We trekked to Makalu Advance Base Camp as part of our project to trek to the base camps of all the world’s 14 highest mountains over 8,000m. You can read our blogpost on our Project Base8000 website.
Trekking
Kanchenjunga – A Walk In The Indian Himalaya
In this post:
- Overview: Kanchenjunga Trek (India)
- Siliguri/Darjeeling/Yaksom
- Kanchenjunga Trek Itinerary (India)
- Yuksom, Dzongri, Goeche La, Yuksom: 103kms/9 days
- Day 1 – Yuksom (1,760m) to Baktim (2,750m) – 6 hours
- Day 2 – Baktim to Tshoka (3,050m) – 2 hours
- Day 3 – Tshoka to Dzongri plateau (4,020m) – 6 hours
- Day 4 – Day of Acclimatisation
- Day 5 – Dzongri to Thangsing (3,930m) – 5 hours
- Day 6 – Thangsing to Samatli Lake (4,200m) – 4 hours
- Day 7 – Samatli Lake to Goeche La (4,940m) back to Thangsing – 8 hours
- Day 8 – Thangsing to Tshoka via Phedang – 7 hours
- Day 9 – Tshoka to Yuksom – 6 hours
This post is about a 9-day trek to the Kanchenjunga region in India. It was written for us by Colin, based in Sydney, Australia. Colin is an avid hiker and was previously an adventure travel guide in the Australian Alps.
Overview: Kanchenjunga Trek (India)
With an excited party of 15, consisting of five fathers and sons, we assembled in Siliguri, West Bengal. Transferring to Yaksom via Darjeeling, we commenced a nine day trek to the base of Mt Kanchenjunga and return. The Indian Himalayan trekking industry and associated trail infrastructure is less developed than in Nepal. For example, there are less trekkers on the trails. We engaged Sikkim Tours and Travel. They provided the logistics, including 14 strong men and 13 even stronger yaks and donkeys. The trek commenced at an altitude of 1,760m, climbing to 4,940m at Goecha La at the base of Mt Kanchenjunga. Accommodation on the trek was a mix of tents and basic hut shelters.
Siliguri/Darjeeling/Yaksom
Bagdogra, near Siliguri, is the most convenient city for accessing Darjeeling by air. The riverside city of Siliguri (population 700,000) provided the party plenty of unexpected stimulus during our 24 hour stay.
We hired taxis for the three hour drive climbing steadily through tea plantations to Kurseong. Here, we boarded the famous UNESCO listed Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Toy Train. This made for a fascinating three hour rail journey into Darjeeling.
We stayed for two nights at the Windamere Hotel in Darjeeling. The hotel is “one of the three Jewels of the Raj”, said a celebrated travel writer in the 1970s. Established in the 19th century as a cosy boarding house for bachelor English and Scottish tea planters, it was converted into a hotel just before the outbreak of the Second World War.
The centrally located hotel adjoins the forested Hindu Hilltop Temple which is home to hundreds of monkeys. Darjeeling offers commanding views of the Himalayan range including Mt Everest, visible from nearby Tiger Hill. A visit to the very informative Himalayan Climbing Institute museum is a ‘must do’ before a Himalayan trek.
With full bellies from the amazing four course silver service provided to Windamere diners, we boarded the four wheel drives for the six hour drive on rough roads to the Sikkim border. It was then on to Yaksom to commence our trek.
Kanchenjunga Trek Itinerary (India)
Yuksom, Dzongri, Goeche La, Yuksom: 103kms/9 days
Day 1 – Yuksom (1,760m) to Baktim (2,750m) – 6 hours
Lukendra, the business owner of Sikkim Tours and Travel, met us at Yuksom and graciously provided each of us with a silk Tibetan good luck scarf for our journey. The walk to Baktim ascended the forested valley high above the Rathong River on a good walking trail. Accompanying us from Yuksom was an intelligent canine ‘bitza’ that we christened Fred. For two and a half days he enthusiastically enjoyed the party; then he was gone. There was much speculation as to where.
Baktim is no more than a trail cooking shelter on a steep terraced area suitable for pitching our tents.
Day 2 – Baktim to Tshoka (3,050m) – 2 hours
After a leisurely breakfast, we ambled up the still good quality trail to the small Tibetan village of Tshoka. The short day two trek was to assist our acclimatisation. The village has 12 wooden houses, a basic store, tea house, a Buddhist monastery and numerous shrines. The land at Tshoka was granted to the Tibetans in the 1960s when they escaped from Tibet.
