The Amphu Laptsa PassI woke up in the sunshine, at 17,000 ft., feeling great after my first good night's sleep in awhile. We broke camp and started over some ridges to the Hunku Drangma River. About an hour into the walk, I stopped with Brad and Al on a ridge with a great view of Chamlang. Brad had actually come out to Nepal to climb Chamlang, but his partner bailed on him, so he hooked up with our trek. Brad took a few posed shots of Al in front of the mountain, until the clouds moved in.
Before lunch, I got in line behind a bunch of Germans, marching in line. After lunch, I hiked with Al through the valley, towards camp. The porters and Sherpas stopped on the east shore of a lake at 5000 meters, along the Hongu trail. Brad didn't like the campsite (or what he thought was the campsite), so he told them to move back and around the lake to a more suitable place. We (the members) had stopped on the west shore. John Lama was waving us around the lake to the Sherpa's camp, while Brad told us to stay where we were. Al, not wanting to undermine either Brad's or John's authority, stayed out of it. Ultimately, Brad won, and the porters picked up their loads and hauled them back and around the lake (approx. 20 minutes) to Brad's campsite. The Sherpas were pretty upset with Brad. Brad decided that our campsite would get morning sun, while the Sherpa's campsite would be in the shade in the morning. It turned out the the rising sun was perfectly aligned with the peak of 23,000-ft. Chamlang, so the mountain blocked our morning sun, anyway. The Sherpas weren't mad for long, though they did take every opportunity, from then on, to tease Brad in any way they could.
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The Amphu Laptsa Pass |
Long, cold morning. I straggled a bit, then caught up to Al, Nick, et al., sitting by some rocks, telling stories. Al talked about Edward Albee and "The Monkey-Wrench Gang". Lunch by a lake was cold and wet. Everyone (except me, for some reason) was miserable. Nick was feeling pretty bad. He'd picked up some kind of bronchitis, and he didn't look like he was enjoying himself.
We dragged a bit that afternoon. I felt weak, but not sick. We reached Ponch Pokra and set up camp below the Amphu Labtsa pass, just as the snow began to fall. The plan was to cross the pass tomorrow. We were running out of food, most of us were sick, and we wanted to get up and over before the weather got bad.
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Amphu Laptsa glacier.
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Amphu Laptsa glacier. |
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Brad Johnson (left)
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Looking up, towards pass |
Amphu Lapsa day. The boys woke us early (5:15 a.m.). It was FREEZING. We got a slow start. Phrua and Lhakpa were already on their way up the pass, scouting our route. Al elected to ascend the pass on the west side, by the glacier. The east side of the pass was easier to climb, but a lot harder to descend on the other side.
We headed up the pass, climbing on rubble and loose stones. We eventually reached the hanging glacier. To my surprise, Brad and the Sherpas routed us off the rocks and onto the glacier. We strapped on crampons and harnesses, and I put away my walking sticks in favor of my ice axe. The glacier was spectacular. We moved through a few short switchbacks, onto a snow slope where a rope had been fixed. Then the glacier flattened out, before rising again all the way to the pass. It was a beautiful, clear morning, and I felt great. I zoomed up the glacier, past a smiling Phrua, looking down and back at the Hongu valley, the Ponch Pokra lakes, Baruntse (the Amphu Laptsa is actually a ridge that eventually reaches Baruntse), and Chamlang. Because of the conditions, the view, and how I felt, and the fact that this was a classic glacier climb, the Amphu Laptsa ascent was probably the most thrilling moment of the entire trip for me.
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Amphu Laptsa glacier,
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Amphu Laptsa glacier, |
Phrua, on the Amphu |
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Looking down |
Looking down |
Laptsa glacier |
On the top of the pass, I found Nick, Dave, Kedar and others waiting while Brad and Al began work on fixing the ropes on the back side, and helping the porters down. Directly in front of us lay the Khumbu valley, with the Nuptse/Lhotse wall dominating the view, and the tip of Everest peeking over the top of Nuptse. A long string of colorful prayer flags flapped in the breeze above us. Behind us, far in the distance, we could see the central summit of Mera, now three days behind us.
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Mt. Everest, Lhotse from |
Atop the Amphu Laptsa |
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atop the pass |
pass |
While Brad helped Dan Solinski with his gear, and Kedar served hot lemonade, we waited for the ropes to be fixed. Finally, some of us began to descend. We moved, one at a time, down to a flat area about fifty feet below us, holding onto a rope. From there we moved across a ledge to the top of the fixed rappel rope. Stuart and Taz went ahead of me. When I got to the rope, Al and Brad gave me an impromptu lesson on proper rappelling technique. At Mera camp, the week before, Al had taken the group up to the glacier to practice rope techniques. At the time, I was sick in my tent. Seems pretty stupid to do the first rappel of your life from the top of a dangerous 19,000 ft. Himalayan pass, but I didn't have much choice.
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Stuart rappelling, while (l-r) Brad, |
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Taz, Al, John wait |
Eventually I reached the floor, walked out into the valley, and looked back at what we'd just descended. I was grateful for the good weather, because the descent would have been a nightmare if a snowstorm had moved in.
I met up with Stuart, Taz, and Al on the valley floor. I eventually pushed on alone, across the floor, and around a long ridge to the right. I got off trail a few times, but there were plenty of porters on the trail, so I never got lost. Eventually, I found camp directly in front of Island Peak and the south face of Lhotse, the world's fourth-highest mountain. When I walked into camp, I was greeted by Chris, Bob, and Dave, who were, like me, relieved and happy to have the pass crossing behind them. It was freezing cold that night, but I think we all slept well.
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Chris, Bob, Dave after the |
Camp, below Island Peak |
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Amphu Laptsa crossing |
(foreground), Lhotse (background) |
The contrast between the Hinku and Hongu valleys we'd just left and the Khumbu valley we'd just entered was immediately evident. We saw more people, and helicopters were flying regularly overhead. I felt safer, and less exposed, from this point on in the trip, because we knew that, in the event of an accident, a quick rescue was possible. That was not the case in the Hinku and Hongu.
A cold morning. We walked to Chukkhung in about two hours. The trail ran through the valley, then along a ridge into the village. The walk was great. The plan was to rest here, then double back to Island Peak for our next (and last) climb. We had an incredible view of the Nuptse/Lhotse wall, and Cholatse/Tawoche came into view down the valley. I spotted one of our porters, with the kitchen stove on his back, and I followed him to our tea house. Everyone was already there.
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Lhakpa (l.), Phrua |
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serving pizza |
With our food stores replenished, Kedar prepared a feast for us. He made pizza, and actually baked a cake. When we went to bed, it began to snow.
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