APW: Walking in the Himalayas

Unfathomably mammoth mountains, in size, scope and nature, surround your being.  Perceived through two tiny intelligent eyes, gifted to our species, and walked among with a set of deceivingly capable, and rightly determined legs.  Distance and weight take on new meanings when the terrain refuses to be level, and ‘just around the corner’ seems like a most unfair expression.  

The crow bypasses the ground terrain as humans do while in urbanized setting.  Floating by on a gentle wind ignorant of the rock and circumstance below, or rather viewing it with an unaffected countenance.  When walking, one step at a time, one accepts the challenge and is engaged in conscious effort to attain knowledge and growth through the connection of feet on the bare earth.

And while the mind will play tricks and suggest suffering and delude you with memories of sandy sunkissed beaches and playing ball on flat low elevation where breathing was simpler and lemonade was chilling in a fridge, I dare you not to feel the presence of the snow (sometimes ice) covered giants.  It was with a present mind that I tried to stay in with my walk, but it certainly has the tendency to wander: like our feet, our dreams, like all the endless possibilities that await us on down the road.

Landscape and time never fail to define a culture, such as those that lived in the Himalayas for the last thousand years.  It is always apparent in varying degrees – more directly in history before globalization, airplanes, fuel, telephones and the like.  What we need to survive has always been cultivated from the land and within walking distance.  A combination of flowing water year round, availability to cultivate or harvest fresh food and dried food for storage, and timber for shelter and wood for cooking and keeping warm in the cold nights.  In the modern Himalayas, culture with a touristic twist, reigns supreme, and the people added as much warmth to the trek as the sun that peaked the mountains in the mid morning: allowing you once again to recall what it is like to have feeling in your fingers.

15 years ago, when I began dreaming of walking in such a place, this trek would have been completely different.  Though like any walk in life, it is how you approach it and how you are received by it that creates your experience.  The developing world has reached its aggressive hand with large and noisy Chinese Construction sites, and a road that has found its way to around 2500 meters.  Dero, Tshampa Porridge, Chhang (local alcohol), Buckwheat Bread, Rice, Potato Tarkaari, Tibetan tea and Black Tea, and Yak Meat now have company on the menu.  Most of the new guesthouses cater to trekkers with menus that include a breakfast of eggs and potatoes or muesli, as well as french fries and a version of pizza.  These goods are transported through roads on jeeps to their limit and then carried by mules (taking on daily loads of roughly 70 kilo loads at a time), to the villagers and guesthouses at higher altitudes. 

The path may be well walked too, though depending on time of year, the time you leave your previous night’s dwelling, and which trails you traverse, you can find yourself with hardly seeing a tourist for days.  Although part of the interesting international vibe of the trip is meeting incredible people from different backgrounds and sharing in this experience for entirely different or perhaps similar reasons. We were lucky too, to have some knowledge of the culture and language after living in Nepal for a short while.  Nepali culture is very enthusiastic and genuinely receiving to those who have made the effort to learn the language (not merely an action to cater to tourists).  We were able to stay in home stays where the owners did not know any English, and view amazing Gurung (the predominant local caste of this mountain range) communities.

We stayed in a few villages that were well over 500 years established, often the Stupa (temple) would still be standing, and these people, put simply, have figured it out.  The way of life was basically unaffected by advancement of the road, the food was perfect, the villagers were hardworking and the community was simple and peaceful.  It was interesting to view these villages in light of the ones I have worked in with the NGO.  These Gurung communities, though much further away from civilization, would appear to be much more developed.

Some highlights:
We began our walking just before 7 am on longer days or enjoyed the slow mornings and warmer weather when at higher altitudes and took a later start.  We rotated between eating at guesthouses, order small pots (7 cups of tea in each), or cooking up our own oats and nuts or soup and noodles on the campstove.  We had days of 1000 m plus ascends and 1500 m descends, and were on foot with packs for 4 to 7 hours a day.  We encountered many animals, including being surrounded by 100 yaks while trying to enjoy a midday tomato soup, and caught paw prints of what must have been a snow leopard.   We walked to snowed over frozen lakes, and stayed warm by the fire in an unexpected snow storm.  We spent one night at 5,000 meters (16,000 feet) and will be perfectly content if a long period of time elapses before sleeping at such an elevation again.  We watched a film at 3,500 meters in a day of rest to help with acclimatization and always relished the feeling of arriving at the guest house and putting down the pack for the evening.  Viewing ranges of mountains jutting into the sky from 6,000-8000 meters.  Twice staying in a guest house suggested by two different folks named "Karma."

I have put together a gear list.  And a trip itinerary.  Though I will not post it here.  If you find yourself hiking in the Annaporna Range or in subtropical alpine regions, I’d be happy to share my experience and recommend some things you may or may not need, and specific side trails and home stays.

The trip was beautiful and a fulfilled dream of many years of wanting to hike around in the Himalayas.  I am very grateful to have done it.  And feel very lucky to have found someone special and not done it alone.  A dream in a dream.