dwarf as compared to the towering giant over-7000m peaks, such as Lhotse and Makalu that surround it.
It's remotely located deep into Khumbu. It took us 11 days of journey by foot to reach the base-camp. Along the way we passed many towns and villages, hanging precariously over the cliff and mountain ranges. The town on the lower right is called Thyangboche, where a monastery resides. People going further into Khumbu region to climb any peak will stop by asking for blessing from the monks). Over this period, we were staying mostly over at tea-houses, traversing over 50 kilometers horizontal distance while gaining 2500 over meters in altitude. Mountaineers are usually stubborn people who barely afraid of anything. In fact, we defy everything: from the heeds of our parents, even to the point of defying the law of nature itself (well, for sure we defy gravity). However, those few things that we do afraid are: (1) acute-mountain sickness (AMS), and (2) bad weather. AMS, caused by low oxygen level at high altitude, can attack anyone, even the most fit mountaineer. But, thanks God that none our group experienced AMS problem more severe than headache and loss of appetite. The key was to ascend slowly with enough rest to acclimatize and drink a lot of water.
But we are not very lucky with the weather. Well, partly because of our fault of going so late into the summer. It's well off the climbing season, and the weather has turned wet. We were hampered by continuous drizzling for the first few days of the trek. If it's drizzling at low altitude, it's snowing at high altitude. And it did cost us dearly: we failed to summit Island Peak by merely 150 meters below the peak. I shouldn't bore you with the details on that eventful day, of which details I furnish in my Facebook Notes. Enough to say that the weather was so bad that we had no choice but to turn back.
God, however, blessed us with a relatively good weather after that. We went around Khumbu from the east to the west side of Everest, climbed up Kalapattar (5545m) Everest it's the 3rd dark peak from left. Immediately to the right of Everest, at the foreground is Nuptse... Nuptse and Lhotse altogether forms a wall of mountain ranges that shield Everest from west and east side repsetively). Kalapattar also provides an excellent view of Pumo Ri taken together with one of the Unitehopeproject angel at the foreground.
Breath-taking! That's the scenery!... Lovely! That's the culture!... Awesome! That's the experience!! I will definitely get back to Nepal for another expedition.
cheerios,
It's remotely located deep into Khumbu. It took us 11 days of journey by foot to reach the base-camp. Along the way we passed many towns and villages, hanging precariously over the cliff and mountain ranges. The town on the lower right is called Thyangboche, where a monastery resides. People going further into Khumbu region to climb any peak will stop by asking for blessing from the monks). Over this period, we were staying mostly over at tea-houses, traversing over 50 kilometers horizontal distance while gaining 2500 over meters in altitude. Mountaineers are usually stubborn people who barely afraid of anything. In fact, we defy everything: from the heeds of our parents, even to the point of defying the law of nature itself (well, for sure we defy gravity). However, those few things that we do afraid are: (1) acute-mountain sickness (AMS), and (2) bad weather. AMS, caused by low oxygen level at high altitude, can attack anyone, even the most fit mountaineer. But, thanks God that none our group experienced AMS problem more severe than headache and loss of appetite. The key was to ascend slowly with enough rest to acclimatize and drink a lot of water.
But we are not very lucky with the weather. Well, partly because of our fault of going so late into the summer. It's well off the climbing season, and the weather has turned wet. We were hampered by continuous drizzling for the first few days of the trek. If it's drizzling at low altitude, it's snowing at high altitude. And it did cost us dearly: we failed to summit Island Peak by merely 150 meters below the peak. I shouldn't bore you with the details on that eventful day, of which details I furnish in my Facebook Notes. Enough to say that the weather was so bad that we had no choice but to turn back.
God, however, blessed us with a relatively good weather after that. We went around Khumbu from the east to the west side of Everest, climbed up Kalapattar (5545m) Everest it's the 3rd dark peak from left. Immediately to the right of Everest, at the foreground is Nuptse... Nuptse and Lhotse altogether forms a wall of mountain ranges that shield Everest from west and east side repsetively). Kalapattar also provides an excellent view of Pumo Ri taken together with one of the Unitehopeproject angel at the foreground.
Breath-taking! That's the scenery!... Lovely! That's the culture!... Awesome! That's the experience!! I will definitely get back to Nepal for another expedition.
cheerios,
ANDREAS (Leader)
MIR 8
No comments:
Post a Comment