Kathmandu and home

Kathmandu and home

What would you expect to see in a city hit by a 7.9 earthquake? Utter devastation?

Well yes for some parts, some of the older parts are in ruins. It is terrible when you come across a destroyed house with personal belongings mixed with the rubble. A lot of the historical places have suffered damage.

However the majority of the city is not that badly damaged, with some streets showing no evidence. It has been a week since the first tremor and a lot of tidying up has happened. The city is getting back to normal, shops, bars and restaurants open, people making a living and mad traffic. We go out for a celebratory meal and drinks. we are all OK.

 
 

Just as a reminder after shocks still occur, sometimes enough to encourage you to get to safer ground.

Just two flights will get me home, one to Delhi and then to London. Two whiskies on the second flight go down well, celebrating my impending return home.

Leaving Kathmandu is a relief, not that it was terrible for me, or because I had suffered in any way. I just know that from the messages on Facebook and other social media that there have been a lot of people worried for me. It will be good to see them again. Also it somehow does not seem right to be in a country on holiday that is in a state of emergency, although I realise that the people need the trekkers and climbers as they bring in valuable income. I would like to come back as there is unfinished business to be attended to.

Being back takes some adjusting, some emotional workings out. Thanks to all who listened to me. It helped. To Andi for driving me home and most of all to …………..

my wife for letting me go and for putting up with the worry of not knowing what had happened to me.

Lukla

Lukla

Early morning and Heathrow Airport has been teleported to Lukla, a small town in the Himalayas. I wake up in my tent to the incessant sound of helicopters and then aircraft ferrying people in and out of here. Westerners trying to leave, food aid coming in and yesterday the dead and injured from Everest Base Camp.

The landing strip is a one chance only version, get it wrong and you fly into the mountain. There is a point at which there is no going round again. To take off the runway helps as it goes down hill, this enables the aircraft to to gain the required speed before the mountain side drops away. There are no roads, cars, motorbikes or trucks, just a small town with a very busy small airport.

 We are camping as the place is full to bursting with trekkers and climbers coming in from the mountains. Lukla is hardly affected at all. You can get good coffee, burgers, pizza, beer and souvenirs. There is a reminder from BBC news on in the bars showing the devastation. It is now over 5000 dead.

It is like a departure lounge, shops, places to eat, places to sit, with the addition of lodges and a dramatic mountain back ground.

When it is our turn to leave we share the small airport apron with huge Indian Air Force helicopters evacuating Indian nationals. Our plane brings in relief aid in the form of sacks of rice which are unloaded before we board. To aid our entry to the aircraft the ground staff build a staircase out of the sacks to the aircraft door. The floor of the plane is covered in rice.

Realisation

Realisation

The news is not good, hundreds dead and more injured. The day after the earthquake we start to make our way down to a very small village called Tangnag which comprises teashops for trekkers and climbers to stay at and some subsistence farming at 4360m.

When we arrived we found that some of the houses have been badly damaged by the quake. We share stories with other climbers as we sit against a wall.

The next thing we know is that the ground shakes, we shout get away from the buildings. We run. Others are running out from the buildings, walls start to spit dust and rocks that make up the walls fall and some more buildings collapse.

This is bizarre, like a film set, like TV news; but in your face, up front, totally real.

It stops, we are silent, numbed by what has just happened. The whole village is quiet. Then people start to move to look at the damage that had happened. This is a major after shock. Yesterday’s quake was bigger than this one, however seeing people homes damaged makes it worse.

Contact is made by sat phone, we are told of the disaster at Everest base camp, the thousands dead, the state of emergency and the international relief effort. Jagged Globe will now tell our next of kin that we are ok.

Saying that my mind is numb is inadequate.

We eat some lunch and set off down the valley. It will take 3 days to walk to Lukla and an airstrip and get a flight out.

Tents are set up no one wants to sleep indoors tonight.

As we pass damaged houses the local people are smiling, no one killed, no one seriously injured. We continue to walk in silence.

Ascent of Meru Peak, 6479m and the first earthquake.

Ascent of Meru Peak, 6479m and the first earthquake.

Forty five minutes past midnight is a good time to start the final push for the summit from High Camp. Yesterday we were at base camp and the day before at the last tea house. High camp is perched on the side of a rocky shelf with seracs to one side, a cliff behind and a long drop on the other. If you took the wrong turn at night when going for a pee it would be your last.

The climb was hard work due to having to break trail through fresh snow. As dawn broke there were no views at all due to low cloud. We summited and set off down as a white out set in.

As we descended our rope team stopped to check our location. As we discussed our location using a map and compass the snow and glacier we were on moved, it felt like it dropped beneath our feet. One of us shouted avalanche! We "ran". Well as close as we could when wearing crampons, double skinned mountain boots, harnesses with gear and being roped together. Avalanches are not good

Essentially chaos resulted, kit being temporarily mislaid and the rope getting in a bit of a tangle and random footprints in the snow recording our escape bid.

It was no avalanche, it was the first of the earthquakes to hit Nepal

We laughed a lot at our escape and the ridiculous  efforts to save ourselves.

Later we started to learn of the true scale of what we had experienced.

 

Pee bottles

Pee bottles

Pee bottles aka a Nalgene water bottle with a wide mouth and duct tape around it to distinguish it from a water bottle (well would you like to mix them up?) is a life changing bit of kit.

No wriggling to get out of the sleeping bag. No struggling to put clothes on in the middle of the night. No noisy zips as you exit the tent. And no finding your sleeping bag liner hanging from your trousers as you leave the tent.

Liberation!

Acclimatisation

Acclimatisation

Acclimatisation in the Himalayas involves lots of walking between 2500 and 3600m for the first four days along trails through rhododendron, magnolia and azalea forests. The flowers and bird song give beauty to what we see. Then on the fifth day a col at over 4000m is the next challenge. The team copes very well except it snows and snows. This is abnormal for this time of year and is not good news as it puts in jeopardy the objectives of the expedition. There is lots of evidence of wet avalanches. We proceed with care.

We arrive at the place where we are staying overnight, it is cold and bleak; low cloud and snow brings a peculiar atmosphere, one which can dampen the spirits especially when you know how glorious it could look in sunshine. Sitting in a mountain hut with a frozen floor and snow falling outside is a cold experience.

After managing  to fend off the bitter cold with my down and Primaloft jackets, mountaineering trousers, many base layers a short nap overtakes my body.

Waking up sees the snow stop and blue skies dawning. We need more weather like this.

Preparing for Nepal

Preparing for Nepal

Unusually for me I ordered maps for Nepal late, I am normally very well organised, but this has slipped through the net.  I requested first class delivery from Stanford's of London.

Post comes, no maps. Next day, post comes, no maps. Next day comes, no maps. Day of departure comes, still no maps. So no maps for Nepal.

Phone Stanford's and am told that there is problem with their computer system due to a large fire in Holborn, so my maps have not been sent.

To summarise: The good news is that my maps are at Stanford's, the bad news is that I have not received them.

After knocking some ideas around we come up with a plan I will wait under the arches at the entrance to the underground at St Pancras station. I will be recognised by my huge vibrant red kit bag.

I arrive at St Pancras and receive a call, we confirm the rendezvous. I wait under the arches for my courier. It is like a meeting of spies. I get another call, confirm the arrangement again. Then a man turns up with a white Brompton bike, he identifies himself  and hands over the maps. I return the packaging, we exchange awkward pleasantries. I need to go for my flight . We excuse ourselves.

Brilliant Stanford's for sorting out the issue. Thank you.