This writing is part of the
journey Sigurd and Elly(
Himalaya
: The winter journey to Rup Kund
The plan : Walk the summer route to the Rup Kund
(4600m),
Dates : Start from Rishikesh, 350m,
End at Rishikesh on
History : 600 years ago , over 500 pilgrims walked the
route, got caught in a snow storm and all died.
During summer time many skeletons are witnessing this horrible event in the
past.
Friday
Elly and myself wake up at
We enter the bus, meet our cook and his helper and the
American couple that lljoin us , Paul and Emily.
Sleeping we pass the first part of our journey.
Around
We get out, do some Kung fu while we are waiting and …
relax.
Things always takes more time then you think.
This is for shure for the rest of our journey. Today
is the day before Holy day, wich means that the whole North part of
Most people get drunk and stoned out of their asses
and act like it too.
Most of the time our guide can huss people by giving
them some money, then the road blockings go open again and we can continue our
way. In the afternoon things start to get worse : people start to jump on
top of the bus and are very consistent about not letting us through.
It get s on your nerves after some time, but nothing
we can do about it.
We are just glad Ramesh sent us to our first
destination, one day too early : tomorrow it ll be double!
In the afternoon three guys get onto the bus and want
to join us for some time, one of them is totally drunk, a policeman is involved
and a ffth guy, some kind of businessman is on too.
How or what goes on, we can only guess. The police guy
don’t seem to have any authority and gets of as first. Finally we get rid of
the rest too, and have only 2 hours left to reach Loharganj at 2100m.
Most of the roads are still under construction and we
are very pleased we have an excellent driver, because it sometimes looks like
you could only pass here with a tank.
It s getting dark when we get to the nice tourist
lodge, where we share a room with Emily and Paul, that is bigger than our whole
house(OK, we live small, bu still). The cook builds up his ent for cooking,
while we have some time sharing European-American filosophies. Diner is ready
and and very yummy!
Kundun joins us and we have a cosy evening.
Saturday
We are waked up with chai(Indian Tea) on bed!
Afterwards we enjoy a lovely breackfast and get ready
for our first (small) walking day.
Four ponies arrive and get charged with the stuff the
humans don t feel like carrying.
We carry our own stuff, and will only share in the
food that ll be cooked.
8 o ‘ clock : off we go. It s just a few 4 hours walk
to Wan.
We see lots of rodendendrons on the way and even 1
langoor (big grey ape).
We reach Wan while Paul tells me about frisbeegolf and
off an elastic chord where you can jump on and off(forgotten the name). Even in
Wan people are partying and try to cover you with paint.
We leave the village and go up for the tourist lodge,
100 m higher , where we will camp.
Elly starts sweating : it s quiet a steep ascent and
her bag is heavy.
We reach the camp and put on our tent. Waw we haven ‘t
been using this for quiet some time.
We go for a small nap, while Paul and Emily go for
some discovery in the village. Afterwards
We check out the road we ll be doing tomorrow. We
cannot go further today , because we await our fellow-Rup Kund conquerors from
Mumbai(
The party is completed!
We eat during a nice fire and go to sleep.
Sunday
Wakened up at
As planned we are ready to leave at 9 , so we go down
to the river tpo get some water and wait for the others.
Finally everybody seems to be ready to go (it s 10
now?) and up we go.
We get to the place Elly and I were before and see how
we should go down for 150m and then up for the rest of the day through the
forest just in front of us. On top of this forest there is snow!
Down we go, fresh up at the river and start climbing.
Kundun takes lead and seems to fly up, followed by
Emily and Paul. Then us to Belgians with our backpacks, followed by Mumbai.
Well, you might say it s steep! Elly is having a hard time and tries to
convince Sigurd she is really dying, dead, deadest. After 1,5 hours she takes a
rest with her legs up and as pale as a sheet.
We change some of the weight and move on. After three
hours going up Ramesh awaits us at a small shelter where we have our first
official rest. We cool down, eat an egg and then follow the trail into the snow
our American friends left.
Waw up in the snow isn ‘ t as easy as you would think.
After 10 minutes we catch up with the ponies : they
refuse to go any further.
All the sudden two woman show up and the are asked(and
paid) for being our female porters(All right emancipation)
After a few meters the start shouting at Ramesh , that
we are a bunch of lunatics, trying to do this in the snow.
It seemed it haven’t been snowing like the last days
for many years. Mmmh , people start looking at each other in a new way. Is it
possible what we are trying to do here?
We go on , Kundun leads, but the normal road we cannot
follow so he changes the way to go : a steep climb using our four limbs. We get
on top when a snow storm starts. Shall we camp here or go on. It s getting
cold, we await Ramesh who tries to get Mumbai to the top to take the decision.
OK we camp here.
First time we put on a tent on the snow.
Then everybody gets inside and tries to warm up.
Chaos rules while everyone does his own thing.
It s about 2 hours later and
Eating, in the warm cooking tent(with gazsmell of
course) and into bed.
We have a warm night.
Monday
Elly gets up terrible sick, everybody feels the
altitude and tries to do as relaxed as possible. Thank god we have Diamox voor
against the altitude. I decide not to take one, as I did yesterday my whole
body seemed to be out of water (you just urinate it all out) and my face felt
as a squeezed lemon.
The plan to go to the next basecamp at 4100m is
canceled, we ll just go 20minutes further to some basic shelter where we
supposed to have our first basecamp the previous night. Elly and I get there
quiet fast.(though we cross our too guides we come already back for the rest of
the stuff) As I feel good I go back for some gear too(even go a bit higher on
the way back to have a superfun run downhill through the snow.