Day 3 – Tshoka to Dzongri plateau (4,020m) – 6 hours
This was the day some of us started to feel the effects of the altitude. The track into Drongri was rutted in parts under the canopy gnarly geraniums. As we broke out of the tree line onto green alpine fields, the vast Himalayan range gradually unfolded with spectacular views including Mt Kanchenjunga (8,586m) and to its east, the beautifully shaped Mt Siniolchu (6,888m).
Day 4 – Day of Acclimatisation
From our camp on the open fields, we soaked up the beauty of the landscape and rambled around the plateau inspired by the photographic opportunities with yaks, mountain peaks, prayer flags and rustic stone huts creating an ideal canvas. We met two young Indians hurrying across the plateau who informed us a 21 year old companion had just died from altitude sickness at the nearby Indian Himalayan Climbing Centre.
Day 5 – Dzongri to Thangsing (3,930m) – 5 hours
A pleasant trek across the plateau is followed by a gradual descent into the valley leading to the base of Kanchenjunga, India. At Thangsing, we spent the night in a basic timber shelter and again feasted on a simple but tasty and nutritious meal cooked up by the crew.
Day 6 – Thangsing to Samatli Lake (4,200m) – 4 hours
Before the easy walk up the valley to Samatli Lake, a few of the party scaled an open steep ridge running up the right side of the valley from the shelter. Under the early morning light, the views commencing 30 minutes up the ridge were spectacular, looking into the face of Kanchenjunga.
Day 7 – Samatli Lake to Goeche La (4,940m) back to Thangsing – 8 hours
Under the guidance of Bichung, we left our cold hut accommodation at 3am for Goeche La. The aim was to get there mid-morning, before clouds would most likely descend across the mountains above us. Our party’s ages ranged from 17 to 67 but this played no part in who coped best with the effects of altitude. The clouds came down on dawn to obscure the view of the summit however the final climb up the lip of the moraine was exhilarating.
Day 8 – Thangsing to Tshoka via Phedang – 7 hours
The walk back to Yuksom takes a more direct route and with the thought of a four course dinner at the Windamere, the party powered through to Tshoka. At Phedang, an Aussie mum and daughter informed us that some 5 days prior, the author’s beloved Sydney Swans AFL team had lost the grand-final to the Hawks: unfortunately there were too many joyous Hawthorn supporters in the party to expect much sympathy!
Day 9 – Tshoka to Yuksom – 6 hours
The last day was spent back on the well maintained trail and we arrived back in Yuksom late morning, biding farewell to the excellent team of men who escorted our group. By 12pm, we were back in the four wheel drives, bouncing our way back to Darjeeling. Unfortunately, at the Sikkim border we were held up for three hours due to a strike linked to independence for Gorkhaland. Our stiff bodies made a comical sight as we checked into the Windamere at 8pm; just in time for Kingfisher beers at the bar and the four course silver service dinner that was kindly kept on hold for us.
Thanks again to Colin for sharing his adventure with us.
You can also trek to the Kanchenjunga base camps in Nepal which you can read about here.
Pyrenees: Winter Expedition Skills Course
In this post:
Introduction
Undertaking a winter expedition skills course in the Pyrenees can throw up the odd surprise. This one proved no exception.
From climbing, snowshoeing, abseiling, glacier travel, crevasse rescue, avalanche assessment and response, self arrest, knots, rope work, mountain hut life and jumaring to digging a snow hole. Except for a summit of the highest mountain in the Spanish Pyrenees, Pico Aneto, we did it.
The weather forecast was looking reasonable. With our expert guides, we all set off for what was to prove an experience of our life. Anticipating around 3 hours to snow shoe up to the Refugio Renclusa (2,140m) from where we left our van, we took seven hours.
Finishing in the darkness, we fell into our hut somewhat weather beaten, but with spirits intact. Along with freezing conditions, snow blowing from every conceivable angle you could imagine and a few ‘motivating’ words to the group – this all set the tone for the rest of the trip.
Expedition Life
Mimicking expedition life, each of us carried around 15-18kg. This included all of our equipment and food required for the next five days on the mountain. It made for heavy going at times in breaking ground through the deep snow pack. Taking in turns to cook the meals in teams – well let’s just say the porridge was often of a standard found on most expeditions. That’s all I’m going to say about the cooking!
I don’t know about you, but being confined to a hut for a couple of days can drive people crazy. Especially very active ones. So, when our very experienced guides suggested we head outside in a blizzard in minus 23deg C temperatures for a short roped up walk, well, we all followed but with some trepidation. After all, we had all signed up for a winter expedition skills course – so bring it on.
