Around the Next Corner With Wendy: Trek Day 9

So, for those of you who would rush forward to see the photos of me throwin' a Wendy up at Goecha La, I'm going to tell you right away: I didn't make it. There are no pictures of me up on that high pass with the alpenglow of Kanchenjunga at dawn looming close in the background. No pictures of my smiling mug at Samiti Lake or trooping along the Talung Glacier.

I decided a day or two before that last ascent that I wasn't up to it. I was still coughing a lot, and the group that started out for Goecha La was hiking at like 3:30 am, in the dark, freezing cold mist. While I thought I could probably tough it out and make myself do it, I really just felt like I'd slow the group down and possibly make myself even sicker.

At 3am when Sarah was getting dressed in the dark and I was snuggled in my uber warm sleeping bag, staying behind seemed like a stellar idea. But two and a half hours later, when I was awake and drinking my tea alone in camp it was slightly less stellar. And then, when I hiked a little further up the valley to see the Mani stones at Lamuni and I caught the first glimpses of Kanchenjunga through the clouds it seemed like a pretty bad idea.

The longer I sat there, the more disappointed I became. Here I'd traveled 8,000 miles, hiked through rain, fog, cold and coughing fits to this insignificant camp only 3.5 miles from the highest point you can hike to in the region - and I had given up.

Shit.

5:30am - I figure at this point the rest of the crew was kicking it up at Goecha La

Kanchenjunga peaks through the clouds

The shelter and Mani stones at Lamuni - with the mighty mountain shrouded in cloud

Mani stones have the mantra Om mani padme hum inscribed over and over on their surface - the mantra is worthy of a whole blog entry on it's own... These stones could be hundreds of years old.

The distinctive naturally egg-shaped stone on a cairn near Lamuni, which is a sacred spot - named because it is where the Lamas go to pray.

Now, to give myself credit (or to justify my failure - you pick), I was really quite sick. Still going through several hankies a day and keeping Sarah up at night with my hacking. The mountain air was really NOT helping, and another 1500' of elevation was not going to be a tonic.

But still. This is what those guys got to see (I stole their photos shamelessly)

Kanchenjunga from Goecha La - photo by Sarah

Avalanche on the southern slope of the Kanchenjunga Massif - photo by Sarah

South face of Kanchenjunga - photo by Alok Nagdev

- photo by Alok Nagdev

The holy source of the Prek Chu - Samiti Lake - Photo by Alok Nagdev

Represent! from left to right: Gael, Anne-Gael, Alok, Raj and 2 porters from Gael's group - photo by Sarah

So, it was a mopey Wendy who greeted the hikers as they began to reappear on the hillsides above the valley top. Though they tried to down-play the spectacle of the pass, it was clear that I had missed the real high point of the trip - literally and figuratively. As if to console me, the skies opened up and afforded me some amazing views of my own. Not, perhaps on the caliber of Goecha La, but enough to remind me that I was still on the roof of the world and witness to giants.

Hikers coming down the terminal moraine

As we talked, the clouds began to clear...

Spirits lifted by the view!

We stuck around Lamuni as I soaked in the mountain views. Even though I felt like a whole day had passed already, it was only 7am when the best views were popping up of Kanchenjunga, Pandim and their cohorts. Raj spotted some blue sheep in the distance - the only non-avian wildlife we would see on our trek. From so far away, we thought they looked more like brown deer than blue sheep (our visit to the Darjeeling Zoo later would only confirm this).

Kanchenjunga from Lamuni

Hikers at Lamuni with Pandim towering above

As zoomed as I could do on the blue sheep

Panorama just below Lamuni (4000m). Pandim (6691m) is the peak on the far right, Kanchenjunga (8585m) is center, with Kabru (7338m) just below it to the left. Rathong (6679m) and Koktang (6147m) are peeking out from behind the valley wall to the left. You can see the other hikers on the bottom right.

Sarah and Raj hike along the line of Mani stones

Kanchenjunga - free and clear against the blue sky!

Zooming in on the glaciers of Pandim's slopes. Those ice walls have got to be hundreds of feet high.

Sarah, the great world traveler and the mountain!

Back at camp, it was time for some breakfast and a little relaxation before the second half of the day's trip: hiking back to Kokchurong for that night's camp. It would be mostly down hill along the Prek Chu, on trail that we'd hiked up in two days. Easy peasy!