It s sunny, everything can dry, we put up our basecamp
and have lunch(rice and Dahl)
In the afternoon we go 200m up through the snow as a
small exercice.
Once up there our guides reward us with chocolat.
Djee, hat was centuries ago we had those! We pose for a picture with Trisul
(+6000m) behind us, and just underneath our aim, Rup Kund.
When we are down we discuss with Paul and Emily the
dangers of avalanches on the path we are supposed to follow tomorrow. We are
supposed to go to the next shelterplace at 4100, a 5hour walk during
summertime. The path is situated at the northside of the mountain and as Paul
explains, this is the side where possible avalanches can appear. Again we
don have the knowledge of what is up here and everyone thinks it over for
himself.
We decide to get up as early as possible and so we pop
into bed early.
Tuesday D-Day!
Paul and Emily have decided not to go up there.
Elly and me follow right into Rameshes steps ,
backpacked to survive for the next coming two (probably icecold) days.
Behind us we see the
We reach the first summit about 2 hours later, without
any sign behind us from Bombai.
We see the path very clearly before us.
We wait and wait and getting cold so we decided to go
on while the two guides wait for the others.
Okay we clearly saw the path from a distance, nut
close by there is no path at all.
Only a steep ascent of snow(really, steep for rookies
on the snow like us)
So you cut out a path, by kicking your shoes as hard
as possible into the ice-snow)
Sigurd leads and is about 30 metres further almost
deadtired.( to make descent step you have to kick it like 3-4 times, not
knowing what way is the past, being responsible for the one behind you, pfff)
We manage to move perhaps 200 metres in the next coming hours, always being
just on the edges of rocky cliffs downunder.
Bombay reaches the previous summit, and the guides
easily catch up with us, taking the lead again.
This walks more easy, but still the fear of falling
stays.
Why can t we just go to the top of the ridge and do
easy walking?
We continue our way learning this new technique of
walking.
Finally we reach some powdery snow and are force to
climb up because going on is just not possible.
Well if you think that the climbing up is easy…
Elly leads as she is always more comfortable on 4
feet.
Well say, this is really climbing and no walking
anymore.
Pff we sweat like 10 tons of fearsweat, but finally
get on top.
And… we see the coming path: the same thing as we just
been doing for the last 4 hours, making very little speed. We tell Kundun and
Ramesh we need a rest first.
It starts snowing. Shit. One of our tentsticks is
still broken.
We start fixing it and built up our tents. More snow.
That’s it for today. Into the tents and rest.
Our Indian friends fix up some very tastfull
Maggie(noodles) as we try to copy Paulos Italian Pasta. The result is very
tastful , though we had to little sauce(and tomatos) for the amount of pasta we
ate.
By the way , It s cold up here, wind comes from both
sides of the ridge, and few moments after sunset(gorgeous!) we get into our
tents. Sigurd discovers that his camelbag leaked and that everything is wet,
including sleeping bag. MMmh.
We try to dry it by rubbing it very hard, and this
works a bit.
Time for our emergency equipment: a small bag filled
with powder that ‘ll heat till 40-60 degrees called Pack Heat. Gosh that thing
really works!
By half of the night , I am forced to put it outside
of my bag as it is getting too hot.
The general temperature in our tent does not go under
-10, so we stay comfortably warm. Glad not to by outthere in snow, wind and
storm.
We have a tremendous night, on top of the world with
sometimes dead silence and sometimes heavy storming. Mmmh nice.
Morning comes and we check the condition at around
5:30: pfff stormy.
No way we ‘ ll get out of our warm nest.
Making tea at eight , while it is COOOOOOOOLD.
Deciding to just go back to basecamp and call it a
day.
But first get in again and warm up.
After an hour we ll get out and clean p.
That s it for our Rup Kund Attempt. We give up, but
are satisfied with that night we spent up there. Going back is easy for Sigurd
as it is just like snowboarding(too bad, without a board, Ithaco people : let s
go too Himalaya next year!, OUTSTANDING untouched snowfields!) while Elly is
confronted with her biggest fears: gliding down for many km over snowy Rocks)
Every time she manages to achieve the next path, not willing to get any help
from others. Mmmh. True courage.
The last parts we just glide and after short period of
time we reach base camp.
We decide to leave the other there after lunch and go
immediately back to Wan so everything can unfreeze and dry again.
We get there after a nice 4hour walking down, pitch up
the tent and enjoy the warmth, silence and peaceful atmosphere over here.
Wednesday
We fix our gear and chill out, at noon Paul and Emily
pass us by, they decided to go straight on to their next track, so we say
goodbye.
Little time afterwards the rest of the crew joins us.
In the evening we make a fire and sing songs.
We ve gotten our inspiration out of some local wine
and scotch.
We really enjoy these hindu songs, how they always
sound warm and sad and comfortable at the same time. And we spent a splendid
evening.
Thursday
Walking back to loharganj with new himalayan friend
fritz(see pictures)
We drive for a few hours and pitch tent down in the
valley, for another singing-drinking evenng with MEAT ! Yiha.
Friday
We drive all day back to Rishikesh, say goodbye to our
Bombay friends, fiend a place to eat and go to sleep, satified by the mountains
and not at least with the intercultural integration with our mountaineering
friends.
Thank you all for this splendid time!
Big huggs
Ellgurd