Over the next few days we practiced building snow anchors for varied terrain conditions, self arresting with an ice axe, digging a snow cave, climbing and abseiling skills and learning how to spot an avalanche risk area. As if to prove a point, there were avalanches setting off all around us. This was not surprising given the fact that overnight we had something like 2-3m of snow and lots of wind.
Pico Aneto
Teaching us the basics of expedition life and the skills gained, we had then planned to climb up to the summit of Pico Aneto. Pico Aneto is the highest mountain in the Pyrenees and Aragon, and Spain’s third-highest mountain, reaching a height of 3,404m.
Well, that was the plan until mother nature intervened again. With conditions never experienced before in these parts even by local standards, the forecast at the summit was 120 km/h winds and minus 42deg C. Wise heads prevailed and we decided along with our guides to exit stage right and head back down to the relatively safety of where we had left our van. Relative being the operative word as first of all we had to locate the van, then dig it out from the snow drift that it was buried under.
Now, we didn’t know it at the time, but the people in charge of the Refugio had been out filming this crazy international crew of ours. The footage even made it onto the Spanish TV news much to the delight of the local Spanish police that we bumped into, who knew more about us then we of them.
We capped off a great week by honing up on our rock climbing skills and crevasse rescue techniques on some local crags near Luchon, France. We may have gone away not knowing each other, but we all came back as friends and learnt a lot about our capabilities and working as a team.
Onwards and upwards!
Trevor
Insights
- There are numerous companies or guides offering winter skills expedition courses. In the Pyrenees, we recommend 360 Expeditions based in Luchon, France
- Guides – listen and adhere to your guide’s instructions, they are the experts and know more than you for a reason.
- Always check the mountain weather forecast before heading out e.g. Mountain Forecast – Pico Aneto.
- Go on a winter skills course with an open mind and willingness to learn. You’ll gain more confidence in the mountains for your next trekking or mountaineering expedition.
Nepal: A Kanchenjunga Story
This story about the Kanchenjunga trek was written by Bruce, who we met on the expedition to the North and South base camps of this incredible mountain. Bruce is based in Washington, USA.
In this post:
Ka…BOOM!… ka BOOM, BOOM …BOOM!
I woke with a start, “what the…” My heart seemed as if it was desperately trying to beat its way out of my chest. My fight or flight reaction was instantly ramped up to full speed, but I couldn’t quite yet process what was happening.
Lhonak
The deafening sound was what I imagined were full railroad boxcars being dropped from a 100-story building. In a few more moments, my reasoning caught up with my panicked brain and remembered “ Oh yeah, I’m in Lhonak, Nepal, near Kanchenjunga. That must be rock fall beyond the moraine, across the glacier. Or is it coming from the peak directly above the little tea house we were sleeping in?” “Oh shit, what if?” By instinct, before I could fully reason things out, I was sitting up, rooting around for my headlamp, pulling on all of my down clothes, boots, knit wool hat and big gloves.
I somehow knew that it was cold, maybe -15 C, when I got up some hours earlier to pee. The ice fog was just beginning to form then, obscuring the stars. As I stepped over the sill and bumped my head yet again on the low doorway (you think that I would have learned by now, having been to Nepal three times, ducking through hundreds of doorways, that the doors are always low) I saw that the ice fog was even thicker, and had that familiar hard, lifeless, elemental smell. The visibility was even more limited as it was still well before sunrise. The fog had settled in more thickly than before. The pounding and explosive roar had not let up. In the darkness, with my heightened sense of hearing, trying to make up for not being able to see, it seemed like some event on a Biblical scale.
Up on the moraine, just a few minutes walk above Lhonak, I could see just the faintest outline of the crest and people with headlamps. I walked up and joined the few Nepali guides and porters who were trying to peer through the darkness and fog across the mile wide glacier. After a few more minutes, the rock fall slowed and stopped, then started again. We stood there silently, taking it all in.
A light snow was condensing out of the ice fog; I noticed individual flakes were collecting on the stitched seams of my down jacket. At least I could see that in my headlamp beam. It was cold enough that they would not melt and I could admire their various tiny forms at my leisure. Some time later, and as the first hint of dawn was coming, I could see what looked like just the faintest outlines of an immense dust cloud rising dimly down the glacier. It was sort of a black on black shape, but nothing more. As we would later learn, there had been sporadic rock fall for 5 days, but this was the biggest event yet.
