Getting High
Trip Start
Apr 22, 2008
1
6
26
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Paro,
Bhutan
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
-2 guides
-7 trekkers
-7 staff
-3 horsemen
-17 horses/mules
-1 stray dog
Our journey began with a 30 minute bus ride to the end of the Paro valley. The3 landscape was dotted with chortens (stupas or religious monuments), monasteries and the beautiful traditional stone and wood homes of the Bhutanese farmers. An old dzong (fortress) marked the start of our path. It meandered through rural villages and and across terraced farmland of rice, wheat and barley before we started to make our ascent. We had the trail to ourselves but on this first day there was an ever present reminder that others had been here before: TRASH! The amount of litter, primarily water bottles and other kinds of packaging on the side of the trail was shocking
Approaching a pass
. In a country marketed as one of the last pristine landscapes on the planet it was depressing to see how the introduction of western products and the massive amount of packaging that accompanies these goods was transforming the landscape for the worse. Two reasons that were given for the accumulation were an increased flux of tourists onto a limited number of trails and the fact that locals are not ingrained with the notion that litter is destroying their cash cow of tourism. There is plenty that can be done to ensure that trekking in this part of the world remains sustainable (our uber-eco-friendly group came up with a massive list of initiatives that would move towards fixing the situation) but the Bhutanese government needs to actively seek out these solu8tions. Fortunately, after crossing a military checkpoint and moving on to a far less traveled path the litter that was potentially going to ruin my experience practically vanished. Crisis averted.The first eureka moment of the trek punctuated the evening when a caravan of horses paraded past camp under the cover of darkness. Only visible by headlamp and audible by the bell attached to the lead horse our guide told us that our path is used by smugglers who cross the border from Tibet and bring cheap goods into the country. At one path our trail takes us within an hours walk from he border! You're definitely far from home when the place you are laying your head is in the middle of a black market trade route for Chinese manufactured goods that are sneaked across the ill-protected Tibet-Bhutan border.
The trek then brought us on what felt like a roller-coaster of a walk (up and down and up and down and up and down...for about 10 hours) through a dense forest of oak trees drenched with Spanish moss
Backpack against the highlands
. As we continued to climb the forest morphed around us with dense trees growing more sparse and the void being filled with an explosion of color. Rhododendron grew like crazy in every variety imaginable. The forest filled with red, pink, purple, white, orange, yellow and all colors in between.Thousands of wild iris and other bright flowers carpeted the floor for miles on end. I had no idea that some of these flowers grew outside of a greenhouse (yup...I'm kind of ignorant bout these things) and I most certainly did not expect to see them at 12000'.Clearing the density of the forest Cholmolhari came into view from a distance as we approached camp. Although we were already at 12000' the peak dominated the horizon. Where other peaks had residual snows from last winter, Cholmolhari remained completely blanketed in the snow fields and glaciers that would come nowhere close to melting before next winter's snows returned. The contrast of a thick white snow capped mountain against the lush flower filled forest was a reality check that we had plenty of vertical ahead of us.
We plodded along through yak heres camps and high alpine valleys. The more we climbed the more the mountains flanking our path grew...and the more the temperature dropped. We reached base camp (13,800') and I had to accept that I was going to be wearing all of my clothes to sleep for the rest of the trek and that in spite of this I was still going to be cold. This was the highest I had ever slept and I was breathing a massive...although heavily labored...sign of relief that I didn't have any symptoms of altitude sickness
BAN CHANG!!!
. It was here at base camp that a new addition joined our traveling crew. Unbeknownest to me Bhutan is infamous for the amount of stray dogs in the two biggest cities: Paro and Thimpu. There is even a popular children's book about the adventures of one of these stray dogs. Along with the cities there are several strays at different spots along the trail. One of the hitched up with our group at base camp and stuck with us for the rest of the trip. She might not have been the healthiest of dogs, but she turned out to be great company for all of us and a real part of our group. Her name was Rabies and we meant this in the most affectionate way possible.
