TRUE or FALSE?.......Part 4

Timmer wrote


September 7th 1996

Me and my good hiking buddy Richard had already been in Nepal for 3 weeks of a two Month stay and it was our 13th day of hiking to Mt Everest bass camp, we'd spent the previous week in a small town called Gokyo exploring various glaciers and lakes, acclimatising to the altitude and enjoying the evening hospitality of the Sherpa people.

We had purposely gone off route to explore the Gokyo region but now we wanted to get back on track and head for Everset bass camp which either meant a seven day trek around the Gokyo valley using the established and safe Sherpa trails or taking a "short cut" straight through a mountain range over the glacier and a high mountain pass which is used by Shepa's in the Summer Month's, which would shorten the journey to just three days. Great idea we thought? "let's do it!"

We spent Thursday the 6th of September going around the village looking for a guide to hire, this was not something to be taken lightly and we needed someone who knew the way, we eventually found a really nice gentleman named Chungba who had done this old trading route 4 times in his life, so after bargaining him down to a one day charge of £15* ( I don't remember the Nepali Rupee conversion? ) we were ready to go the following morning.

So there we are packed and ready to go at 6.00 A.M. on Friday 7th September and by torchlight we make our way for two hours down a track we'd previously walked up a week before, the sun begins to rise and it's a beautiful cold morning with bright blue skies and gigantic snow capped peaks and it's not long before our guide leads us off trail to begin the tough trek over the glacier and up over the 4,420 meter Chong-La pass and down to another hamlet called Dzongla where we'll once again be able to stride out without guides.

Walking over a glacier is an eerie thing, Strewn with huge boulders and rubble, gravel and even parts that look like miniature sandy beaches it's like trying to find your way out of a maze and because it's a continually moving and changing scenery our guide did have a few worrying moments where he wasn't sure of the way? Not much fun when you're slam bang in the middle of it and the only sound is the creepy groaning and creaking of ice., Anyway, after a couple of knee straining hours we finally navigated ourselves to safety on good solid unmoving earth.

From here it was just up, up and more up followed by even more up with false horizon after false horizon until we finally came to a steep hill that soon became apparent that we'd have been better equipped with things we didn't have such as crampons, rope and ice axes, we were already in a precarious possition where going back down isn't an option **, where ledges have small pockets of ice. We keep our composure and finally make it to the top of the Chong-La pass....a huge field of snow cradled between two peaks dangerously covered in thick snow, this is avalanch central***.

So, we start out over the snow field, I can't tell what the width is? maybe anything from 200 to 500 meters?? What's worrying is all the snow drifts that keep trinkling down the mountainsides but even more worrying is Chungba saying "not good, keep moving", and that's not easy when you are breathing only 50% oxygen and are hip deep in snow! We press on and after an hour there still seems to be no end in sight for this friggin snow field when we notice a big black line running the entire width...a crevasse.

Now, although this "crack" in the snow only seems to be a meter wide, the indication of the slope of the snow bending into it from either side suggests that it's a lot wider so we all stand there staring at each other in a windless silence that you can only get in the most remote of regions, all I can hear is that infernal trickling snow and my own rapid heart beat.

At best we have only an hour of daylight left so do we JUMP or turn back the way we came? There was no choice, the ice hill we came up is too steep and it would be dark by the time our shattered legs could carry us back through the snow to that point and also, by now we were getting very VERY cold. "you know this region so you know how wide the crack is, so you jump first" Rich says to our guide, our guide shakes his head in the negative, me and Rich look at this point a little alarmingly at each other. "you jump first and I'll follow" I say to Rich, Rich shakes his head in the negative, "you" Rich nods to me, "no fucking way" I say**** and with that I fling my rucksack with all my might over the crevasse and leap like I've never leaped before tumbling over a few times as I land. I stand up carefully and test the ground tentatively, my heart rate lessons and Rich follows with Chungba last

And thus ends one of the scariest moments of my life, it still played on our minds that that might not be the last crevasse but fortunately there were no more, two hours later we were safely in Dzongla drinking hot lemon tea feeling totally exhausted, I don't think before or since I've ever been that exhausted, mentaly or physically, with legs so tired they wouldn't stop shaking, I couldn't even sleep properly because my eyelids wouldn't stop fluttering such was the nervous energy.

A fantastic time a nothing on that trip was quite as adrenaline packed. Hope you enjoyed it.