A Japanese group had been climbing that mountain during the previous month. The lodge owner felt that they must have done something pretty bad to anger the mountain so much. It seemed like a reasonable explanation, as there was no other rock fall anywhere else. I couldn’t imagine that it was to continue like that for the rest of the day. What would be left then but a low pile of rubble? One by one, or in pairs, we all walked back down the moraine to see if there might be a yak dung fire had been started in the stove in the teahouse. The unspoken conclusion was that there was “nothing to see here, better move along”. Maybe we could get some hot tea?
This morning was the start of a remarkable day. It was one of many on that trip, a trek to the basecamps of Jannu and both the north and south sides of Kanchenjunga.
Getting to Kanchenjunga
Kanchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world and sits on the far eastern border of Nepal. A little bit of India, known as Sikkim, reaches up to the border with Tibet, China. Kanchenjunga sits on that border. It is wonderfully remote.
It’s not an easy trek to this region. There are no tiny airstrips perched in high valleys. You can’t cherry pick the high country with only a few days of walking. There is no wifi, cell service or even much electricity except in one village that has its own hydropower and where people have solar panels sitting on thatched bamboo roofs. You must first fly to a small steamy city on the border with India. Then ride in a sweaty, tiny cramped jeep with no shocks for a day and a half over narrow and remarkably steep, narrow, exposed, winding and broken roads to the end.
Local Driving Style
The local driving style is to play chicken with every oncoming vehicle, as everyone is vying for the same narrow strip of not quite so broken pavement in the middle of the road. Tuk-tuks, motorcycles, bicycles and huge trucks are “all in” when playing this game. It’s best not to watch, especially at night. But then, your driver may have a mix tape of Bollywood hits playing at full volume so it’s great fun when after a few hours; you relax your western comfort and safety standards. It’s sort of an exotic, uncomfortable, amusement park ride without the safety precautions… for 12 hours!!
It’s much more enjoyable to walk the last 10 or 15 km as the roads are still under initial construction, and you can walk nearly as fast as someone would dare drive. There are delightful riverside trails next to small farms and hamlets along the way. A nice diversion mixed in with the road walking. We started off quite low by Nepali standards, at about 1,000m, with bamboo, tropical hardwood trees and wildflowers growing on the steeper slopes that were too steep to dig terraces on. One day there were monkeys on the far side of the raging torrent that we were walking next to.
The small hamlets and farms grew rice, millet, cardamom and flowers. It seemed that every home had at least some marigolds. And of course, there are goats and chickens everywhere. The chickens are always under foot, or going in and out of doorways, looking for bits of food. I imagined them thinking; “a few grains of rice or maybe part of a noodle, perhaps”? The smart ones gather to clean up the dishes after a meal at the community water source, before the dishes are rinsed in cold water coming from a hose that comes from a creek up the hill. Not a calorie is ever wasted.
Local Life
Western hygiene standards are unknown or ignored as well. A traveler with an “experienced” gut that has seen Asian bacteria before, and will be OK with that, eliminates some of the potentially explosive G.I. tract issues.
In just a two-day walk, you go back two centuries. Back to the way our not too distant relatives lived. Certainly, it is third world subsistence living, with all of the difficulties that entails. The poverty, disease and unnecessary suffering is clearly evident. Walk out through a village in the evening and you might see a woman in traditional clothing, carrying a load of food to her goats, with a huge goiter on her neck. But also, the warmest ‘1000 watt’ smile that you have ever seen.
Many people, even adults out on the trail still greet you with a sweetly shy and warm “Namaste”. Some may even want to talk to you for a while. “Where are you from?” Or, in the higher regions, “Tashi Delek”, which is the Tibetan greeting. To me, that is one of the best parts of travel. The little person to person interactions, if only for a few minutes, formed some of the highlights of the trip.
At the end of a week, we were in the middle hills. At around 2,500m – 3,500m, the hills are often much too steep to farm or even cut timber. These are truly old growth forests, utterly untouched. The forests are pine and tamarak, also known as larch, which turn a beautiful golden colour in the fall. The understory is the national flower rhododendron, 10m tall rhododendron. With such steep terrain, there are waterfalls at least every few kilometres or so across the river or overhead. In the western world, many would be big destination tourist spots with hotels, wedding venues and shops full of kitch. In this area, they are just a noisy part of the scenery.