An optional early morning climb took a few of us somewhere close to 17000', the highest I would reach on this trek. When we reached the top of this lookout the wind kicked up and snow started to come down. I didn't anticipate this as an omen for what was to come the the following day while trying to cross a 16000' pass into the Yaksa Valley. We woke to really low clouds and snow, which would make a difficult pass all the more challenging. The approach brought us to approximately 15000' and a valley sandwiched between 19000' ridges and littered with marmots. The little critters followed us across the 2 hours it took to clear the valley, constantly sticking their heads out of the entrances to their underground homes and yelling at us as if they were telling us to get the hell off of their property. Think meerkats only fatter, louder and at high altitude
Base camp
. The constant chatter of the marmots, low hanging mist, snow and yaks gave the whole thing a mystical feel. The closer we got to the pass the more inclement the weather became: winds increased, snow fell harder, visibility plummeted and the temperature continued to drop. Finally cresting the pass was an unreal experience. I made it up there before the rest of the group which gave me about 10 minutes of complete silence and solitude on my first Himalayan pass. The first few moments were spent trying to get my lungs back while the next were caught up in absorbing the scene: caught in a snow storm with gale force winds sending snow and prayer flags in a sideways direction. I didn't spend time thinking about leaving Oz, this trip, friends or family. Instead Rabies and I squatted behind a chorten that gave us some shelter from the wind and simply looked at the amazing scene. Then of course we had fun making snow balls and throwing them at the group as they got closer to the pass. Its not all zen up here.The descent was a serious drop in elevation from 16000' to 12500' in just 3 hours. It was steep, it was muddy and it was blind. I use the word blind in two ways here. First the snow continued to fall and visibility dropped to about 30' at certain stages. What were surely unbelievable vistas had been reduced to a wall of cloud just meters in front of the group. At times faint shadows of ridges emerged from the fog, but for the most part our world was reduced to a circle with a 50' radius
Bhutanese woman on trail
. The second blinding aspect of the descent was the lack of a trail. It would have been not only impossible but extremely dangerous to attempt the descent without a guide. Had Sonam not been leading the way there is little chance that we would have made it down without some serious injury, never mind finding our camp. Countless yak paths criss-crossed one another and diverted in all conceivable directions. To further complicate the situation we would follow one path, switch paths and then often forge our own path in a completely new direction. Combine this with almost no visibility and flat grazing grounds dropping unexpectedly several thousand feet into a sheer ravine and you begin to understand how futile it would have been to do this alone.After 8 hours of hard hiking at altitude we reached camp at the same time that the snow switched over to heavy rain. I can't begin to tell you how much effort it takes to continue to be diligent about your foot placement while coming down a muddy steep slope when all you want to do is take your boots off and lay down. I hadn't eaten lunch because taking a break in the middle of a snow storm didn't seem very appealing. I obviously did what I always do in this situation: gorge myself on whatever food they were going to bring out for a snack. Heavy exertion and no lunch left me starving and my eyes lit up when a plate of pakoras (Indian deep fried veggies that are kind of like potato pancakes) came out of the cook tent. I went at it and ate 12 of them over the course of about 10 to 15 minutes
Chitrutake
. In the next 30 minutes I started to feel sick and by 90 minutes I was curled up in my tent in pain. The amount of grease that hit my stomach after a long day of hiking was something my body wasn't ready for. Extreme nausea set in and I eventually darted from my tent and threw up every last bit of those delicious Indian treats. Way to over do it again Matt.The next few days saw us visiting our horseman's village (I use this term loosely, it consisted of 8 people and 3 homes) in Yaksa, drinking a local moonshine called Ban Chang that became a favorite for the group, "enjoying" butter tea (a concoction of tea, yak butter and salt that is not going to replace my morning coffee) and clearing a few more snowy Himalayan passes. Thinking back on the experience while at camp the final night was bittersweet. We had our fair share of challenges, mostly brought about by the weather, with every pass hitting the group with winds, white outs and fog. On top of that the nights were cold, often sleepless and I was in desperate need of a shower. In spite of this it was incredibly hard to leave the trail. This had been a truly awe-inspiring experience. Bhutan is blessed with such an amazing landscape. Mountains give way to verdant valleys that open to ever more foreboding peaks. All of this is freckled with the most charming homes painted and decorated in unimaginable animist, Buddhist and floral details given the remote hillsides where these structures are perched. There have been countless culture shocks including learning about sky burials, tantric festivals, wild marijuana, Tibetan smugglers, the Buddhist Drukpa Kuenley "The Diving Madman", the dominance of woman/matriarchs from western Bhutan and of course the striking beauty of the Bhutanese people
Chomolahri from a distance
. It is an amazing place that challenges your views of the modern wold and inspires you to go out and explore other remote corners of the planet. It is encircled by China, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar they are encircled by countries whose caste systems, human rights violations and generally inabilities to take care of their own people have put them in the spot light of international press for the last few decades. Somehow they've managed to maintain a peaceful monarchy and transition to a constitutional monarchy with the first elections being held earlier in 2008. The people may be poor but there were no beggars, people were all well fed and seemed generally happy. They must be on to something with the concept of Gross National Happiness! It is comforting to know that there are exotic and truly foreign experiences that can still be had in this ever-narrowing globe. I would recommend coming here to anyone, but I would urge you to do it quickly before the rest of the world starts flocking. 
