Mark Horrell - The Baruntse Adventure: A trek and a climb in Eastern Nepal

The Baruntse Adventure

A trek and a climb in Eastern Nepal

by Mark Horrell

Published bySmashwords

Copyright (c)Mark Horrell, 2015

www.markhorrell.com

All rightsreserved

Except whereindicated, all photographs copyright (c) Mark Horrell

SmashwordsEdition, License Notes

This ebook islicensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not bere-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to sharethis book with another person, please purchase an additional copyfor each recipient. If youre reading this book and did notpurchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then pleasereturn to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you forrespecting the work of this author.

Front coverphotograph: Mark Horrell

ISBN: 9781301133796(ebook)

The BaruntseAdventure

About this book

A shortdistance south of Everest rises a giant 7,129m whale-back of amountain called Baruntse, accessed to the south by a vast snowplateau guarded on each side by 6,000m passes.

Mark Horrellhad just failed on his third attempt to climb an 8,000m peak, ChoOyu in Tibet, and returned to Nepal for the consolation of climbinga smaller peak with his friend Mark Dickson.

One of thebeauties of climbing in the Himalayas is that there are greatadventures to be had just getting to the foot of a mountain.Setting out with a small army of Nepalese staff, the two Markstrekked for a month across jungle, moorland, hill, valley andalpine desert, enduring tropical heat, porter strikes, leeches,rain storms and peculiar lunches.

They hoped tocross both high passes and climb Baruntse, but as they arrived onits slopes they discovered all was not well, so they camped besidean alpine lake, and waited patiently for the mountain gods to grantthem their chance at the summit.

About this series

The Footsteps on the Mountain traveldiaries are Mark's expedition journals.They are a lightly-edited version of what he scribbles in his tenteach evening after a day in the mountains. They are quick reads,self-edited, and available at a budget price.

Mark's first full-length, commercially-edited book, Seven Steps from Snowdon toEverest , about his journey to becoming anEverest climber, is published in December 2015.

Download a free ebook

Get a free copy of In the Footsteps of Whymper when you sign up to Marks mailing list for hisweekly blog post about mountains and occasional info about newreleases.

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"Mark always puts together a good mountaineering story whichis underpinned with humour"

"For a lover of mountains and adventure these are not to bemissed. Every one has been worth it."

The Baruntse Adventure

Table of contents

Day 1 - Planes, legs andautomobiles

Wednesday, 13 October 2010 Num, Arun Valley,Nepal

I write this ina cool, terraced garden high up on a ridge overlooking the lushArun Valley in Eastern Nepal. A few feet away from me Mark sitsoutside a yellow mountain tent, tapping in a message on hissatellite phone. A lady's bra hangs on a washing line a metre infront of him, but that's incidental and I don't think he's noticedit yet.

The key thingis we're back in the foothills of the Himalayas at the start of ourexpedition, and looking forward to the next few weeks with greatanticipation.

Getting herefrom Kathmandu has been a story in itself, on one aircraft, fourdifferent four-wheel drive vehicles, a ferry across a river (acreaky six-metre wooden punt) and finally on foot to the village ofNum in the Arun Valley.

We weresupposed to fly to nearby Tumlingtar and walk from there, butTumlingtar Airport has been closed for refurbishment. It wasscheduled to re-open on Saturday, but this is Nepal. By Monday,when we were due to fly, it still wasn't open, so we flew toBiratnagar on the Indian border instead, and drove from there.Three days of driving on winding dirt tracks through junglefoothills has tested our stomachs, but at least we didn't have totravel on the roof like some people.

The road hasrecently been extended beyond Tumlingtar (though 'road' is asomewhat generous description for it). This means we've been ableto catch up on our schedule and have lost no days. We bypassed thesprawling villages of the lower foothills, which extend endlesslybeside the trail, and have been deposited in the heart of mountaincountry.

Today's drivewas interesting. It's amazing what terrain a Land Rover can cross,and our driver appeared to relish the challenge, laughing wheneverwe reached a difficult bit, and cheering when we got past it.

Some time afterKhandbari, the village where we stayed last night, the rutted mudtrack passed beyond the sprawl of villages and climbed a series ofswitchbacks up a hillside blanketed in terraced rice fields. Hereour driver squeezed around a stricken tractor with one of itswheels removed, by means of a bold and skilful piece of driving.Shortly afterwards a man in the back threw up, and we had to stopto drop off an old lady and her daughter who couldn't take any moreof the rodeo. How the people on the roof managed to stay put I'llnever know.

Mark and I paidto hire the vehicle, so they insisted we sit in the front. I sat infear of somebody sliding down the windscreen onto the bonnet, ametaphorical two fingers to our cushy position in the front seat.At one point somebody's wallet flew off and landed in front of us,and the driver had to screech to a halt so that the owner couldjump off and retrieve it.

Eventually thetrack reached the top of a hillside and slipped over a ridge. Herethe mountain views opened out before us, and a white wall of snowappeared on the horizon.

"Makalu!" saidour driver.

We passedthrough the village of Chichila, where a number of trekking lodgesboasted a Makalu View, but Dawa (our sirdar and climbing leader)and I were not convinced.

"I think it isMera Peak," said Dawa.

"I'm sure it'sChamlang," I replied.

Shortly beforemidday the road ended beside a collection of tin shacks sitting ina ridge of rhododendron forest. Here our kitchen team of Sarki thecook and his assistants Pasang, Karma and Mingma were waiting forus, and we were ushered into one of the shacks for fried chips andcoleslaw.

Dawa wasconcerned to discover that seven of the porters we were expectinghad not appeared. He was told someone else offered them more moneyat the last minute, and they decided to desert. But seven morehands were quickly rustled up, including a man who hitched a ridewith us from Khandbari. He had been intending to stop in Chichila,but now it looks like he's going to end up walking all the way toLukla, many days' trek across the mountains.

We had only ashort walk this afternoon, down the ridge to the village of Num.The trail started by winding through rhododendron forest, but afterabout half an hour it opened out to give fine views of steepforested hills across the green and pleasant Arun Valley.

Our guide,another Pasang, pointed out Num village, a few miles away on thelower end of the ridge, and the path gently curled to the right anddropped towards it, past terraced fields and occasional thatched,bamboo houses. The sun was out, but the climate is comfortable hereat 1500m altitude, with plenty of shade from the trees.

Narrow trail and hut above the Arun valley

Shortly beforereaching Num at 4pm, we were overtaken by a porter carrying a livepig in a basket.