Infrastructure
There is little in the way of tourist infrastructure in the Kanchenjunga region. Most of the little lodges are very simple, more like converted goat or storage sheds. They are sometimes described as being almost comically crude. There may be bed bugs in the lower elevations and there will be mice. But you have to admire the industriousness and creativity of the owners. I particularly enjoyed some of the “wallpaper” in the tiny rooms. Often local or regional newspapers are pasted up, or colourful inspirational posters are done up with the most amusing and bizarre (to western tastes) photo shop images. Cherubic naked babies playing with them selves in lush green formal gardens? Whaa?
The menu selections were often; well, to put it nicely, very limited. You must learn to enjoy dhal bhat, and be willing to enjoy it at least once a day. Our saying was: “Dhal bhat power, 24 hour.” After nearly a month, it sort of grows on you, but not enough to make some back at home.
Trekking Trail
Over the three weeks, our small group of six saw only another 50 or 60 other westerners. We saw only two large groups, marching in very tedious, slow lines. I felt sorry for them.
Would they be able to stop at a tiny trailside shed for some sweet tea flavoured with nak (female Yak) milka nd chat with the owner? Or do some bouldering at the base of Jannu? Doubtful. Many or most of the other couples or pairs we met have been to Nepal a dozen or more times. Like me, drawn again and again to that indescribable “something” that some find so compelling in Nepal. All of them were seeking a more authentic, less commercialised trekking experience, in hopes of being in a place where there was a better opportunity to feel just a little bit more of that “something”.
One certainly does get a glimpse into another way of life in villages where the average 10 year old has never seen a car but wants to chat and try out his or her English with a westerner, searching for first hand knowledge of the world outside the village. Or you learn that the teahouse owners’ wife just delivered her sons’ first child the week before. The son is 19 years old and his wife just 16.
Trail
And then there are the trails and bridges. They are not built or maintained for western trekkers, but are rough, broken down, eroded and often remarkably exposed. We estimated that 20% of the 150 + km that we walked would result in a fatality if one fell. Some of the valley bottom ones were particularly scary as we were on recently eroded, loose sand slopes just a few meters above raging class 5 whitewater. Some were just a series of little steps kicked into steep hard sand. If you were on a climb up high somewhere you would want a belay. Many of the bridges were just a pair of logs or boards tied together and often very bouncy. Fun if you have good balance, very unnerving if you don’t.
The trail from Lhonak up the north side of Kanchenjunga is mostly up a gentle grade with wide-open views. There was one ridiculously steep sand climb 500m up, around an immense Himalayan sized landslide. As we walked up that morning after a breakfast of tea, tsampa porridge and an omelet, the rock fall continued sporadically. The ice fog gradually dissipated and we saw a large herd of blue sheep. They were the same species as THE blue sheep of Peter Matthiessen’s book “The Snow Leopard”. THE book has inspired so many to travel to Nepal.
As the ice fog slowly burned off, the light that morning had the most ethereal quality, of things hidden and slowly revealed. The colour slowly returned to the sky, the mountains and our own ‘forms’. We blew puffs of steam into the cold air, working our way up a broad glacial valley.
Base Camp
And then, after nearly two weeks of travel we were there.
The north side is truly an amazing place. There must be over 3,000 meters of vertical relief there, with two hanging glaciers, one above the other. It’s all so big that there is simply no sense of scale. Is that a 100m serac, or maybe 250m? After another meal of dhal bhat, this time with chilies, a few of us walked up higher to see some more sheep up close and an even better view of the north face. Kanchenjunga is the star of the show, but Wedge, Nepal and Pyramid peaks were stunning as well. Soon the clouds were starting to build as they did each afternoon and it was time to head back down.
Later, the clouds rolled in with a bitter headwind and some snow. By the time we got back to Lhonak , we were completely socked in again. Shortly thereafter, it was cold and dark. We all crammed ourselves into the tiny room that had the stove with four Ukrainians who looked like active duty Special Forces officers on a holiday, and three French that had the air of privileged Parisians in their designer eyeglasses and disdainful expressions. Perhaps there might be some noodle soup or potatoes on the menu that evening? Maybe we could get a break from dhal bhat? Outside, the rock fall continued, sporadically, unabated, as it had all day. The mountain was still angry.
Thanks again to Bruce for sharing his story on the trek to Kanchenjunga with us. You can read more about the Kanchenjunga trek here, or a trek from the Indian side here.
Nepal: Kanchenjunga North & South Base Camps (Kanchenjunga Circuit)
We trekked to Kanchenjunga North and South Base Camps as part of our project to trek to the base camps of all the world’s 14 highest mountains over 8,000m. You can read our blogpost on our Project Base8000 website.