Plus - The wind, the cold and a halo

Come March and April, many ambitious souls kit themselves up and head to the hills. Ours were Nepal’s Himalayas and Mt. Everest. On normal conditions one would come to witness blooming rhododendron flowers in the lower ranges and snowy mountain tops, against a clear morning sky. But a very late winter would soon change all of this.

I was planning a solo trek on either Everest or Annapurna, an unplanned, easy exploratory tour with a few detours. Anxiously waiting for my green light was an international expedition, willing to trek to either base camp. However when my friend Shehan Cooray, wanted an assessment on his climbing ceiling, I decided on Everest BC, leaving Annapurnas, for the commercial expedition. Shehan who had earlier trekked with me to Sikkim and Kanchenjunga, being 5050M, was now keen on increasing it to 5550M whilst taking in sights of the greatest mountains our world has.

It would be a small group, just Shehan, myself and a porter, boarding an army charter plane on a cold Kathmandu dawn. The seats were truck-like, everyone facing each other with a few tons of expedition gear in between, spoiling any chances of in-flight services! The only holds we had were the parachute clip lines from the roof.

The initial ascent to around 4000M was incident free, with the only change being a direct route to the base camp, rather than a longer ascent crossing a 5000M pass. Just over 4000M, news arrived of another Sri Lankan trek to Mera, by an old friend, Elmo. His was a big party with three climbing Sherpas and a string of porters.

An overnight snowfall, got me into safety mode and we changed our route yet again, leaving out all additional gear. The weather slowly but surely started deteriorating, with the odd snowfall. It was a clear morning when we ascended to 5550M, where Shehan left with the porter to the top. I decided to take a long trail alongside the cliff with a stop at the base of Mt. Pumori. It was quite an exciting trail, aided by the fresh snow taking me almost above the Everest base camp. It was around here that when I looked up, there was a strange happening on the mountain. A halo was forming on Mt. Everest and I didn’t waste any time in recording this freak occurrence. Although it was windy up here it would be much worse high up, yet a perfect white circle was forming around the summit against a perfectly blue sky. I was on uncomfortable ground, between a little valley with a big drop and a strong wind across. To make things worse I had to remove my gloves as digital camera buttons need little fingers on them. However judging by the demand for these pictures, I think the effort was worth it, though I lost a few covers and caps to the wind.

Entertainment at 5000M, was provided by an Englishman, whose expensive sleeping bag’s zip had given way and was letting one and all know of the things he was going to do to the retailer, once he got back. At around this time someone got out a wrist computer reading, that of -30 inside!

Our return was amidst a white blanket, as you could not see for more than about 10 feet. In some places the snow deposits were around three feet. Even with careful planning and having the luxury of time on the trail, we had to face a day, the final day of the snowstorm. We left it to the other groups to break trail, faithfully following! There was no reason to kill ourselves by exertion or by any unseen obstacle. However just behind us, the death toll was rising!

Three Belgians whom we met at the base camp, had just escaped by ditching all their gear on the pass and speedily descending and an American girl took refuge inside a rocky outcrop, living on a bar of chocolate for three days! But they were the fortunate ones as many were not as lucky. A couple had fallen off a cliff, three had perished on the pass that we had decided to leave out, three climbers died from acute mountain sickness and four from avalanches.

My fellow curfew party members in Kathmandu were a father and son, Island peak climbing party with another couple of Hawaiian girls aiming for Everest base camp. Both parties had to abandon their plans on the mountain and make a hasty retreat back to safety and were drowning their sorrows for more than a few reasons.

Through a cold city night we watched from our hotel rooftop, a kingdom that would soon change into a government, chaotic but peacefully. Dropping Shehan at the airport I decided to rent a motorbike for my intercity trip to Pokhara.

Being advised of prevailing conditions the group came equipped with clothing layers that I jokingly said would find a bullet not being able to penetrate. Very charged-up and vocal, they were all ready for their great Himalayan adventure, which many had planned for over three years.

The entire trail was completed in torrid conditions with rolling thunder, avalanches, snow and white outs accompanying us. An ant in a deep freezer, is about the nearest comparison I could think of, though a well kitted-up ant!

Now, to get to Annapurna base camp, one has to climb through a corridor between the Annapurna massifs, all in the 8000 metre family. For some unexplainable reason, even on normal conditions these mountains get a massive deposit of snow.

A mountaineer of good humour had named this ‘bomb alley’ for its frequent avalanches. I shuddered to think of the present conditions and said so to my group, who unfortunately had other ideas. Said one ‘Well, I’ve been planning this expedition for almost 5 years and I’ll be darned if a little snow is going to keep me away from ABC.’

The others had more or less the same opinion and I was sandwiched between them and the Sherpas who like me, knew the conditions and were not keen on proceeding. The final compromise was we all leave roped for ABC, sans any heavy gear, in and out, fast!

Bomb alley was living upto its name with the sound of thunder even before we entered this deadly passage. A powerful avalanche sounds something between a continental jet engine about to take off and an express train. You need not be close to feel its destructive power as even from around a few 100 metres we were swept off our feet. The group ahead was screaming for help as some of their members were trapped under a few tons of ice. Funny, but with all their lives spent in high mountains the Sherpas are not quick and rational in their thinking as my climbing Sherpa wanted all the party to rush to their assistance. I had to intervene and tell him to abandon that plan as everyone in the group was not physically nor mentally able to cope with digging for survivors. They could barely manage to get their fallen bits and pieces of climbing equipment together.

I decided to only take a couple of Sherpas back with me and the group, leaving all the others for the rescue operation hoping that this plan would work. It did and the assuring words given by a relieved group was that I was hired for their K2 trek in 2008. A silver lining after almost a month of gloom.

One thing’s for certain I sure wouldn’t die wondering what a winter in the Himalayas would be like.