Fowl Weather On The Search For Sunshine!

Team Chook, ready for anything and covered in feathers... or down jackets

According to every book and travel company we read or spoke to clear skies and amazing snow capped mountain views were in order for our latest venture into the high Himalaya, this time on the eastern side of India in beautiful Sikkim.  However someone forgot to tell the weather gods and things didn't go to plan.  But our spirits remained high, and our hopes were pinned on every bit of clearing sky.

One tired Chook

Our trek started from the tea filled tea plantation of Darjeeling, with cloudy and cold conditions, we should have got the hint then, but off we set to Yuksom with our permits in hand full of energy and raring to go.  We arrived in plenty of time to get comfortable and properly prepared, or so we thought.  Our guide took off to the police station to report in only to be told that the week before a tourist had died on the trek and now everyone was required to get a medical certificate before they set off.  This required us to locate the local doctor, who happened to be somewhere in the village, but no one really knew where, easy?  Once he was located, we got the tick of approval, but not before Soph's mum (we called up the Atkin parents to bring in lumberjack cake supplies, yummo!) Loretta was given a talking too "you must take it easy and not carry anything heavy".  If only she did, it may have slowed her down so we could keep up with her!

The sun greeted us early on our first walking day and our spirits were soaring, we were in luck!  Crossing rivers and plunging gorges, heading deeper and deeper into the rhodedendron forests, the lush greeness closed in over us as we made our way up into the mountains.  Our first meal showed a sign of things to come, three courses of hot delicious food, we weren't about to go hungry on this trek, and there were no Maggi noodles to be seen anywhere!

Although as the day progressed though the fog descended and the temperature eased its way down.  Day one finished with smiles all round and full bellies for all, day two however was to be a little different.

Camp one... in sunshine.

As we left the tree line the fog continued to come down.  And then the snow began to fall.  Without giving you a day by day account of the continuing snow and foggy weather I'll stick to the highlights and the memorable snow covered moments.  

Our days were spent heading ever upwards walking around 15-20ish kilometers, eating and gazing through the snow to see if the clouds were lifting, or even better breaking up. Thankfully there were also plenty of cups of chai to keep us going, and we could be assured that the next huge meal wasn't far away!  This was one luxury trek where all we were allowed to do was walk and eat.  We had snow ponys to carry our bags, our funny 'small enough to fit anywhere' guide Sanjiv, cook (cleaver boy) and his assistant to cook 3 course meals 3x a day and horseman Dawa aka 'table wallah' to carry our table so we could  drink chai or play backgammon anywhere!

A moment of clearness, or at least nearly clearness

A must for all future trekking/ hiking... Umbrellas!

Our nights were spent sitting around eating and having a good old chinwag with Sophs parents Colin and Loretta who had been in special training for the trek.  We were given a high altitude Momo (local dumplings, that taste amazing!) lesson that showed us just how much work we have to do before we perfect the art.  Half way through the lesson we stuck our head out of the tent and were treated to our only clear view of Khangchendzonga, the worlds third highest mountain, just as the last rays of sunshine were leaving its peak!  An incredible sight  and the only time we would see it in full view.  A huge avalanche somewhere out of sight added a roar to the scene and we knew we were in the real mountains!

Our 'Small enough to fit anywhere' guide Sanjiv on our first look out, at 6am

The next few days saw us climbing higher and higher, up to around 4000m, through deepening snow with the odd teasing glimpse of mountain threw the fog, it was a bit like putting a jigsaw together, one bit at a time.  Our toes got us moving anytime we stopped too long by screaming out to us in numb pain "Give me movement, its cold down here!".  And still the snow came down.  Although the snow clouded the mountains we were surrounded by, it did make for some spectacular scenery close up which keep us looking around as the environment constantly changed.  Its also meant that it wasn't raining, a huge positive!

Soph and Wally on the trail

Our last day of upwards walking was to the Goecha La, the highest pass and point of our trek sitting at just under 5000m and only 2kms from the base of Khangchendzonga.  We were up early, 3:30am to be exact so that we had a chance of watching the sunrise over the peaks.  As the darkness lifted and our head torches were put away it was clear that the fog had different ideas, the snow continued, but so did we, committed to reaching the top.  The jigsaw game started again, and we seemed to be missing quite a few pieces, but we did glimpse the top, and the main ridge, and we could see down which was still pretty stunning.  Although it was foggy, it was probably the best visibility we had.

Soph and Loretta, celebrating reaching our summit!

So whilst the weather was rather "fowl" there were no tears and the only really bad bits of this story were that Soph got a tick near her bum, Wally got mild hypothermia and a spot of altitude sickness, it was dam cold (More than once we were trekking in 2 layers of down jackets, 2 thermal tops, a polar fleece and of course the team uniform chook beanie) and we didnt get to see the view from the top :(

The toilet tent.  A long way from our warm tent on a snowy morning!

The trek finished back in Yuksum with a few beers a cake cooked on a camping stove and some local Nepali songs and dances.  We were all a little merry (we've forgotten what alcohol is), and the taxi driver fell off his chair, what a way to finish!

Below are a few more photo's from the trek, i couldn't choose which ones to put up!  There's plenty more on the camera, but you'll just have to wait till we get home to see them!

The dining room, a tent appeared over us when the weather was too bad

Chai cheers! willing the clouds away

Heading up the valley

 

The team on our last morning!

The clouds lifted for a short time on our last night.  Its a shame these are apparently only hills and don't even have a names!!  The real mountains were way behind us.