Himalayan adventure
After driving from England, the silk route expedition arrived in Nepal for three weeks in prime climbing season so four Hot Rockers set off to climb the rarely visited Himalayan peak, Paldor.
 |
 |
 |
At 5928m/19.450ft Paldor sits at the south-east end of the Ganesh Himal, some seventy miles NNW of Kathmandu. On a clear day it can be seen from the city nestling amongst the imposing peaks of...Pabil (7,101m) and Lobsang Karpo (7,150m) It was first climbed in 1949 via the North-East ridge,(AD), by Bill Tilman, Peter Lloyd, Tenzing Sherpa and Da Namgyal. A short account of this is in Tilman's book "Nepal Himalaya". His route, via Windy Col is The one we were to attempt.
The team members were
Dave took the sharp end of the rope and lived up to his nickname.
Duncan(aka. Renton) The novice of the group; highest previous mountain - Scafell Pike!Being the daddy of the bunch I read The Hobbit to the kids at night.
Tim Seel. Never known anyone pee so much in my life! The man is a powerhouse and up for anything. (Including retrieving cameras from Himalayan summits).
Jason dean (aka. Wookie) Jay returned for the Silk Route despite knowing what would happen. He was on the '99 Africa trip. He is the happiest person around (but crap at Black-Jack)
Worst nights sleep ever. Cold, cramped, and rocks sticking in my back. Jay,
Tim and I shared a tent and Dave decided to bivvy out, head under our fly,
while the 2 porters slept in the other tent. Got the first persistent headache;
developed into a skull-crusher that lasted all night. The sun was late hitting
our camp, nestled directly west of hanging black crags - not the wisest choice
of base camp in the world! Complete lethargy, and tiredness around camp. We
don't eat or drink until early afternoon. Not much team work going on here
so far today.
Every
one slept badly. Tim says he had a splitting headache during the night and
was all ready for packing his bag and heading back down to Something. I was
relived to hear this. Around 1pm, Dave energises the team with a good brew
and a share round of his cola bottles. This does the trick and I feel a little
more lively. We soon have the camp packed up, and begin the walk over the
moraine to advanced base camp...
Advanced
base camp is fantastic! Dave, Dorje & porter take a gear stash up to near
high camp. It becomes apparent that Dorje isn't familiar with the route, after
getting lost and nearly leading Dave over a cliff. In the meantime we set
up camp and get the food cooking. As the sun goes down the temperature drops
dramatically. We use old wicker baskets for a short-lived fire.
This has to be the most beautiful moment I have experienced! Standing by the
fire with a full belly I look around me and consider myself the luckiest person
alive. To the left, a silhouetted line of prayer flags, in the background
a fairytale rolling sea of cotton-wool cloud. In the sky above a million and
one stars sparkling; moonlight shadows thrown across the landscape. To the
right, the cliched picture of 2 lone tents in a stark rocky landscape, with
the snowy summit towering above in the distance. It may be a cliche, but it
is bloody magnificent! We are the only people on the mountain.
The
gale stopped promptly at 11 last night, as if someone had just switched it
off, and the silence was remarkable! Hopefully the same pattern will repeat
to give us calm summit conditions tomorrow morning! This morning the sun hits
us early for a change (7am). Again nobody slept at all. It is so frustrating,
and the signs show on all as we take longer to become the joking, laughing,
gobby team that we are.
After a Big rock fall right behind us in the afternoon we take a recce out
across the glacier, finding a path for tomorrow. Valuable practice (for me
at least) of walking as a roped team of four. Our intended descent route,
the south-east ridge, looks horrendous.; knife-edge scree. We decide to reverse
our tracks back over the glacier. We need a good start before the snow softens.
 |
On summit day we were up early roped up on the glacier and on steepening snow and ice made our way up to windy col. story will be finished soon...
